War on Drugs

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I just read an article about that. Very interesting. Looks like over the long term the majority of people buying it were taking it across the border. Apparently they are going to issue some special card to residents only to continue to buy it. No card no sale. But it seems to me like that is going to open up the whole underground black market with inflated prices all over again. They have come full circle.

Anyone can see this will happen.
Licensed traders will sell it legally to Dutch citizens.
A small % of those will on-sell it to foreign tourists at a mark up, with all the Tarantino-type bullshit of scams and rip-offs and paybacks that will go with this.

Sigh. Stupid world.

Oh, and what BrianR said.

[TheMercenary]

And the solution is?

[ZenGum]

What BrianR said.

There will still be stoners and slackers and some people will screw themselves up in the pursuit of happiness. The world will not be perfect. It will be less bad than now.

[tw]

Originally Posted by BigV

just curious, what is the benefit to this "war on drugs"?

Eventually there will be 'shock and awe'. Then we all will insist this is good, massacre another 5000 American soldiers and waste another $trillion on the crusade. Then those defined by the initials WE will declare this was good.


War! ... What is it good for? Absolutely nothing?

Manipulating the masses by inventing bogeymen.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's cuts the unemployment rate by taking all those people out of the labor pool, plus hiring all those prison guards.

[Trilby]

True, though personal, life experience of my own and my sister:

I am a drunk. I have used a lot of community resources related to my drinking.

My sister is a bona fide stoner from waaaaay back.

She has not once used a community resource r/t her pot smoking.

In my experience, pot is so much less damaging in an obvious way to drinking as far as communities go...but there are hidden costs to all drug use. Alcohol at least appears to be much more costly than dope in many, many ways.

I should do a study...

[footfootfoot]

My friend's dad is a state trooper. He told his kids he'd rather see them smoking pot than drinking.

My friend was stunned to hear this from his dad the state trooper and asked him why?

His dad said "In 25 years on the force I've never once had to answer a domestic violence call where the people were smoking pot."

[ZenGum]

Richard Branson's discussion of the decriminalisation of drugs in Portugal (short version: overhelming success).
http://www.virgin.com/richard-branso...e-war-on-drugs

[classicman]

Portugal has like 10 million people compared to the US which has well over 300 million.
jus sayin

[ZenGum]

Well, you'll just get 30 times the benefit then, won't you?

Mind you, you'll need 30 times the dope.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

George Carlin said that the original gateway substance is mother's milk.

Oh, well, I'm safe then.

[Gravdigr]

If this war on drugs keeps up, cocaine will soon be free. It's cheaper now than before the war on drugs began.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Utah knows how to fight the good fight.

Barbara Alice Mahaffey died of colon cancer in her bedroom last May. Ben D. Mahaffey, 80, said he was distraught and trying to make sure his wife's body would be taken to the funeral home with dignity, when he says officers insisted he help them look for the drugs.

"I was holding her hand saying goodbye when all the intrusion happened," he told the Deseret News.

Barbara Mahaffey died at 12:35 a.m. with Mahaffey, a Navy medic in the Korean War, and his friend, an EMT, at her side. In addition to police, a mortician and a hospice worker arrived at the home about 12:45 a.m., Mahaffey said. He said he doesn't know how police came to be there.

"I was indignant to think you can't even have a private moment. All these people were there and they're not concerned about her or me. They're concerned about the damn drugs. Isn't that something?" Mahaffey said.
~snip~

Following the incident, Mahaffey asked Vernal city officials and police administrators why officers would search his home without a warrant. He said he was told the Utah Controlled Substances Act provides authority for the search.
~snip~

That's an extraordinary violation of privacy," said Andrew Fackrell, Mahaffey's attorney.
Bassett declined to comment Thursday, saying the city had not yet seen the complaint.
Fackrell said there's nothing in the controlled substances act that allows police to enter a home and search for prescription drugs without a warrant.

It appears they're not only being dicks, they're doing it illegally.

[Griff]

I figured your update was going to be about the end of the war on drugs. Guess not.

[BigV]

good lord. that is completely fubar.

According to the lawsuit, Mahaffey also said city manager Ken Bassett dismissed his concerns, saying he was "overly sensitive" and that police were just trying to protect the public from illegal use of prescription drugs.

Bassett, the lawsuit says, also told Mahaffey that his own parents had recently died and he wouldn't have cared had police searched their house for drugs.

the premise for the search was presumably to seize the prescription drugs left over from the recently deceased. hm. maybe there's a legitimate line of thought there. but the implementation in this case is absolutely beyond the pale. I hope the transgressors, apparently the police and the city manager are prosecuted, found guilty, and receive the harshest possible punishment. What a wasteful misuse of our public resources.