S
ShoeboxSherman
I would have stopped right there, but you were kind enough to post it, so I read it. I think I lost 50 or 60 IQ points during that time.
Mexico Decriminalizes Marijuana and other Drugs!
- Thread starter Skip
- Start date
I would have stopped right there, but you were kind enough to post it, so I read it. I think I lost 50 or 60 IQ points during that time.
J
JackTheGrower
Oh SHIT I'm dead and didn't know it..
What will they say about pollution and global warming?
Maybe we should have them champion health care for everyone with such insight?
The only thing that serves is to protect Federal paychecks.
Sure we have a problem but the Answer is to bring the "ILLEGAL" into the realm of public control..
Someone knock me off this pulpit...
Seriously how can we control Drugs if we turn a blind eye and hope our plump, well paid law enforcement will eliminate the very reason we pay them.. Come On people wake up..
Jack
What will they say about pollution and global warming?
Maybe we should have them champion health care for everyone with such insight?
The only thing that serves is to protect Federal paychecks.
Sure we have a problem but the Answer is to bring the "ILLEGAL" into the realm of public control..
Someone knock me off this pulpit...
Seriously how can we control Drugs if we turn a blind eye and hope our plump, well paid law enforcement will eliminate the very reason we pay them.. Come On people wake up..
Jack
yea they are!!!!
is there any scientific proof for thoes so-called "toxic-substances"???
cannabis itself isnt toxic.....unless there talking about pesticides, contamination.... still sound like dim-whits.
also good for mexico. they have major issues.
This is a joke, right? It's just some old article from the 1930s that you dug up. Surely no one believes that crap nowadays. Oh wait. This is the U.S. of A. we're talking about. Nevermind.
I stopped reading the passage after the first sentence ended with this:
"a Southern Baptist policy expert has predicted."
Got it! A world renown cannabis expert!
OK, I couldn't resist cause the next sentence was so enticing!
"vice president for public policy and research for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission"
Got it, peer reviewed scientific study! Max credibility!
"a Southern Baptist policy expert has predicted."
Got it! A world renown cannabis expert!
OK, I couldn't resist cause the next sentence was so enticing!
"vice president for public policy and research for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission"
Got it, peer reviewed scientific study! Max credibility!
bass ackwards
Member
The sad fact is that many people will take that crap that that idiot is spouting as the truth. Sadly there is still a large percentage of the US population who believe what he is saying,and will not even entertain arguments to the contrary. Their position can best be described with the old saw;"My mind is made up,don't confuse me with the facts". You can't convince these people that they are mistaken.
Respect bass
Respect bass
Minion
Member
Very sad indeed. Sad for me because I'm surrounded by those twatwaffles.
RollmeoneKenobi
Member
konstantgrdnr
Member
The Los Angeles Times had a panel of experts comment. The views and opinions are pretty insightful and make you understand the Politics that play out behind decisions. I will post two commentaries that i found with different angles.
The full article
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/decriminalizing-drugs-in-mexico/
What Decriminalization?
Jorge Castaneda
Jorge Castañeda is the Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. He was foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003.
The recently approved new “drug” law in Mexico is in fact not a step toward decriminalization, but rather toward mandatory sentencing. Until last month, possession of small (unspecified) amounts of drugs was not a criminal offense in Mexico; only the sale or purchase was. The new law establishes a minuscule limit on legal possession, meaning that today, almost anyone caught carrying any drug is subject to arrest, prosecution and jail.
If anything, the new law criminalizes drug use much more radically than before.
If anything, the new law criminalizes drug use much more radically than before, and it is probably for this reason that President Calderón signed it, and that the Obama administration has looked the other way. It will almost certainly not attract US “drug tourists” to Mexico, since the risk of being arrested for possession has grown considerably with the new law, whereas before, the real risk was just a shake-down by the authorities.
The law actually is part of a campaign to justify President Calderón’s war of choice on drugs by stating that drug consumption in Mexico has increased over the past 10 years. But the government’s own unpublished but leaked National Addiction Survey for 2008 shows that this is not the case. The growth of marijuana, heroin and metaphetamine consumption is flat in all categories (addiction, occasional use, at least once in a lifetime use), and while cocaine addiction, for example, did rise from 300 000 victims in 2002 to 450 000 in 2008 (a 50% increase, or roughly 6% per year), it did so from a tiny baseline, for a tiny percentage (0.4%) of Mexico’s population, a much smaller share than for the US, Western Europe and practically every country in Latin America.
Close
Mexico should move toward decriminalization, but it cannot do so if the United States does not. Among the many reasons is the so-called Zurich effect, i.e., what occurred in the Swiss city in the 80’s and 90’s when it was one of only a couple of European towns that had legalized virtually all drug use, and consequently attracted thousands of users from across Europe, eventually forcing the city to shut down its “needle park” and abrogate decriminalization.
If the current movement toward legalized medical use of marijuana and/or decriminalization prospers and expands in the U.S., Mexico will be able to move in the same direction, and perhaps reduce the tremendous cost the war on drugs is imposing on Mexican society, without any visible results or hope for success.
