251–260 of 435 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a European that sounds terrible! That it is not as bad as a lawless warzone in a failed African state isn't much consolation??
Several continents have failed states: South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
legalizing drugs would cause the collapse of the cartels and help to end this violence.
And also the collapse of the government. They're totally vested in keeping drugs illegal. It's a profit center for them
https://qz.com/874497/mexico-is-moving-toward-medical-mariju... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/former-preside...
It's us , the USA, that is causing this paper to shutdown. The cartels are financed by the insatiable drug appetite of its close neighbor. Our inability and/or unwillingness to legalize recreational drugs is the feeding tube for these vicious groups.
It's surprisingly simple to locate the plantations using LIDAR + spectrometry. Even easier in Afghanistan, where fields are cultivated in the open. It's so well documented that the UNDOC provides an anual report with the amount in acres. I could go on, but this is enough to make one wonder why they aren't being stopped.
Narconomics is a good read on the various measures that have been tried. Going after poor South American farmers these days means the cartels just means the cartels don't pay them as much.
Far too much policy making around narcotics is done by knee-jerk reactions, on both sides.
It's us , the USA, that is causing this paper to shutdown. The cartels are financed by the insatiable drug appetite of its close neighbor. Our inability and/or unwillingness to legalize recreational drugs is the feeding tube for these vicious groups.
Although I get your point; it's fundamentally asinine both on a logical basis, but also on a practical basis relative to the massive, treasonous, seditious, and self-destructive (almost as if it were drug fueled) opposition to the very President trying to curtail "the insatiable drug appetite of it's close neighbor". I don't know what it is with the Liberal mindset, but it is so screwed up and distorted and twisted t…
So doesn't that imply that it might be displacing weed from Mexico, from violent cartels, with weed grown in the US from less violent black markets?
And who ever said that weed-smoking, weed-growing or black markets would decline? That's a huge straw man right there. The point is to replace a smaller amount of very bad stuff (black markets linked to violent crime, bad quality weed, unregulated untaxed sales, etc), with more of something much better. More people smoking weed isn't necessarily bad, if it's more regulated.
It's surprising how often it has to be repeated that there's no qualitative difference between alcohol and other drugs. It's plainly obvious that legal but very strictly regulated sale of alcohol is the best solution. It's odd that it's so hard to see that it's the same for all other drugs.
I suppose that the problem is that the US doesn't know how to strike a good balance. You either gotta go all out war-on-drugs, or you gotta go laissez-faire. You don't know how to strike a balance. Maybe look to other countries for solutions. Every heard of government monopolies for alcohol sale? Funny thing is, when you combine this with universal healthcare, then the government that sells you alcohol, is the same that has to take the consequences from overconsumption. So you got someone who wants to sell to you (to avoid black markets), but not too much. That's exactly the incentives you want from a drug seller.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My very limited experience with Mexico City is that I'd treat it like many U.S. cities: it's fine, if you know which areas to avoid after dark, and which areas to avoid entirely. It is not like a safe European city center where you can go almost anywhere alone on foot at any time of day. But most U.S. cities don't fit that description either. And it's not at the other extreme that some people imagine, some kind of So…
Well, there is a huge difference between Europe and the US/Mexico: most people don't have guns. You will rarely see anybody with a weapon here. If you get attacked, it will be with fists, sometime a knife. Having the possibility that somebody pulls a gun on you is crazy to me, like something that should only happen in a movie.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shorter to write: i don't know London
As a Cornishman, this is basically what's taught in the schools, yes. You live in a godforsaken suburb miles out of London but you pretend that, unlike us, you somehow live in a city. ;-)
All of these places are in London. They have London postcodes, are inside the M25, and are administered by the Mayor of London.
It's us , the USA, that is causing this paper to shutdown. The cartels are financed by the insatiable drug appetite of its close neighbor. Our inability and/or unwillingness to legalize recreational drugs is the feeding tube for these vicious groups.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My very limited experience with Mexico City is that I'd treat it like many U.S. cities: it's fine, if you know which areas to avoid after dark, and which areas to avoid entirely. It is not like a safe European city center where you can go almost anywhere alone on foot at any time of day. But most U.S. cities don't fit that description either. And it's not at the other extreme that some people imagine, some kind of So…
Well, there is a huge difference between Europe and the US/Mexico: most people don't have guns. You will rarely see anybody with a weapon here. If you get attacked, it will be with fists, sometime a knife. Having the possibility that somebody pulls a gun on you is crazy to me, like something that should only happen in a movie.
Only the people who get attacked don't have any guns, and they get fucked up.
It's us , the USA, that is causing this paper to shutdown. The cartels are financed by the insatiable drug appetite of its close neighbor. Our inability and/or unwillingness to legalize recreational drugs is the feeding tube for these vicious groups.
The legalisation is one part of it. The purchasing is another. The cartel is another. In that order.
Prohibition transforms capital spent by drug users into income for drug cartels. Under full legalization, drug users would have as little incentive to buy their drugs from street vendors as alcoholics would want to buy their liquor from some guy standing on a street corner.
The great news is that we are entirely responsible for this mess ourselves, so we can fix it if we want to.