Mexico drug wars and the USA

[Armoured]

Yeah, I know, not an academic source, but I don't care.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Portugal

"Crime in Portugal is characterized by low levels of gun violence and homicide, compared to other developed countries. Crime statistics are compiled annually by the Portuguese Ministry of Internal Administration and the Polícia de Segurança Pública which represents crimes reported to the police."

*

"Tolerance of drugs

Main article: Drug policy of Portugal

Portugal has arguably the most liberal laws concerning possession of illicit drugs in the Western world. In 2001 Portugal decriminalized possession of effectively all drugs that are still illegal in other developed nations including, but not limited to, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and LSD. While possession is not a crime, trafficking and possession of more than "10 days worth of personal use" are still punishable by jail time and fines. Since decriminalization was implemented, Portugal has seen rapid improvement in the number of deaths from drug overdoses as well as a decline in new HIV infections. [8]"

Advocates of harm minimisation have been saying this stuff for years. Portugal is just the latest and largest scale example proving that HM, rather than prohibition, is the way to deal with potentially harmful drugs of addiction in a constructive way.

Now just work out a way to get that through to voters and legislators in the rest of the world where the circular "drugs are bad because it's bad to do drugs" rhetoric has been the dominant paradigm for the last 80 years.

 

[SuperCloud]

If the proposition is: gay marriage and decriminalizing drugs will destroy a nation.

Then my response is: show that Portugal has been destroyed given it has the combined weight of both.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Portugal

"Same-sex marriage has been legal in Portugal since 5 June 2010.[1][2] The government of Prime Minister José Sócrates introduced a bill for legalization in December 2009; it was passed by the Assembly of the Republic (the Portuguese Parliament) in February 2010. The bill was declared legally valid by the Portuguese Constitutional Court in April 2010. On 17 May 2010, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva ratified the law and Portugal became the sixth country in Europe and the eighth country in the world to allow same-sex marriage nationwide.[3][4] The law was published in the official journal Diário da Republica on 31 May 2010 and became effective on 5 June 2010.[1]"

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Per the laws of economic, more product available than consumers to buy it drives the price of the product down, and high consumer demand for limited product availability skyrockets the price up.

A single cigarette costs less than a single quantity of a $10 rock bag of crack. Which is absurd. Their is fare more manufacturing cost in a single cigarette which is wrapped in paper and filter. A crack rock is bare and packed in cheap plastic sandwich bags (one bag using all corners can wrap at least for rocks).

Plus, given the stuff is illegal it is cut (mixed) with all sorts of impurities that may well be more harmful to human biological systems than the natural cocaine itself.

So, this libertarian persuaded me that if cocaine were made legal--not merely decriminalized--the $10 rock bag of crack would likely plummet to something like 50 cents. So, where as 10 $10 rock bags will cost a person $100 now, if legalized and at the cost of 50 cents it would cost a sum of $5. A massive reduction in cost for a person working and making $350 a week.

Your libertarian friend is missing the fact that any drug whose price falls because of legalization will no longer be provided by dealers. Instead they will introduce more profitable drugs to take their place. Already the Mexican cartels are switching over from weed to heroin and meth, anticipating the broad legalization of weed.

In would be better for the DEA to focus on the more dangerous drugs and put weed enforcment on the back burner.

 

[SuperCloud]

Advocates of harm minimisation have been saying this stuff for years. Portugal is just the latest and largest scale example proving that HM, rather than prohibition, is the way to deal with potentially harmful drugs of addiction in a constructive way.

Now just work out a way to get that through to voters and legislators in the rest of the world where the circular "drugs are bad because it's bad to do drugs" rhetoric has been the dominant paradigm for the last 80 years.

The VA Hospitals have harm minimization programs for military veterans that are alcohol and or drug addicted. They also have programs for zero tolerance, and one which is a combination of the two which tries to guide or move the addict up from one to the other. I think it's called (acronym) OATS what evolved out of it's former IOPAT program.

I tend to agree with you. "Harm reduction" is essentially the philosophy that moved from total sexual abstinence (zero tolerance) to wearing a condom. Or were free, clean IV needles are provided to IV heroin users in some countries, for example. Brazil moved toward a "Harm reduction" model decades ago to fight the rise of its HIV rate (which it successfully did and lowered its rate to be roughly = to that of the USA) by providing free condoms to prostitutes.

Crack cocaine and alcohol are both statistically correlated with the spread of STDs because both reduce a persons inhibitions. But neither are as prone to the spread of hepatitis or HIV as IV drug addiction (which can spread to non-drug addicts).

