Very true and a good choice for a balanced study...

Applying the same logic of legalizing drugs to "rape, sex trafficking and child abuse" which have been going on since man walked this planet, we should legalize those horrendous crimes and just rely on education to solve and stop them.

That's a fallacious comparison and dubious logic. And most of that sex trafficking is to supply the US market along with tourist markets around the world, and Alabama, along with several other "red states", just basically gave its tacit seal of approval to rape and incest with a form of Sharia Law.

The lesson of Prohibition was quite clear and easy to comprehend, yet the entire world, especially the USA, worked damn hard to ignore it thanks to lobbying by Big Pharma, Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol. Banning booze, a popular recreational substance used by millions of citizens to relax, caused the growth of violent organized mafias that took roughly 40 years to get under control after Prohibition ended. Even more damage has been done to society by the banning of pot, cocaine, opiates and similarly used recreational substances. Prohibition 2.0, instituted almost worldwide at the insistence of the USA via the UN and other methods, has caused the growth of the same violent organized criminals to supply the multi-billion dollar a year market. The Chump is basing his entire election campaign on inducing his cult followers to hate the refugees fleeing the violence that is a direct result of this failed policy. The saddest thing of all is to see that almost half the US population has fallen for his con.

If you haven't already watched it, the Netflix series "Narcos" depicts quite faithfully how the USA imposed its failed policy causing massive violence and almost the complete failure of the government in first Colombia and later Mexico. You can thank the DEA and the CIA for practically forcing Mexico's pot traffickers to take control of the cocaine trade. And you can thank your good friends the Chinese for all the fentanyl and meth flooding into the USA. I don't believe gringos appreciate how much the Chinese are involved in drug trafficking. Their stated goal of course, in case you missed it when they declared it decades ago, is to beat the USA at their own game without having to fire a single shot. And it's working. And the USA is playing its own dirty game with Prohibition because it justifies the existence of billions of dollars in budgets for numerous agencies and thousands of personnel and the associated hardware they "need" to do their invented jobs. Don't forget Iran-Contra or make the mistake of believing it was an isolated incident. Dope flows north. Guns flow south. A nice and tidy arrangement thanks much to the NRA and people like Ollie North.

And now the Secretary of Education's brother, the mercenary owner of Blackwater, one of numerous mercenary groups employed widely by the US government to do dirty work military personnel are prohibited from doing, is facing murder charges. Any bets whether he gets off or not?

This is the rabbit hole the US federal government and the special interest groups it favors have led the USA down. One can only imagine how much worse all this is getting with this absurd Chump administration and its very stable genius who has alienated US allies while empowering Russia, China and North Korea more than ever before.

Time to wake up, Alice.

A bit dated but still a real eye opener: The CIA, Contras, Gangs, and Crack

Cigarettes are $4-$5 a pack, up from what, 50 cents to a dollar? Think thT had anything to do with the decline?

No, not a damn thing. Only increased hardship for poor smokers. When I smoked I bought cigs no matter what the cost, and I didn't smoke a single one less. If it was 4 o'clock in the morning, and I was whacked out of my mind on HEAVY FUEL and I needed smokes I'd go to whatever store and pay whatever.

But then again, the overwhelming majority of users of any substance, legal or not, are neither addicts nor abusers. So again, your fear that all of a sudden addicts will be everywhere like the zombies in some terrible movie is an unrealistic portrayal of the situation.

This really is a no-brainer. I almost can't believe I'm hearing some of these excuses for continuing with the failed policy that hasn't ever worked. But hey, it's mostly brown-skinned people in other countries suffering and dying, except for all those white opiate and meth addicts across the USA. So which Walter White do you prefer in your neighborhood? The school professor or the meth producer? If you want the meth producer keep them illegal. Millions of smugglers, corrupt public servants, violent organized criminals and slimebag bankers will love you as will the alcohol, tobacco and drug companies. Especially the tobacco, alcohol and drug companies who don't want any competition, especially substances that will interfere with the addictions THEY are responsible for.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." Some Smart Fella

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/economics/econ.../index.htm

I choose this site because it is based on real studies and funded in large part by the "Bill and Melinda gates foundation" whose motivations I consider to be largely neutral and wanting to tackle problems based strictly on the facts. The interactive graphs are also quite interesting and easy to comprehend.

Drug usage in the U.S. over time

If you want an example of how drugs might be better tackled, look no further than tobacco usage. Once a ubiquitous habit in the U.S., it is now much less so and it was achieved through education and treatment, not prohibition. Those who still wish to smoke tobacco may do so with the only restrictions being on how they impact those around them.

Saludos!

Instead of telling us it works Rob. POST these studies and SHOW us how great it is!

D

I just did in one of my previous posts here. You must need more CAFFEINE.

I'm always willing to learn. So tell me why someone would use less and avoid overdosing if the substance is legal, readily available and most likely cheaper?

Most people are neither abusers nor addicts. If you read the studies, limited as they are, a pattern that repeats itself is a short-term spike in use, then a drop. In country after country where decriminalization or legalization has been instituted for at least some substances. And all the associated social costs also decline while worker productivity and economic output increase. It's a no-brainer obviously except for the folks who think they are Puritans entitled to dictate morality to others, exemplified below by Dave's comment. Dave only does booze, tobacco and pharmaceuticals, though I suspect he likes sugar, too, one of the most dangerous drugs of all.

