Good article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/drugs-prohibition-latin-america

-- 
John Watson
London

John Watson wrote:
> Good article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/drugs-prohibition-latin-america

Food for thought indeed. What a shame that too few politicians, and the 
majority of the media, are capable of thinking.

"Brimstone"  wrote in message 
news:rbGdnQzHZral3D_XnZ2dnUVZ8j-dnZ2d@bt.com...
> John Watson wrote:
>> Good article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.
>>
>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/drugs-prohibition-latin-america
>
> Food for thought indeed. What a shame that too few politicians, and the 
> majority of the media, are capable of thinking.
>
>
They're capable of thinking, they do way too much of it. It's reality they 
struggle with.

On 6 Sep, 01:09, "JohnR"  wrote:
> "Brimstone"  wrote in message
>
> news:rbGdnQzHZral3D_XnZ2dnUVZ8j-dnZ2d@bt.com...> John Watson wrote:
> >> Good article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.
>
> >>http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/drugs-prohibition...
>
> > Food for thought indeed. What a shame that too few politicians, and the
> > majority of the media, are capable of thinking.
>
> They're capable of thinking, they do way too much of it. It's reality they
> struggle with.

More sensible stuff from South America:

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/06/brazil-cardoso-war-drugs-decriminalisation

Svenne

In article ,
 "Brimstone"  wrote:

> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/drugs-prohibition-latin-am
> erica

It's the bloody public which only pays attention to sound byte, and 
appeals to emotion.

Criminalising drugs that lead to compulsive use was not "immoral idiocy", 
quite the reverse, however legalising them might be a pragmatic way to 
reduce the crime associated with addicts funding their addiction, given that 
eradication is struggling.

Compare Chinese attempts to kill all their rats...

"John Watson"  wrote in message 
news:7gesfiF2otng7U1@mid.individual.net...
> Good article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/drugs-prohibition-latin-america
>
> -- 
> John Watson
> London
>

R. Mark Clayton wrote:
> Criminalising drugs that lead to compulsive use was not "immoral idiocy", 
> quite the reverse, however legalising them might be a pragmatic way to 
> reduce the crime associated with addicts funding their addiction, given that 
> eradication is struggling.

	The crime associated with the black market in those drugs is
worse even than the crimes which may associated with some of the
users of various drugs who are attempting to get money to pay for
the drugs that they feel they must use.

> 
> Compare Chinese attempts to kill all their rats...

	Very bad taste to compare human drug users with our distant
cousins the rat  or the folly of attempting to exterminate pests with
the attempts to suppress the use of any drug.  We would do better
to exterminate Prohibitionists who insist on interference with other
pleasures than to attempt to suppress drug use.

> 
> "John Watson"  wrote in message 
> news:7gesfiF2otng7U1@mid.individual.net...
>> Good article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.
>>
>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/03/drugs-prohibition-latin-america
>>
>> -- 
>> John Watson
>> London

	later
	bliss

In article ,
 "R. Mark Clayton"  wrote:

> Criminalising drugs that lead to compulsive use was not "immoral idiocy", 
> quite the reverse, however legalising them might be a pragmatic way to 
> reduce the crime associated with addicts funding their addiction, given that 
> eradication is struggling.
> 
> Compare Chinese attempts to kill all their rats...

If compulsive use should be a criterion for banishing refined sugar is 
pretty high on the list.

On Tue, 8 Sep 2009 01:40:38 +0100, "R. Mark Clayton"
 wrote:

>Criminalising drugs that lead to compulsive use was not "immoral idiocy", 

Much human bahaviour is 'compulsive' and criminalising personal
behaviour is moral idiocy. Prohibitionists are moral idiots, although
many of them are certainly decent enough as individuals, just unaware
of the moral turpitude into which they have sunk.  

>quite the reverse, however legalising them might be a pragmatic way to 
>reduce the crime associated with addicts funding their addiction, given that 
>eradication is struggling.

Prohibition, apart from being morally indefensible, is a social
disaster that creats far more damage than it pretends to prevent.

>Compare Chinese attempts to kill all their rats...

If drug users are rats, according to the prohibitionist paradigm, then
preventing them from killing themselves would seem to be a pointless
excercise in misguided altruism. Might as well leave them to it.

But being smart was never a characteristic of prohibitionists, well,
they wouldn't be prohibitionists if they were smart, would they.

Svenne

Noticed at Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:40:38 +0100: R. Mark Clayton informed us:

> Criminalising drugs that lead to compulsive use was not "immoral
> idiocy",

It's a bit selective, considering tobacco leads to compulsive use, as does
alcohol sometimes. Some of the illegal drugs do not lead to compulsive
use, LSD and magic mushrooms being examples.

http://drugequality.org/

> quite the reverse, however legalising them might be a pragmatic way to
> reduce the crime associated with addicts funding their addiction, given
> that eradication is struggling.

Struggling? After 80 years of prohibition drugs are readily available and
cheaper than ever (the slide of the GBP in relation to the USD was the
cause of cocaine prices rising, the USD value actually fell).

The vast majority of illegal drug users do not cause crime. They are
cannabis and ecstasy users mainly.

> Compare Chinese attempts to kill all their rats...

That's absurd.

-- 
John Watson
London

John Watson wrote:
> Noticed at Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:40:38 +0100: R. Mark Clayton informed us:
> > Criminalising drugs that lead to compulsive use was not "immoral
> > idiocy",

> It's a bit selective, considering tobacco leads to compulsive use, as does
> alcohol sometimes. Some of the illegal drugs do not lead to compulsive
> use, LSD and magic mushrooms being examples.

The early history of drug control policy is pretty clear,
the selection of which drugs to make illegal coincided
exactly with those drugs' association with ethnic
groups who were the targets of widespread prejudice.

The aim of reducing damage and deaths from drug
abuse is a good one, but the present policy obviously
doesn't hit the mark.  It only preserves institutionalized
bigotry.

--
Brother Nate
bronate@gmail.com
Moral Compass