|
Noonan McKane
|
Quote:Noonan McKane wrote on Dec 8 th, 2008 at 9:16pm: It's true.
Prohibition doesn't work. Of course, it shouldn't even be considered in 'western democracy', as it's undemocratic. No government which will allow you whisky (but tax it so heavily that it believes it has discharged it's responsibilty to discourage you from drinking it by placing a 'fiscal deterrent', which, if you ask anyone who has tasted whisky and decided that they kinda like it will tell you, doesn't work, but generates huge sums of money for the treasury) can presume the right to tell you you can't have marijuana. Especially when they claim on the one hand to 'know better' than you or I about the risks to our health which marijuana poses, and on the other hand to never having so much as even thought about using it. Studies show that voters tend not to go for politicians who are 'soft on drugs'. They're even less enthusiastic about stoners.
The main social problem, as far as the illegal trade in marijuana goes, is the very fact that it is illegal. So lucrative is this trade, so much in demand is this product, that people are prepared to take up arms to protect their interest in it. Here (in the UK) being found in possession of more than an ounce of dope can see you going to jail for 7 years, for 'possession with intent to supply'. (although this is rare nowadays, with Britain's jails full to bursting) With this in mind, people often have no qualms about having assault/actual bodily harm/attempted murder read out in court at the same time. Not if they're going down anyway. All the government has to do is take this trade out of the hands of these desperate people. The customer base for the actual product will remain unchanged. The terrified readership of the right wing press would be placed at no greater or lesser risk of having their homes ransacked by gangs of wild eyed, anarchistic "junkies" than they are at the moment. A government which took this brave step, which was brave enough to 'break the chain' of ignorance would surely be lauded for it's far sightedness, and re-elected?
Possibly not. The British government openly acknowledges the terrible social blight of heroin addiction, by virtue of the methadone programme, which stops people being addicted to heroin and instead makes them addicted to methadone. (In theory. They just wind up using both) This may be because morphine is essential in medicine, and therefore can not be 'outlawed'. It's a great pity, because if heroin ('diamorphine') could only be made illegal, then people wouldn't want it anymore. 7 years for a z? that sounds like way to much. i guess it could be considered trafficing because that would make a lot of dime bags. dime bags in ny are worth like 10-15 bucks, depending on the quality.  Indeed so, 7 years. Like I say, it's very rare for anyone to be jailed here nowadays, even when caught holding amounts more than an ounce. Hash was 'downgraded' from a class 'B' to a class 'C' drug a couple of years ago, but was reclassified earlier this year as 'B' again. The police (who'd been the main instigators in downgrading it in the first place, sick & tired of cuffing and cautioning youngsters with two joints on them) advised the Home Office that the real menace was the rise in 'home grown' weed. In 1990, 80% of mary jane in Britain was imported. Last year, 75% of it was grown in Britain. The police proudly announce that they turn over 6 cannabis 'factories' a week. They probably do. Fact is, the following week, there's another 6 for them to bust, and 106 they don't. The 'hydroponic revolution' has opened another avenue in the "legalise or criminalise" debate here, with the Daily Mail (flagship of the ignorant masses) keen to make hay (pardon the pun) from the fact that artificially grown marijuana can be farmed to be 2 or 3 times stronger than naturally occuring weed. For all of this shite, the police 'clean up rate' remains about the same. Every second youngster they caution of an evening has dope on them. Every 'industrial' sized marijuana factory is only one of a dozen within the same postcode. The drug war has become like the battle of the Somme. A war of attrition. A straight fight between those who want to take drugs, and those who do not want to take drugs and would rather that no one else took them.
|
Pages: 1
On this day in history.....(nsc) (Read 542 times)
