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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 03:47 PM
Original message
Legalise drugs, urges senior Lib Dem (UK)
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Monday August 15, 2005

The Liberal Democrat leader in Europe has reignited the party's debate
on drug policy, with a call for the regulated legalisation of all
hard drugs.

Chris Davies, MEP for the North West region and leader of the party in
Brussels, put himself at odds with the party leadership by calling for
a rethink of prohibition in the name of harm reduction.

In an article in the Brussels-based magazine The Sprout, he wrote:
"Prohibition is taking us nowhere, and leaving the trade in the hands
of criminal gangs.

Article continues
"A legalised but regulated market would put the emphasis on harm
reduction and undermine the criminal element. Unfortunately most
European governments are in the position of insisting the Emperor has
got his clothes on."
.
.
<snip>


http://politics.guardian.co.uk/libdems/story/0,9061,1549595,00.html
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ironman202 Donating Member (608 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 03:49 PM
Response to Original message
1. AMEN!!!!
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K-W Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
2. I think the only hope for stopping the drug war is other countries.
The US populace is so well propagandized that I doubt change will will ever start here.
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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 05:52 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. I do too
I'm actually hoping that the fact that bush lies about starting wars will
perk some curiosity about the War on Drugs, and whether other nation
states have the democratic process to look at facts, or moralistic
claptrap supported by nothing but hot air.

If the UK, Germany and Canada decided to make policy based on facts,
that the war on drugs crumble from "without", there could be a radical
sea change irregardless of the brainwashed insanity of the US public.

The brainwashed insanity of the spanish public did not stop the empire
from crumbling 100 years ago... and the WOD is an area where a political
opportunist of non-american ilk could win a soundly (small "c")
conservative argument.

It's time the small "c" conservatives spoke up and kicked government
out of our private lives and decisions, 100%.
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ixion Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
3. Yes... all countries should stop jailing non-violent drug users
it does no good whatsoever.

Will anyone listen? Probably not. :-(
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whosinpower Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 04:12 PM
Response to Original message
4. I've said this for a long time
Legalise, standardise....and TAX the bugggers!!!!!!

I've said the same thing for prostitution as well.

Face it - criminalizing doesn't stop society from engaging in drug use, and or prostitution. So - regulate it all, make it safe, and tax everyone.

Course - everybody up here calls me crazy........

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phantom power Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 04:40 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Politicians LOVE unwinnable social "wars."
It gives them juicy fodder for demagoguing every election cycle. It allows them to make speeches, and pass laws, regarding a problem that won't ever go away.

It allows them to act like they're busy, while not actually changing anything. If they solved the problem, they'd be forced to move on to real problems, which would require difficult decision making.
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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 06:16 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. They are not politicians, but political hacks
A political animal does whatever it takes to do the right thing for
his/her people. The right thing is clearly to end the prohibition and
to end the crime and corruption problem ruining all of central america.

Ending the WOD is an act of LOVE, of compassion and wisdom, to finally
embrace the facts after a century of schitzophrenic denial.

This news thread is from the libdems, a small "c" conservative
constituency, that is oddly the most liberal (classic) of the lot.

If the british conservatives were to pick up a socially conservative
adgenda, they would win the next general election by changing the
drugs war policy.

I sent some copies of a very well authored book on the american
drugs war disaster:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=218x894

My figuring is that all it would take is for a small few of the
elites to cooperate on a new approach, and this would win them all
power in their respective countries.

The problem in britain is that the mainstream parties are on american
propaganda media-drip, as britain is dismantled and absorbed in to
the american empire by mind-grab. For all the intelligence of the
culture, they are amazingly wrapped by america, believing that
britain too must totally destroy its society in order to progress
with the next metamorphisis of the industrail revolution.

And the torys have become a party of hacks, of opportunists who
havened a clue, not a single one of them, not a SINGLE ONE, has
any balls at all... cowards, yellow bellied cowards, through
and through... nobody can face truth... they rather worship their
little devil crosses.

That we are to all become part of the religious sect of our
profession, and if we work in software, we are buddhists.
If we are working in transport and taxis, we are islamic,
and if we work in government, we are assholes.

.. or some other impossible-to-express bigoted sentiment.

So is being of the religion "asshole" to worship the big sphincter
in the sky? Is it to wish to shit on people, to rub them in to
your excrement so they smell like your shit, with big brown smears
across their faces, stinking like last nights dinner and your
bile. Maybe they believe that they are already covered with the
bile of their god, and that the stench is from the good book.