Why would anyone use more of a substance they already have access to just because it's legal or decriminalized? I don't see the connection. When I drink illegal booze I drink the same amount of alcohol as when I drink legal booze. I still have to live a functional life, do my work and pay my bills. Nothing changes.

Instead of telling us it works Rob. POST these studies and SHOW us how great it is!

D

I'm always willing to learn. So tell me why someone would use less and avoid overdosing if the substance is legal, readily available and most likely cheaper?

Most people are neither abusers nor addicts. If you read the studies, limited as they are, a pattern that repeats itself is a short-term spike in use, then a drop. In country after country where decriminalization or legalization has been instituted for at least some substances. And all the associated social costs also decline while worker productivity and economic output increase. It's a no-brainer obviously except for the folks who think they are Puritans entitled to dictate morality to others, exemplified below by Dave's comment. Dave only does booze, tobacco and pharmaceuticals, though I suspect he likes sugar, too, one of the most dangerous drugs of all.

Why would anyone use more of a substance they already have access to just because it's legal or decriminalized? I don't see the connection. When I drink illegal booze I drink the same amount of alcohol as when I drink legal booze. I still have to live a functional life, do my work and pay my bills. Nothing changes.

I'm always willing to learn. So tell me why someone would use less and avoid overdosing if the substance is legal, readily available and most likely cheaper?

It boils down to quality control. With street duge there is none. Most street drugs are adulterated, most commonly with Fentanyl. It's an attempt by the seller to give more bang for the buck, but the end user has no way of knowing exactly what drug(s) they are actually using. In a 30 year career as an emergency doc, the overdoses I saw were almost all unintentional. Were drugs of abuse manufactured by reputable pharmaceutical companies(I know an oxymoron), and certifeid by USP, the user could more accurately caibrate their dose, resulting in fewer ODs. Mind you I am not necessariy in favor of leagilzing everything, but it is clear that our current approach is not working.

"MEXICO WANTS TO DECRIMINALIZE ALL DRUGS AND NEGOTIATE WITH THE U.S. TO DO THE SAME"

May not be a bad idea. The potential increase in the number of overdoses would be a good way to cull the stupid.

You don't appear very up-to-date on the subject. Everywhere this has been done has seen a decrease in overdoses, abuse, and associated crimes. Alcohilism and related issues also drops.

This is one of the more concise easier to read academic articles on the subject. While there are articles that claim the contrary, the ones i've seen are cooked "studies" designed to "conclude" what the author sought to find at the outset, i.e. academically invalid conservative propaganda.

Have We Lost The War On Drugs?

A more in-depth study, if you're up for it, is this one:
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE PORTUGUESE DECRIMINALIZATION OF ILLICIT DRUGS?

Of course, simple common sense offers the obvious fact that more people are suffering and dying from the prohibition of stupidly banned recreational substances than from the substances themselves, and I take that argument one step further and claim that even if all those substances had been legal and everyone used them, there would still be less deaths from substance use. So what is killing people isn't so much substance use as prohibition and the failed but extremely violent "war on drugs." But all the folks who argue continuing the long failed policy based on moral grounds apparently can't and won't reconcile that last very important fact. The damn Puritan mentality (again) that their morality justifies everything else. Absurd!

Maybe all the dopers/druggie's should move to the same country? Would it be called utopia? Absurd!

D

"MEXICO WANTS TO DECRIMINALIZE ALL DRUGS AND NEGOTIATE WITH THE U.S. TO DO THE SAME"

May not be a bad idea. The potential increase in the number of overdoses would be a good way to cull the stupid.

You don't appear very up-to-date on the subject. Everywhere this has been done has seen a decrease in overdoses, abuse, and associated crimes. Alcoholism and related issues also drops.

This is one of the more concise easier to read academic articles on the subject. While there are articles that claim the contrary, the ones i've seen are cooked "studies" designed to "conclude" what the author sought to find at the outset, i.e. academically invalid conservative propaganda.

Have We Lost The War On Drugs?

A more in-depth study, if you're up for it, is this one:
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE PORTUGUESE DECRIMINALIZATION OF ILLICIT DRUGS?

Of course, simple common sense offers the obvious fact that more people are suffering and dying from the prohibition of stupidly banned recreational substances than from the substances themselves, and I take that argument one step further and claim that even if all those substances had been legal and everyone used them, there would still be less deaths from substance use. So what is killing people isn't so much substance use as prohibition and the failed but extremely violent "war on drugs." But all the folks who argue continuing the long failed policy based on moral grounds apparently can't and won't reconcile that last very important fact. The damn Puritan mentality (again) that their morality justifies everything else. Absurd!

May not be a bad idea. The potential increase in the number of overdoses would be a good way to cull the stupid.

Around 10,000 people showed up for the Triatlón in Ixtapa. Click on my Facebook link below to see some videos and photos of Saturday's event.

Did anyone see this note in the news?
MEXICO WANTS TO DECRIMINALIZE ALL DRUGS AND NEGOTIATE WITH THE U.S. TO DO THE SAME
Although I'm confident I already know what the USA's response will be, at least Mexico's government is showing some signs of sanity here and there.

This was a pretty sight this morning.

One of my favorite trees.