call off war on drugs

[srijantje]

The Observer, Saturday 19 January 2013 21.03 GMT


Guatemala's president, Otto Perez Molina, says the west's war on drugs has failed. Photograph: Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

The west's "war on drugs" has failed and continuing with prohibition will only cost more lives, the Guatemalan president, Otto Pérez Molina, declares in an interview in the Observer.

WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK

Call Off War On Drugs, Leader Of

Guatemala Tells The West

[Spud17]

Bump.

Molina is being idealistic if he wonders why "western countries fail to understand the reality that countries such as Guatemala and those of Central America have to live in." It isn't down to lack of understanding, it's because they don't care, and why should they? Many don't think beyond their own domestic agenda, unless it's necessary.

His message to western drug users isn't going to get through to anyone. I don't know a single coke head who'll sit down to think about where their drug has come from, how it's produced, how it gets here, and whether anyone dies in that process along the way.

[sporkium]

guatemala still exists? lols... neat.

if guatemalans aren't happy with their reality, maybe they should use more of the products that they are producing.

[velvetfog]

America can't stop now.
They have spent 2.5 trillion dollars on the war on drugs so far, imprisoning 2.5 million citizens in the process, and obtaining convictions and criminal records against tens of millions more.
They have only been at it for two generations. In another 10 or 12 generations, they may succeed in licking the problem.
Over 40% of the population still believe in keeping the war on drugs going.

It is in reality a war on people. Specifically, people who are young and non-white.
The ones who end up doing jail time are mostly black or Hispanic.
And it is a futile war on an international drug supply chain, while making no domestic effort to reduce demand.

[srijantje]

the only answer is to legalize everything,but of course that would make the anti drug mafia loose their funding and jobs,never mind cutting the legs from under the drug suppliers and thousands of drug related deaths every day

[System Folder]

I don't think that drugs, well certain drugs, will ever be legalized. Not only would the anti-drug mafia lose their funding, but the drug suppliers would make less money. Also, the U.S. government uses illegal drugs to leverage dictators.

[velvetfog]

The American war on drugs has been an unmitigated disaster.
If heros of the America revolution, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were alive today, the storm trooper squads from the DEA would raid their homes and arrest them.
Somehow, I don't think that is what the nation's founders had in mind.

But sadly, when they wrote the U.S. constitution, they left out one important clause, not realizing that it would be needed later.

Congress shall make no law restricting the people's choice in food, medicine and intoxicants.


Consider the following:

"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take,
their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."
Thomas Jefferson

“Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, . . . and sow it everywhere!”
George Washington

"In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing the recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society."
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 29, 2)


Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime
It don't prohibit worth a dime
It's filled our land with vice and crime,
Nevertheless, we're for it.

(This post was last modified: 02-26-2013, 11:26 PM by velvetfog.)

[srijantje]

well put ,Fog and X

[sporkium]

yeah, okay... let's listen to argues... the same general argues that was miraculously able to avoid implication in the deaths of over 200,000 thousand people and the 'disappearances' of an additional 50,000 during the guatemalan civil war... he's so progressive.

[srijantje]

wasn't that supported by your government?just out of the top of my head