Politicians indeed, a bunch of bacteria decomposing truth and goodwill
until it becomes their mission on earth to destroy all that is
decent, in the name of their puny ego pictures on the wall.

It is breathtaking the leap that the political mind has taken that
the lot of them are cowardly chickenshits, not able to accept that
the war on drugs is a failure, not powerful enough of mind to tell
the TRUTH IN THE SACRED HALLS OF CONTRESS... opportunistic liars
rubbing their excrement on the common citizen has become what it is
all about.

There is no goodwill. The sooner the civilization is destroyed
the better. It is the foregone conclusion of the advocates
of the drugs war. They are the lowest dregs of humanity,
dredged up like a plague of demons to plague us with
ignorance, smearing their excrement over our faces,
rubbing us in their shit to feel lower and
inferior, that we smell like george bush's pigs,
in a ditch in crawford,
standing for justice of good persons murdered,
and all the other murders we've overlooked in the WOD.

... woof... exhale! :-)
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K-W Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 06:33 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Especially when it gives them excuses to invad latin american countries nt
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Kipling Donating Member (929 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 04:47 PM
Response to Original message
6. I'd legalise class B and C drugs with 75% tax. Ditto prostitution.
That's money for the poor, the NHS, education and economic management.
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lockdown Donating Member (576 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 07:42 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. 75% tax?
What about the poor who like class B and C drugs? And prostitutes? :) :yoiks:
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Kipling Donating Member (929 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-16-05 04:02 AM
Response to Reply #11
16. I'd bump up welfare payments to cover 1 joint a week.
Edited on Tue Aug-16-05 04:03 AM by Kipling
They can pay for their own damn prostitutes, mind.
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William Bloode Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 07:07 PM
Response to Original message
10. Nice to see he has read Jack Herer.
"European governments are in the position of insisting the Emperor has got his clothes on."

Speaking of Mr. Herer, i believe i will go smoke a nice fatty of the herb that bears his name.
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MadisonProgressive Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 07:53 PM
Response to Original message
12. It won't happen in the US
Edited on Mon Aug-15-05 07:59 PM by MadisonProgressive
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DrBloodmoney Donating Member (150 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 08:46 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. There has to be some special interest group
that can make money from the legalization of marijuana. Some group with more resources than the MPP, or NORML.
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theearthisround Donating Member (246 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 08:51 PM
Response to Original message
14. And lose our monopoly on the drug trade!?!? No thanks!
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niallmac Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Aug-15-05 09:08 PM
Response to Original message
15. The greatest success for the WOD overloards
is the abolition of any discussion of the subject in the MSM. It's the same Pavlovian response we are supposed to have if someone suggests Oswald did not act alone. Nervous twitter of giggles and move on to next subject. Legalize drugs. Don't make me laugh! Interpretation: "Don't make me think."
Benefits-
No drug cartel.
And talk about a financial pinch for the terrists Oh Yeah Baby!
Your grandma doesn't get mugged for someones habit.
When you sign up for drugs and get them for free as long as you follow the rules, play nice, get a job, go to rehab- Drugs not sexy no more.
Gang culture which I personally HATE SO MUCH I CAN TASTE IT would be less sexy also.
Tax income plus saving the billions we spend on the phony war means big savings to you the citizen.
75% tax on drugs? We need to talk. First, we want to STOP the black market, not create a new one. The idea is to pull the rug out from under Buggsy Malone and Al Capone.
Please, write your representative. I want to wake up tomorrow and see this all taken care of. Tomorrow!
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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-16-05 05:10 AM
Response to Reply #15
17. Modern fashion is based on prison outfits
You know the new "look" where kids wear baggy trowsers, hanging low
around their genetals with the underwear exposed... well, prisons issue
over-sized clothing, in a sorta 1-size-fits-all thinking, and this
has resulted over years, in baggy clothing being percieved by hiphop
culture as "cool"... It really just makes me sick, that gang culture
is now mainstream dress culture, and that all the kids in the
neigborhood are wearing their pants around their ankles because
prison is cool.
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CJCRANE Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Aug-16-05 06:06 AM
Response to Original message
18. Should be dealt with
as a health issue. Class A drugs should be legalized and on prescription, this would stop most of the shoplifting, burglaries, muggings, prostitution etc caused by down-at-heel addicts needing to raise loads of cash to feed their addiction.
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