Mexico: "gradual legalization" of drugs

[donsu]

Mexico City prosecutor Bernardo Batíz calls for the "gradual legalization"
of drugs, beginning with the prisons of America's largest city...

Plus... lots of talk about talk radio, on...

http://www.bigleftoutside.com/
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oh yes

[Some Moran]

1. BRING TRUTH TO POWER!

Keep up the good fight. :)

[TexasMexican]

2. Interesting.

I'm not for complete legalization of all drugs, but we waste entirely too much time in this fucked up war on drugs.

At best I think only Marijuana, and maybe cocaine should be legalized.

I do however think it should be up to the states and local governments to make thier own drug laws instead of having the feds do what they do today.

[sweetheart]

4. have you really thought that through?

If you legallize all drugs, then the drugs companies will manufacture ALL drugs for 1/10th of the cost of illegal suppliers. Drugs users will naturally prefer cheaper, pure supplies. The results will be a complete bankrupting of the entire illegal drugs industry, the criminal insurgencies in columbia and all the drugs war pays for on a global scale... billions and billions subsidizing high drugs prices.

With legal supplies, then you will not get overdose deaths or bad-chemicals deaths that kill 1000's of youths every year... so by your statement, you support the negligent homocide of 1000's of kids.. and that makes you not so smart in my book... i don't mean to be rude, but we're talking about avoidable murder's here... and you're an accomplace with a statement like that.

By entirely shifting the onus of the drugs war to treatment instead of criminalization, we can end the "DEMAND" problem of the drugs war which is the real issue. We have waged this stupid war for over half a century and have nothing but worse addiction, incarceration and deaths for it... not very smart.

By ending the drugs war, we get to save a hundred billion dollars, have less invasive policing, as there will be no need to tap wires and snoop on citizens who are suspect. The drugs companies will have higher profits to grow the economy. Drugs addiction will become an open social problem that can be dealth with like alcoholism. Organized crime will have no currency to deal with on the black market and be severely hurt. Overdose deaths will drop, public health will improve and we'll actually see results.

Your position is a fallacy of incrementalism. The fact is the drugs war has never worked, ever. It is a stupid war against poor people and against liberal people to take away their votes, as more liberal people are more likely to experiment with drugs, and if you are busted wiht a felony conviction, you lose your right to vote, and thus the war is one of political disenfranchisement.

Ending the war would increase tax revenues by billions, increase the economy, end civil strife and international trafficing, as who can compete with legal manufacture. Moonshine hardly outsells jack daniels... and take alcohol prohibitioin as a case study in american moralism and what it achieves... less than nothing.

You need to back up an argument like that with more than 2 braincells... international experimentation in drugs laws shows holland the best at reducing addiction by legalizing all drugs... america is the worst by criminalizing all drugs... the polices are ruled by ignorance without even a glimmer of sensibility.

[Nikia]

5. Stronger drugs would need perscription or good lables

Legalizing drugs could cause a large number of overdose deaths initially if it is not done carefully. There will be some people who will be interested in trying harder drugs for the first time that will be buying these drugs in a store, rather than from someone who has probably used them. They will be using these drugs alone or with other inexperienced users. The drug will be need to be clearly labled with the recommended dose, what to expect, and when to go to the emergency room. There will be another set of people used to using diluted drugs. If they are given pure drugs and use them as they are used to, they could easily overdoes, just as if someone used to drinking beer was given moonshine and drank as though there was no differnce in alcohol content. I hope that lableing and education would prevent these intial problems.
Marijuana would be safe to sell. If someone gets too high, they might be not having a good time for a while or fall asleep but they aren't going to die.

[sweetheart]

7. supervised needles and injection

Like in Hamburg, it will end AIDs transmission and make sure that, as you say, overdoses don't occurr due to poorly understood administration.

[librechik]

8. You can already pretty much buy everything OTC in Mexico

valium, vicodin, whatever--just ask the pharmacist in the pharmacia and he asks "how many."

Haven't noticed anything too terrible happening to the Mexican people because of that.

[TexasMexican]

6. Yes.

Yes I have thought this through.

The war on drugs should be ended, however it should be up to state and local governments as to what drugs they wanted legalized or not.

That right there would end most of bullshit.

As I said before I think Marijuana should be legalized, and I'm sure if it were left up to the local governments, like it should be, it would be one of the few illegal drugs that most would legalize.

[sweetheart]

9. It would not end most of he bullshit

AIDS, Hepatitis C and diseases that transmit through poor hygiene and unsupervised medical administration of intravenous drugs will continue to be a serious public problem in your idea.

