41–50 of 91 posts
> police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market Um, the "operator(s) of Silk Road Market" allegedly attempted to hire a contract killer. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of peaceful, if true.
It's innocent until proven guilty isn't it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "voluntary trade" makes it sound like said trade wasn't actually illegal Just because something is illegal doesn't mean it's wrong.
Right, but the police do not decide which laws to ignore and which to enforce. They are the enforcement arm, not the legislative. No one should be alarmed that people when people are arrested for peddling illegal drugs.
They absolutely do. For example, police in Seattle explicitly made marijuana enforcement the lowest possible priority years before Washington legalized it. It was a common sight to see policemen standing right next to people openly smoking pot on the street and completely ignoring them.
The police actually have a huge amount of leeway, and it can be a big problem. They often decide who to prosecute and who to ignore, and their decisions are often driven by race, revenue concerns, or other issues that have little to do with justice.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't care if the meth dealer is a hip and gentle guy. He's empowering others to destroy their lives You do know that Paul Erdös, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century (if not ever) was a meth addict, right? I'm not saying "meth is good"; but that blanket generalizations are bad.
> Paul Erdös [sic] ...was a meth addict Do you have a reputable source for this? Wikipedia and a quick "Paul Erdos meth" Google were both fruitless for me.
Still, uh, using amphetamines or amphetamine analogs in controlled dosages from pharmaceutical sources is a pretty normal thing to do, a pretty normal thing that doesn't seem to cause a whole lot of problems for most people. We give it to children to make them sit still, and many adults take it, too.
There are some analogs, like Methylphenidate, which are said to be less addictive, but many people prefer, and use Adderall, which isn't, and both are deemed to be safe enough to give to children in small doses. We even give straight up Dextroamphetamine to some people (though it's rather less common)
I mean, dosage is super important, of course, and so is purity, but yeah, lots of people take small amounts of amphetamines without problems.
Edit: As someone else pointed out, methamphetamines are similar in effect to, but generally more dangerous than amphetamines, and the latter, I believe, is what Erdos, and most everyday users under medical supervision use.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except that Bitcoin can be laundered quite effectively, and often is. [1] In fact, there are services that do so. [2] [1] http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/72/how-is-it-poss... [2] https://bitlaunder.com/
Try and launder a 1Billion to 10 Billion dollor transaction with bitcoin and that's going to fall flat. PS: For comparison you can fedex ~170,000$ worth of gold in a vary inconspicious 15 LB box. Shipping ~60,000 lb of gold (1Billion$) is much easier to track and more risky.
The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…
Common sense is a great place to start from! Then you do science. You predict what will happen under various policies; you try some options and observe what happens; you revise your understanding of the problem; and repeat.
From the few places where people are thinking that way, it seems like the best approach is neither criminal law nor pure legalization, but regulation, treatment and harm reduction. There are some examples in this report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy:
http://www.undrugcontrol.info/images/stories/documents/Globa...
But we still have a huge amount to learn, because for the most part we're not even trying -- just sticking with the "common sense" approach of looking for a larger hammer, when hitting the problem with a smaller hammer failed to work.
> police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market Um, the "operator(s) of Silk Road Market" allegedly attempted to hire a contract killer. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of peaceful, if true.
It's innocent until proven guilty isn't it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's innocent until proven guilty isn't it?
Yes. But what does that have to do with investigation? Can't really fail to investigate until proven guilty.
> police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market Um, the "operator(s) of Silk Road Market" allegedly attempted to hire a contract killer. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of peaceful, if true.
Except the contract was against the guy who the cops threatened into being their informant. It was peaceful until the police showed up.
The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…
> He's empowering others to destroy their lives, which very often leads to more crime as addicts will steal or even kill for their next fix. What about alcohol? Cigarettes? Poker? Penny stocks? All of these things have contributed to people blowing their savings, futures, and ruining their own lives and their families' lives. By criminalizing drugs, people who want to fix their behavior are unable to because they're…
Prohibition does absolutely nothing to control drug demand. It makes the supply swell until it overruns law enforcement's efforts to stem it. It makes hard drugs with stronger effects for a small dose more profitable for smugglers, because they're easier to ship. And as American alcohol Prohibitionism showed in the 20s, it makes drugs more popular among the underaged.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except the contract was against the guy who the cops threatened into being their informant. It was peaceful until the police showed up.
I'm afraid that "the police were about to find out about me through this guy" does not count as a reasonable excuse for murdering someone.