Granted... drug addiction is epigenetic and post-birth epigenetic, so, it results from life choices that alter a person's genetic expression. But homosexuality is now suspected of being epigenetic too (the some or many will argue pre-birth epigenetic). I mention it to provide some idea of what "epigenetic" is and its power to biologically influence an organism/person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics_of_cocaine_addiction



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2753378/

From ncbi.nlm link above (a source acceptable for academic citation):


Abstract
Changes in gene expression in brain reward regions are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis and persistence of drug addiction. Recent studies have begun to focus on the molecular mechanisms by which drugs of abuse and related environmental stimuli, such as drug-associated cues or stress, converge on the genome to alter specific gene programs. Increasing evidence suggests that these stable gene expression changes in neurons are mediated in part by epigenetic mechanisms that alter chromatin structure on specific gene promoters. This review discusses recent findings from behavioral, molecular and bioinformatic approaches being used to understand the complex epigenetic regulation of gene expression by drugs of abuse. This novel mechanistic insight might open new avenues for improved treatments of drug addiction.

Go to:
Mechanisms of drug addiction
Drug addiction is a debilitating psychiatric disorder that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and taking despite severe adverse consequences [1-3]. Once an individual becomes addicted to a drug of abuse, there are few effective clinical options, and most addicts relapse within a short period of time.

 

[SuperCloud]

Your libertarian friend is missing the fact that any drug whose price falls because of legalization will no longer be provided by dealers. Instead they will introduce more profitable drugs to take their place. Already the Mexican cartels are switching over from weed to heroin and meth, anticipating the broad legalization of weed.

In would be better for the DEA to focus on the more dangerous drugs and put weed enforcment on the back burner.

Yeah, well, a French medical doctor working for the UN doesn't agree with you. Neither does judges and cops in the USA and around the world in the international law enforcement organization opposing drug prohibition known as LEAP. Nor does that black neuroscientist in video below that has spent years studying drug consumption.

Comment by a woman underneath the Dr. Carl Hart video:


"Bea Tucker (Barbara Rhyne-Tucker) 6 months ago

I am addicted....I can honestly say that the legal system, the imprisonments, the inability to acquire a job, housing, food, or proper medical care due to my addiction and the criminalization acquired for possession, not to mention the numerous rapes, robberies and beatings from organized crime sectors and predators that were to able to have easy access to me due to my homelessness and the real and lasting damage I sustained from the inhuman treatment of prison, have all done much more damage to me than the actual drug...I have to pee clean for four months to be eligible for a life saving treatment that I need because my life is not worth saving if I use.....The very real and very dangerous damage is not the drugs it is the War on Drugs and the real criminal activity that surrounds it.

Show less"

 

[SuperCloud]

^Additionally, American cops from LEAP:

 

[SuperCloud]

Just one more vid... because this retired black cop gets emotional over things he says he's not proud of he did as a cop. He calls himself a recovering cop that has gone from police officer to peace officer.

 

[sdmsanjose]

My opinion is that the benefits of legalizing all drugs in the USA are:

1. More revenue for the USA
   
2. Reduces the costs of drugs and reduces the interest of drug cartels in dealing with drugs
   
3. Creation of new jobs
   
4. Reduces the drug crime and population in prisons
   
   

My opinions on NOT legalizing all drugs in the USA are:

1. The illegal drug laws and penalties will keep SOME people from using illegal drugs
   
2. The illegal drug laws and penalties will deter SOME from using drugs in dangerous situations such as driving a vehicle and performing dangereous jobs at work sites.
   
3. The illegal drug laws and penalties will reduce some deaths by drugs
   
4. The illegal drug laws and penalties will put those that use illegal drug, to the point of them becoming dangerous to others, into incarceration so that society is protected from the irresponsible drug user.

We have the alcohol history of this country for the last 100 years to examine on legalization of a drug.

One statistic that sticks out is that excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths per year from 2006-2010. That is more deaths than deaths by Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, and Influenza and Pneumonia

Sources

http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

I will admit that the law makers are hypocrites for legalizing alcohol and having some drugs like marijuana as illegal.


Because the Mexico drug cartel derives a lot of their money from Marijuana then the decriminalization of marijuana would probably reduce the some activities by the Mexican Drug cartels. That would help some.

 

[Armoured]

Yeah, well, a French medical doctor working for the UN doesn't agree with you. Neither does judges and cops in the USA and around the world in the international law enforcement organization opposing drug prohibition known as LEAP. Nor does that black neuroscientist in video below that has spent years studying drug consumption.

Comment by a woman underneath the Dr. Carl Hart video:


"Bea Tucker (Barbara Rhyne-Tucker) 6 months ago

I am addicted....I can honestly say that the legal system, the imprisonments, the inability to acquire a job, housing, food, or proper medical care due to my addiction and the criminalization acquired for possession, not to mention the numerous rapes, robberies and beatings from organized crime sectors and predators that were to able to have easy access to me due to my homelessness and the real and lasting damage I sustained from the inhuman treatment of prison, have all done much more damage to me than the actual drug...I have to pee clean for four months to be eligible for a life saving treatment that I need because my life is not worth saving if I use.....The very real and very dangerous damage is not the drugs it is the War on Drugs and the real criminal activity that surrounds it.

Show less"

"But, but...drugs are bad because drug dealers are bad! And drug dealers are bad because drugs are bad!"