271–280 of 332 posts
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Quoth wikipedia: In 2001, Portugal became the first European country to abolish all criminal penalties for personal drug possession
Some people like to argue that "nobody punishes you for it" isn't the same as "it's okay", even though it's not clear what the difference between those is for an actual human being.
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For the most part, yes. Lots of the harm comes from the fact they're not legal and cheaply available. For example, heroin, I would say nearly all the harm comes from the fact it's not legal. Overdoses are prevented because they can happen in safe places where people will notice. I've even been told of a story where people thought someone was having an overdose and they were told to go home because they couldn't risk…
Legalization has not stopped alcohol poisoning. Is there some reason it would stop heroin overdoses?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/632372/total-number-of-d...
https://transformdrugs.org/drug-decriminalisation-in-portuga...
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if you're dealing drugs on a black market you're not paying taxes, you may be selling drugs to children, which is definitely not a victimless crime, and you're likely facilitate all other sorts of crime and money laundering. Not to mention that some drugs are so addictive and destructive that jurisdictions have good reason to stop their distribution.
If what you are selling is illegal, there is nothing but a black market on which to sell. There is nothing stopping the liquor store from selling alcohol to wife beaters and child abusers. On taxes, to be honest I don't like those either, although I pay every dollar I am legally required to and actively avoid paying all taxes I can legally avoid paying. As I'm someone publicly arguing for the legalization of all drug…
Me too, I've also seen a lot of life wasted on games. Some of it my own!
But isn't this much the same line of reasoning as with drugs? Some people just can't control it. I'm all for adults being adults and making adult choices. But clearly there's people who can't deal with games as well as drugs.
Where I grew up, you can get weed without a problem. I just somehow never thought it was worth the money, and though I had a few friends who'd buy they never got into any trouble with it.
Perhaps it's also a function of your environment what you find destructive. Like many kids, I grew up in the middle class where games would eat more time than drugs. I wonder if you are the same? There are others who grew up much more exposed to drugs and drug addiction, who maybe didn't have a computer to waste time on.
I'm also in favour of legalization, but mainly for practical reasons. We've tried making hard drugs illegal, and people aren't satisfied. Maybe try a different approach and see if there's a better balance there.
My main issue with it is that I don't really want to give the drug lords a head start on a business that we want non-criminals to run, but that's something else to thing about.
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> Can you really say in good conscience that other drugs wouldn't be worse if they became equally ubiquitous? I'm sure that in general people on weed, shrooms, DMT or MDMA are much much less prone to violent aggression and destructive behaviour than drunk people. I'm also sure all of these but the last do much less (if any) harm to your health than alcohol does. The only drugs I know which can be considered as or mor…
Ahem. A couple addendums, if I may: LSD has no measurable long term side effects - the myth that it makes people go crazy came out of the fact that our can make you feel crazy. Kratom is not an opioid. to qualify as an opioid, you must be derived from opium. Cocaine is not nearly as dangerous as alcohol. It is, perhaps, easier to indulge in cocaine to excess, but people on it are not nearly as likely to do things tha…
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You could make advertising them illegal. Also make alcohol and tobacco advertising illegal at the same time.
That's kind of a minimal measure, and already implemented to some degree in many places. Its effects are limited, and it's a cat and mouse game because there are so many subtle ways to advertise.
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You can. And the court can ignore that, which they routinely do, and convict you anyway.
The court still needs good proof that you intended to receive the package. If they don't have proof, there isn't much for a conviction to stand on and the next instance should slap it back hard.
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Alcohol is a big problem in Germany: 3 million people with alcohol issues and 74,000 yearly deaths.² Weed is considered less of a problem by the scientific community. The logical conclusion: Increase taxes on alcohol and legalize weed. -- ² https://www.dhs.de/suechte/alkohol/zahlen-daten-fakten
From my experience talking to the people whose job it is to provide support and services to those who abuse substances. Most experts in substance abuse normally say Alcohol is the worst of all the substances. With many stating, it causes more havoc in families on scale than heroin. More people die because of Alcohol, not just from drinking it but from drink drivers, drunken fights, etc. The general violence caused by…
https://amp.reddit.com/r/tooktoomuch/comments/kjnisn/going_t...
I get how these market places are used for digital goods (malware, credit cards), but I don’t understand how people can trade physical goods on those. If they have to exchange products, they must either meet in person or use the mail, either is trackable by the authorities. I see how the seller can protect himself for local transactions. He could leave the goods hidden somewhere and tell the buyer where to go. But th…
Mail is not traceable. There is no record of sender, and a parcel being addressed to you is not proof you ordered it. I suppose this might differ worldwide, but I’m guessing most countries have post boxes? Wapo did an article on it some time ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/16/postal-se...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park#Replication
I want rat park to be true. It's depressing that it's not been effectively replicated. That said, it's conclusions are sort of common sense; if you give people options and one of them feels better than the rest they will take it, so give them more good options. It's almost as if rats aren't subject to market forces...
And maybe the original researcher of Rat Park just wanted it to be true too.