Giving poor Columbia farmers cancer by indiscriminately dumping herbicides directly on them. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/20/biden-pushes-co...
Colombia.
After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
191–200 of 353 posts
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If that isn't just the perfect description of politics in the US Yes, but not in the way that you say. Political change happens step by tiny step. You have to hammer the same point for decades to get somewhere. You hammer it by winning elections, by having better candidates win your primaries, by getting the news media, large corporations, and celebrities to virtue signal, by rallies, by protests, by sabotaging the…
The problem is that our system is broken. Wildly popular policies can't pass because of republican obstructionism in the senate. Worse, the senate is hugely anti-democratic. It's not 1/3-1/2 of the population; its the reps of 4/25. ""The 25 most populous states contain nearly 84 percent of the 50 states’ total population. So 16 percent of the country controls half of the seats in the United States Senate (and that’s…
>25 most populous states contain nearly 84 percent of the 50 states’ total population. So 16 percent of the country controls half of the seats in the United States Senate
Not really, the flaw here is seeing each "blue state" as 100% blue and each "red state" as 100% red. A blue state can be simply a matter of a single blue city surrounded by red counties. The holdout states give a voice to the people in holdout counties whose lifestyles are at the whim of a super-majority in the city.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/upshot/2020-electio...
I prefer a government that does as little as possible and leave it up to each local population to do what's best for themselves. This thread, after all, is about the federal government abusing its people with the war on drugs. Changing the faction in charge and making things even easier for them doesn't solve that problem as that faction is then subject to corruption too.
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#193You cannot win a war against yourself.
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's start with the prisons about to be built, of which there are still many. A campaign to convince the Travis County (Austin) commissioners not to fund a new $80M women's prison succeeded this week. Next step is to get them to instead fund diversion and mental health programs. You may find similar movements that you can join in pressuring local officials. The fun thing is that at this level of government, commissi…
While a good thing, a losing battle in my opinion. You can perhaps convince your local authorities to not build another prison here this year, but somewhere else another prison still got built. There isn't enough people who give a shit, and an alarming amount of people who are rock hard for cruel punishment as a good thing. Unbuild the existing prisons. John Brown didn't write letters, he burned down plantations.
Are you advocating for the violent destruction of government property? Is that allowed on hacker news?
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reasoning is well established at this point. It was started by the Nixon administration to reduce the amount of left and left-leaning voters, particularly black Americans. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the…
I'm about as anti War on Drugs as it's possible to get, but agree with those who consider that quote to be highly suspect. Ehrlichman supposedly said it in a private interview with Baum, and there was no public record of it for 22 years after it was said, and 17 years after Ehrlichman died. It's very rare to hear such mea culpas from powerful, politically adept figures that cast their subjects in such a negative ligh…
Ok, what about this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:John_Ehrlichman#San_Franc....
> NIXON: [...] Let's look at the strong societies. The Russians. Goddamn, they root 'em out. They don't let 'em around at all. I don't know what they do with them. Look at this country. You think the Russians allow dope? Homosexuality, dope, immorality, are the enemies of strong societies. That's why the Communists and left-wingers are clinging to one another. They're trying to destroy us. I know Moynihan will disagree with this, [Attorney General John] Mitchell will, and Garment will. But, goddamn, we have to stand up to this.
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#196This is one of those weird things about American Democracy where everyone I speak to thinks the Drug War was a terrible thing and should be stopped. And yet, our politicians never substantially do anything to change the status quo.
You almost certainly occupy a bubble in this. I hate the War on Drugs with every fiber in my being, but it’s broadly popular. Cannabis legalization may recently be popular. But I’d be shocked if more than 5% of Americans supported the legalization hard drugs, and if more than 20% supported by Portuguese style decriminalization. Even soft drug prohibition, like MDMA and LSD, are supported by sizable majorities of vote…
> You almost certainly I occupy a bubble in this. I hate the War on Drugs with every fiber in my being, but it’s broadly popular.
Question: to what degree does this influence your overall satisfaction level with government in general (both at the object level, and abstractly) in the United States?
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't buy it. That's one administration's decision to capitalize on anti-drug sentiment, but it really is a world-wide phenomenon with many powerful countries not controlled by the US choosing to continue outlawing drugs, like middle eastern countries and China. Most Asian countries still have very harsh penalties for drug possession. If you use an earthquake or a hurricane to engage in some crony capitalism, it do…
I buy it. It was forced on the world by the UN with the convention of psychotropic substances 1971. Only a handful of nations, now including the US are seeing this as a horrible mistake. It is, was and always will be a horrible mistake, maybe the worst sociopolitical action in the 20th century. The brutality we have seen as a result of these policies leaves little moral ambiguity.
The argument is that Richard Nixon, a disgraced and impeached president, is conveniently responsible for all of the world's drug control "because racism." That sounds a little too comic book villainy to me. Nixon was such a failure that his successor could've immediately reversed that decision. To say that China is still to this day executing drug dealers because Richard Nixon was racist(which is true, I don't dispute that) is missing the forest for the trees.
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#198If you look at violent crime over the last 50 years it has steadily decreased. I think it’s reasonable to see a correlation. It’s possible decriminalizing could lead to a huge wave in crimes as people try to pay for their fix. That being said, I’m pro-liberty. I feel all drugs should be accessible
A correlation with war on drugs is possible but the correlation with lead exposure is much stronger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis#....
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still find it abhorrent that incarcerated people can't vote in the US. That seems so obviously exploitable.
Not only this, but in many cases felons permanently lose their right to vote, even after they serve their sentence. Edit: I stand corrected, this is true in some states but not others.
You may want to see this:
https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/voter-restoration/...
Re: After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
What drug would be next to target on the list of "good candidates for decriminalization" after marijuana?
Psychedelics are probably next. Already there is some movement, Oakland and Denver have decriminalized magic mushrooms.
Also the entire state of Oregon has both decriminalized, and has approved and is setting a legal medical infra just like with marijuana.