Your DEA will continue to fight wars in countries the world over and the mafia will traffic in heroin to buy arms and all that stuff. Local governments will never ever have the power you mention. The drugs laws are federal in all nation states... and part of the UN body of law.

I realize corpus is not a very forward thinking place, but neither is texas. If you leave people to their own liberty, likely they will not kill themselves if you give them safe supply. Then no tax money goes to supporting the high prices of cocaine and heroin... as what the drugs war is really doing is subsidizing high prices for these 2 drugs you disapprove of.

Though i myself have no interest in those drugs, i've seen the results of the policy you advocate, even in your grey liberalism of the drugs laws... HIV and hepatitis C... deaths and addiction crime... not very smart. Maybe small town texas can afford to think this way, but in metropolitan western nations, that thinking has no sense.

what do you say to a heroin addict? i hope you catch AIDS it appears.. not very liberal, eh? Most of the problem is not all of the problem. The major areas of crime and drugs trading warfare in american inner cities is around crack cocaine and heroin trading... and your solution does nothing except continue to ignore the problem, or hope it goes away like drugs warriors have hoped for 50 years now all the while killing people with their ignorant stupidity.

The local government will never have that power. Given this reality, what do you propose to the "hard drugs" user that they might survive their addiction problem... and if you say, "catch AIDS and die in prison," it's the wrong answer.

[TexasMexican]

10. ...

Well ideally the federal government would not make any narcotics illegal and the DEA would no longer get funding and would cease to exist.

Local government shouldnt have the power that the DEA had, they shouldnt be as militant in dealing with drugs as the DEA is. However they should be able to fine and jail people who are high and causing problems.

I'm sorry about living in Corpus Christi, I guess we cant all be as progressive as the "subjects" living in Great Britain. :eyes: Assuming you do live there, which I wouldnt. What would you know of Corpus?

As for the hard drug users, honestly I dont care about them. If they OD or get diseases from sticking themselves, it is thier own fault.

[sweetheart]

11. sorry for being rude

I spent some times round corpus back when i went to TAMU... and i know its size. It is a sweet town. I mean no offense.

I do live in scotland... after decades all over the US, and having lived in NYC, grown up in Los Angeles and such... i've seen the worst of the drugs problems in the US.. especially the crime of addicts and hard drugs, AIDS, homeless addicts, hepatitis and really the saddest ugliest side of american life.

You can afford to say this in CC: If they OD or get diseases from sticking themselves, it is thier own fault. and i felt that beneath your comments. It is avoidable. With clean needles and safe supplies, they are not disenfranchised, and may very well rejoin society as your neighbor on getting a bit out of the rut. I don't give up on people, and you should not either. Everyone has problems in life, and if you don't know that, you have not lived long enough... and sometimes those problems can lead people to some places they never would have conceived of getting... and if you, one day, god forbid ever ended up doing hard drugs, i would wish that at least you had the best hygeine and medicially safe supplies that you survive your difficulty and come back in one piece.

Likely, if you spend some time with addicts in larger cities and maybe meet one that could have been you... you'll understand.

[UTUSN]

3. C-Span Had a Forum on the Border Today

hosted by Henry CISNEROS. One of the panelists said that if the border were militarized and shut down (as O'REILLY and the vigilantes want), Mexico would collapse. That NAFTA is a failure because it was not FUNDED the way the European Common Market was---that is, that the poorer members (in this case Mexico) was not invested-in to bring it up to the level of the other members. That the U.S. does, indeed, as the poster above says, treat Mexico as its backyard. And that the U.S. is the biggest in $$$ spender on BUYING drugs from Mexico than in legitimate commerce. And on and on.

Besides the old Mexican saying, "Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the U.S."---other generations-old observations among Mexicans are:

1) The BUSINESS of the U.S. is manufacturing and trading in arms (then surprise-surprise when shooting breaks out), and

2) U.S. capitalism of Supply-and-Demand rules the drug trade, if the U.S. didn't CONSUME AND DEMAND them, Mexicans wouldn't supply them.

Corollary to 2), spend the $$$ on rehab instead of the "war on drugs."

[shanti]

12. they're boxing us in on both sides

canada and mexico...hmmm

[yella_dawg]

13. We're kiddin' ourselves here...

if every pot smoker pays $50 a month for stash, that comes out to $14 billion a year. Weed has to be only a tiny fraction of the illegal drug market in the US. If drugs were suddenly legalized, the economy would collapse. And the government knows it. Legal drugs will only come after the revolution.