Fear-Mongering Is Unjustified
Ethan Nadelmann
Ethan Nadelmann is executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
The recent decriminalization of drug possession in Mexico is good for Mexico, good for the U.S., and consistent with the broader trend in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere.
The Jamaican drug tourism industry has nothing to fear from Mexico’s reform.
The new law eliminates criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs, authorizes treatment instead of incarceration for addicts, refrains from forcing “rehabilitation” on consumers who are not addicted, and legitimizes the ritual and cultural use of drugs like peyote. This should, in theory, result in fewer people being incarcerated for nothing more than drug use or possession, and allow police to focus on more serious crimes. Such reforms generally do not result in higher rates of drug use — at least that’s the evidence from other countries. And it will have no impact on President Calderon’s battle with the major drug trafficking organizations.
It’s hard to see the law encouraging “drug tourism” from the United States, and certainly nothing to compare with the “tourism” generated by Mexico’s lower drinking age and easy access to lower cost pharmaceutical drugs. Nothing in the law authorizes the creation of Dutch-like coffee shops selling marijuana openly. The Jamaican tourism industry has nothing to fear from Mexico’s reform. And Americans generally prefer the higher quality marijuana grown in our own country.
Why did the Obama administration refrain from criticizing the Mexican reform? Probably because it understands that it will have no impact on drug use or trafficking in the United States. But perhaps it also is coming to the conclusion that criminalization of drug possession typically does more harmthan good.
The full article
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/decriminalizing-drugs-in-mexico/
What Decriminalization?
Jorge Castaneda
Jorge Castañeda is the Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. He was foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003.
The recently approved new “drug” law in Mexico is in fact not a step toward decriminalization, but rather toward mandatory sentencing. Until last month, possession of small (unspecified) amounts of drugs was not a criminal offense in Mexico; only the sale or purchase was. The new law establishes a minuscule limit on legal possession, meaning that today, almost anyone caught carrying any drug is subject to arrest, prosecution and jail.
If anything, the new law criminalizes drug use much more radically than before.
If anything, the new law criminalizes drug use much more radically than before, and it is probably for this reason that President Calderón signed it, and that the Obama administration has looked the other way. It will almost certainly not attract US “drug tourists” to Mexico, since the risk of being arrested for possession has grown considerably with the new law, whereas before, the real risk was just a shake-down by the authorities.
The law actually is part of a campaign to justify President Calderón’s war of choice on drugs by stating that drug consumption in Mexico has increased over the past 10 years. But the government’s own unpublished but leaked National Addiction Survey for 2008 shows that this is not the case. The growth of marijuana, heroin and metaphetamine consumption is flat in all categories (addiction, occasional use, at least once in a lifetime use), and while cocaine addiction, for example, did rise from 300 000 victims in 2002 to 450 000 in 2008 (a 50% increase, or roughly 6% per year), it did so from a tiny baseline, for a tiny percentage (0.4%) of Mexico’s population, a much smaller share than for the US, Western Europe and practically every country in Latin America.
Close
Mexico should move toward decriminalization, but it cannot do so if the United States does not. Among the many reasons is the so-called Zurich effect, i.e., what occurred in the Swiss city in the 80’s and 90’s when it was one of only a couple of European towns that had legalized virtually all drug use, and consequently attracted thousands of users from across Europe, eventually forcing the city to shut down its “needle park” and abrogate decriminalization.
If the current movement toward legalized medical use of marijuana and/or decriminalization prospers and expands in the U.S., Mexico will be able to move in the same direction, and perhaps reduce the tremendous cost the war on drugs is imposing on Mexican society, without any visible results or hope for success.
Fear-Mongering Is Unjustified
Ethan Nadelmann
Ethan Nadelmann is executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
The recent decriminalization of drug possession in Mexico is good for Mexico, good for the U.S., and consistent with the broader trend in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere.
The Jamaican drug tourism industry has nothing to fear from Mexico’s reform.
The new law eliminates criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs, authorizes treatment instead of incarceration for addicts, refrains from forcing “rehabilitation” on consumers who are not addicted, and legitimizes the ritual and cultural use of drugs like peyote. This should, in theory, result in fewer people being incarcerated for nothing more than drug use or possession, and allow police to focus on more serious crimes. Such reforms generally do not result in higher rates of drug use — at least that’s the evidence from other countries. And it will have no impact on President Calderon’s battle with the major drug trafficking organizations.
It’s hard to see the law encouraging “drug tourism” from the United States, and certainly nothing to compare with the “tourism” generated by Mexico’s lower drinking age and easy access to lower cost pharmaceutical drugs. Nothing in the law authorizes the creation of Dutch-like coffee shops selling marijuana openly. The Jamaican tourism industry has nothing to fear from Mexico’s reform. And Americans generally prefer the higher quality marijuana grown in our own country.
Why did the Obama administration refrain from criticizing the Mexican reform? Probably because it understands that it will have no impact on drug use or trafficking in the United States. But perhaps it also is coming to the conclusion that criminalization of drug possession typically does more harmthan good.
