61–70 of 145 posts
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There is a whole industry of Drug War sponsored quack science that is no more legit than tobacco company sponsored "science."
There is plenty of objective, non-sponsored research that shows marijuana to have at least in some cases a negative effect. But nice work blanketing all of the research you disagree with as illegitimate.
What I want to know is why governments support all illegal drug dealing, and dont get a cut of the action themselves. The illegality is pretty much what makes it profitable. All the "war" on drugs does is keep the prices up. Mean while the government just pours our tax money down the drain, get zero in return. Legalize it and the government can tax it. Dealers get wiped out, and with them, a lot of the violence. The…
Because they're already making a lot of money from weed and other drugs being illegal. It's the prison industrial complex, man. The government isn't interested in stopping violence. If so, we'd have much saner drug laws. Drug busts are easy and when you do them the DEA and federal government give you money to buy shiny toys like tanks and new body armor.
I'm sure the DEA loves the status quo, but that's not where the votes come from. The votes come from everyone who bought into Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign. People like my mom, who thinks pot causes young men to give up on life and not get jobs or girlfriends and just play video games all day, and supports keeping it illegal because she thinks that's bad for the country. If you poll your mom and her friends, I bet you see that viewpoint pretty well-represented.
It looks like hacker news is in favor of legalizing marijuana.
If you believe that you own your own body, then it would make sense. I wonder what people will say in 100 years. Will they laugh at us for letting people with the label "government" lay claim on how we use our own bodies? I would think so.
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I don't get it. Marijuana laws are used against minorities all the time, not just middle class white kids[1]. Furthermore he talks of decriminalization as the solution, not legalization. Plenty of states have already decriminalized marijuana , but only two have legalized ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decriminalization_of_non-medici... ). Decriminalization allows the state to continue using pot as a weapon against th…
I think part of his point is that, for "10-12%" of Americans, these laws actually make them go from unemployed in the official sense to actually having no meaningful income in the literal sense. In other words, it will make many bad situations even worse. > As a result, "drugs are the only industry left in places such as Baltimore and east St Louis" – an industry that employs "children, old people, people who've been…
If anything, keeping other drugs illegal while legalizing marijuana would provide a transition period for those impoverished drug dealers, a transition period that would be unavailable if the whole deal fell with one blow as he seems to desire.
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Because they're already making a lot of money from weed and other drugs being illegal. It's the prison industrial complex, man. The government isn't interested in stopping violence. If so, we'd have much saner drug laws. Drug busts are easy and when you do them the DEA and federal government give you money to buy shiny toys like tanks and new body armor.
It's phat to blame the prison industrial complex, but they're just taking advantage of the Puritan strain in American society. Remember, we're a country that actually passed a Constitutional amendment to make alcohol, even beer, illegal. I'm sure the DEA loves the status quo, but that's not where the votes come from. The votes come from everyone who bought into Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign. People like my mo…
So why do they want to convince the public that drugs need to be pursued in the first place? If they were merely responding to pressure from the public, then that would be one thing, but they are fueling that sentiment. They want the public to think that way.
Do they want to sway the public because they are themselves 'true believers'? Or are there less noble motivations?
I suspect it is a combination of both.
Just like all our wars, the drug war has been fought for the benefit of corporations and their rich investors.
The USA has always been operated in this way. It was never meant to benefit the people. Just investors. That principle is outlined in the federalist papers and other seminal documents associated with the formation of the USA.
Same as it ever was.
"David Simon, creator of The Wire, says new US drug laws help only 'white, middle-class kids'" http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/25/the-wire-creato...
Looks like the tide is really turning on legalisation - more and more political rats are turning over and claiming they have always been in favour of legalisation. Tacky, but still a sign of progress.
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There is plenty of objective, non-sponsored research that shows marijuana to have at least in some cases a negative effect. But nice work blanketing all of the research you disagree with as illegitimate.
I painted it as illegitimate because it is. ONDCP does propaganda, not science.