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News & ArtsMonday, August 10, 2009
News / Drugs Headline of the Day
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 2:52 PM
Drug gangs are Mexico's worst rights problem—Obama
Agreed, Mr. President. So let's end drug prohibition and put the gangs out of business.
2
We still have cigarette smugglers, black market prescription drug sales and street hoods who resell people's stolen shit. You're not putting drug dealers out of business by legalizing, especially if formal outlets charge steep prices for drugs.
3
Mexico's worst rights problem is the extreme concentration of wealth in just a few billionaire's hands -- men who own the law and own the people. Drug gangs are bad but far from omnipresent.
4
@2
Yes, when I visit Mexican border towns I'm constantly afraid of being kidnapped and decapitated by black market cigarette dealers.
A don't get me started with those teens who sell Vicodin at the local high school. I can barely leave my home!
Yes, when I visit Mexican border towns I'm constantly afraid of being kidnapped and decapitated by black market cigarette dealers.
A don't get me started with those teens who sell Vicodin at the local high school. I can barely leave my home!
5
@2, 2 points:
1, there's absolutely no way the price of marijuana would go up if legalized. The reason it's expensive today is because every step along the way from producer to neighborhood dealer requires expensive things like police/military bribes, private armies, go-fast boats, 'danger pay,' constantly changing supply routing; nature of the illegal market beast. If dried spices grown to a supermarket price of $10/oz (check your local tarragon prices), marijuana could be grown for a cost-to-consumer of $100/oz or less easily. Hell, you could cultivate it in your backyard, organically.
2, black/grey markets for legal but stolen or smuggled goods don't exist on the same plane as their illegal counterparts. Cigarette smuggling is mainly state-to-state, and for every stolen TV sold on the street, I would bet 100 TVs are sold legally. The legal cash stream easily outstrips the illegal, or maybe I just don't hang out in the right (wrong?) part of town.
Even if the illegal marijuana trade continued to exist after legalization, there'd be no reason for producers or consumers to join it en masse, for safety and ethical reasons, in addition to the fact that there's no danger of arrest.
1, there's absolutely no way the price of marijuana would go up if legalized. The reason it's expensive today is because every step along the way from producer to neighborhood dealer requires expensive things like police/military bribes, private armies, go-fast boats, 'danger pay,' constantly changing supply routing; nature of the illegal market beast. If dried spices grown to a supermarket price of $10/oz (check your local tarragon prices), marijuana could be grown for a cost-to-consumer of $100/oz or less easily. Hell, you could cultivate it in your backyard, organically.
2, black/grey markets for legal but stolen or smuggled goods don't exist on the same plane as their illegal counterparts. Cigarette smuggling is mainly state-to-state, and for every stolen TV sold on the street, I would bet 100 TVs are sold legally. The legal cash stream easily outstrips the illegal, or maybe I just don't hang out in the right (wrong?) part of town.
Even if the illegal marijuana trade continued to exist after legalization, there'd be no reason for producers or consumers to join it en masse, for safety and ethical reasons, in addition to the fact that there's no danger of arrest.
7
the president can't even connect the dots on health care where Ed Schultz is saying a ceo of united health care makes 102k AN HOUR and it's a monopoly provider in many markets and it denies coverage to people who are, you know, sick.
These are the people the prezident wants to sit down with and negotiate with.
Ed also said HE did a town hall in Maine, and had a rousing crowd demanding single payer.
Yes, over one hundred thousand dollars an HOUR.
That's part of that 17% of our GDP that goes to "health care."
These are the people the prezident wants to sit down with and negotiate with.
Ed also said HE did a town hall in Maine, and had a rousing crowd demanding single payer.
Yes, over one hundred thousand dollars an HOUR.
That's part of that 17% of our GDP that goes to "health care."
8
Agreed, Mr. Savage.
So you and your pot-smoking staff are only going to buy locally grown weed, so as not to support the bloodbaths in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala (and the blood trickle in the U-district, CD and South End). Further, no coke for anyone ever.
So you and your pot-smoking staff are only going to buy locally grown weed, so as not to support the bloodbaths in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala (and the blood trickle in the U-district, CD and South End). Further, no coke for anyone ever.
9
Dan, if meth were legal someone could start a lab next door to you. Next to a house you just bought. That would be their right wouldn't it? That doesn't concern you?
10
Do you just mean pot or do you mean coke and meth as well, because most of that shits trafficked through Mexico as well.
11
#9: Someone could start a meth lab next door to Dan right now. If it was legal, there would be no point. There's a reason there are no oxycodone labs in people's houses or Adderall gangs roaming the streets.
12
We just need to have weed legalized. The rest I don't really trust, but all natural green is hard to say no to when it helps with so much.
13
The biggest block to their rights is clearly the government. "Legalizing" drugs is just a fantasy. The entity that deigns to have claim over our bodies is still a concept you all seem to believe in. Governments claim control over all "legal" substances anyway.
What blocks anyone's rights but the force that claims to own them?
What blocks anyone's rights but the force that claims to own them?
14
Why don't you all write your govt. reps and donate some money to Marijuana Policy Project or Drug Policy Alliance instead of bitching about it here?
If marijuana were legal, hemp would be legal as well. Hemp (the same plant as pot, only it doesn't get you high) is a wonder plant that was considered vital to the economy in the days of our Founding Fathers. Back then, you would be fined if you didn't grow it.
If marijuana were legal, hemp would be legal as well. Hemp (the same plant as pot, only it doesn't get you high) is a wonder plant that was considered vital to the economy in the days of our Founding Fathers. Back then, you would be fined if you didn't grow it.
15
Barbara: "Why don't you all write your govt. reps and donate some money to Marijuana Policy Project or Drug Policy Alliance instead of bitching about it here?"
Nononononono.
You want to do something to stop this insane "war" on drugs? Screw the organizations; they waste most of your money on administration and salaries. Instead, keep it local and homebrewed.
Write a sane, organized, polite letter containing facts to all your Congresscritters. Write them every *week*. Write letters to your local paper editors. Talk to people you know and get them involved in writing letters. Show up to local meetings, or better yet organize your own.
Call your Congresscritters' offices. Call them every week. Urge them to end this "war". Get other people to call them. Distribute addresses and phone numbers to anyone who will accept and use them.
So many efforts can work better when you keep them local--food (grow your own), charity (give directly to local orgs and not to the money-wasting nationals), education (homeschool your children), and political causes and movements.
Keep it local.
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