Fundamentally, it's because it scares people too much.
America isn't desperate enough, or brave enough, to try.
Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
441–450 of 545 posts
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#442Earlier quoted context omitted.
The benefit of legalizing marijuana is not to decrease usage but to cut financing to dealers. It is also safer for users, and reduces the risk to exposure to more dangerous drugs.
Dealers are fine (after all, consumers aren't expected to grow it all themselves); the problem is the flow of money back to the cartels.
Legal vs illegal dealers are two different things.
A legal dealer/grower is expected to follow certain laws and provide a safe product. In return for a high demand product they have to follow licensing rules and have a safe product.
An illegal dealer has the incentive to make as much money as fast as possible because of the risk of future prosecution. It is more beneficial for the illegal dealer to switch you from $100 of weed per month to $2000 worth of heroin per month. It has a much worse health outcome for you, but a better financial outcome for them.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is it mad? Government's are capable committing atrocities of unprecedented scale against their own citizenry. I wonder if the Russian Kulaks could have organized an armed resistance, or perhaps the Chinese peasants during Maosism. Also, I recommend to you the fascinating history of the African-American tradition of arms in the US. Black's used firearms to defend their families and communities against KKK and whit…
Both the Russians and Chinese had big civil wars in which the governments you mention eventually came into power. The question of armed resistance isn’t a hypothetical. It was tried and it failed. The notion of gun rights as essential to defending against tyranny is inherently self-defeating. If all it takes to defeat gun owners is passing some laws making them illegal, won’t a tyrant do that before they start with o…
You are just ignoring things you don't want to see.
Russian peasants actually did stop the government from taking over in 1920. Lenin was forced to enact the NEP because their policies were literally collapsing.
There was no other plan behind the NEP, it was written within a 3 month period.
It took a massive effort and practically a civil war by Stalin to collectivize agriculture.
While the state was eventually successful in that case, it clearly shows that resistance is possible.
In many other countries in the middle east for example, the governments know that they can not implement many polices, so they don't even try.
It also depends on level, if you are 1 of 50 people who oppose the government, its not gone go well. However if there is widespread support then the cost of the government goes up hugly if citizens are armed.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, it's not "just" a talking point. Your counter examples are trite and pointless because silver cars, food, and water are all completely essential to daily life. Also, there isn't a National Silver Car Association that is influencing Congress to block research into silver car related deaths.
> Your counter examples are trite and pointless because silver cars, food, and water are all completely essential to daily life. They are not. If people who like silver cars had to drive white cars instead, life would go on and there would still be less accidents involving silver cars. That there would then be more accidents involving white cars might be a relevant factor the talking point glosses over, however. Even…
If puppy bites were traumatizing and frequently fatal, and we had 40k+ deaths per year from puppy bites, then yeah, I'd want to consider some puppy regulations.
I understand your point though. I just think that gun regulation is a special case, since due to NRA influence "less guns = less gun deaths" is the only association we have to go on right now, and reducing deaths should be our primary goal.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#445Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just because marriage has traditionally been defined one way in your society does not mean that all societies you interact with must adopt the same definition. In fact, your burger analogy perfectly demonstrates the point. Yes, once upon a time, "hamburger" meant a patty of ground beef. However the word "burger" has long since lost the implication of meat and is now freely used to refer to any and all grilled, fried,…
Exactly! But... Why get so angry with people that loves meat burger and don't agree that "veggie burgers" are burgers? Unless they go out and attack veggie restaurants, they are not wrong. Moving this logic to social dynamics, if the majority of the population don't agree two person of the same sex forming a couple is a marriage, why get so angry at this? It is counterproductive as it helps the right wing join forces…
> Why get so angry with people that loves meat burger and don't agree that "veggie burgers" are burgers?
Because said people are often trying to use the force of law to stop you calling your burger a burger.
You can say what you like at home or even in public (and reveal your prejudices to the world), but when it comes to using the state to enforce inequality that's a different matter.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#446One reason (surely not the only one) why decriminalization is rarely talked about is that a large fraction of those who do not fall into the "war in drugs" camp are far too preoccupied talking about legalization.
The fate of all middle ground positions. (Not to be confused with compromises, that are far too often the combination of the worst of each, because that somehow seems to help both sides to save face)
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
> amok runs with guns This is the problem when discussing political issues like gun control. Gun related crimes has shown correlation with gun ownership laws. Gun accidents is naturally correlated to gun ownership. Mass public shootings however do not when adjusted for the population, but it draws so much political attention so it always get put into the discussion regardless if it match the data. Gun accidents is al…
The big tragedy with the widespread availability of firearms is suicide. Guns are a quick and easy way to end it all, where if you had to search out a tall building for 5 minutes the suicidal urge would subside. Anyone who has dealt with depression can tell you how this works. The suicidal urge doesn't last very long, but guns are waaaaaaay too convenient. Guns are far from the only way to kill yourself, but their wi…
I wonder if those deaths are accounted in the accidental death statistics.
Regardless, it would be interesting to know if there was data on the effect on suicide when you get increased gun control. The data for suicide that I have seen seems to imply that the availability of guns would increase the suicide rate for men, which is also the biggest demographic for suicide victims.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, it's not "just" a talking point. Your counter examples are trite and pointless because silver cars, food, and water are all completely essential to daily life. Also, there isn't a National Silver Car Association that is influencing Congress to block research into silver car related deaths.
Analogies aren't "pointless".
this seems like a strawman, because it doesn't accurately represent the statement.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes it fake?
As a social dynamics that evolved for safer copulation and procreation, what in 2 people bonding together looks like a marriage? You can pretend that they are just like every other couple (fake until 'we' make it?), but this is exactly what I call fake.
> As a social dynamics that evolved for safer copulation and procreation
I'm not ever going to have kids with my girlfriend, am I to be restrained from marrying her?
My mother was well past the age of childbearing when she married her current husband.
Your argument doesn't hold water.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#450Singapore's radical drug policy has worked pretty well, too [1] [2]. Why hasn't the world copied that? [1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/05/singap... [2] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24428567
Is that really a "radical" policy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_for_drug_tr...