Financial Times: Switch of focus in US war on drugs

[Caduceus Mercurius]

The US spends $1,400 a second in the war on drugs, according to a recent Harvard study, while the savings and revenue that could be generated by legalising narcotics would equal a 10th of President Barack Obama’s fiscal stimulus plan.

With neighbouring Mexico descending towards the status of a narco-state and with US jails crammed with small-time drug offenders, experts in the field have launched a debate on whether a 40-year crackdown, and the more than $1,000bn (€773bn, £716bn) spent on it, has had any impact on narcotics abuse or on the violent trade that feeds it.

Government ministers gathered in Vienna for the highest-level international conference in 10 years on the drugs question last week issued a declaration re­affirming a commitment to combating narco-trafficking.

But differences emerged at the United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs over whether the emphasis should be on prevention or cure. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, acknowledged in Vienna “the world drug problem has been contained but not solved

 

[GOD]

"The times they are a changeing" .

Sounds good to me and 76.8 billion $ would make a big diference to the american economy . All those years of argueing about why drugs arent bad got us nowhere untill rodny rich pig realised that things as they are are costing him money and if things are changed he can make money out of it .

 

[spice]

got us nowhere untill rodny rich pig realised that things as they are are costing him money and if things are changed he can make money out of it .

Which is the best guarantee you could ask for that it IS going to change.

The only question is one of degree.


I am going to find it quite vindicating when they legalize cannabis, and reschedule mdma, being as these are the only crimes I've ever been convicted of. The government is treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with ecstasy, and everyone is wanting to legalize cannabis......

I just watched Ron Paul talking about it on CNN recently, and he is the only Republican I have heard talk any sense at all, and he's from Texas....if you've ever been to Texas, you know that the cops there are psychos, about half of them are federal, one way or another, and I've never seen a state so full of speed-traps and crooks wearing badges, so when he says the drug war is corrupting, I guess he knows what he's talking about.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

I am going to find it quite vindicating when they legalize cannabis, and reschedule mdma, being as these are the only crimes I've ever been convicted of.

Oh man, you helped free people's minds and the system locked you up. I hope there will be some real change now. Ron Paul was amazing. Maybe more politicians will follow his line of reasoning.

 

[restin]

I don't want to spoil the show...

...but I am a bit...

...disappointed? Unconvinced? How they argue WHY drugs should be legalized.

NOT because the vision of drugs is renewed but because it costs money and because it's lost anyway

BUT DRUGS ARE STILL BAD AND IMMORAL.

Dunno, but this still disturbes me but maybe I am just a hypocrite.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Money makes the world go round.

 

[GOD]

Greed .

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

And/or to save their arse.

 

[restin]

Money makes the world go round.

No, it's the people that make the money go round the world...

...but that's not the point. Sad business.

 

[Dreamsters]

Ron Paul's an old school republican though, all the other republicans hate him. Ron Paul is a genius don't get me wrong, he's the only one saying it the way it should be. The matter of the fact though is the majority of the federal government offices are unconstitutional, such as the IRS. The IRS with there federal income tax is a joke in an that of its self. The American people are constantly being raped and they allow it. The federal income tax was originally intended as a temporary measure to help with war funding during the civil war. But now a days its merely taxation without representation. The politicians are no better then the drug cartels of Mexico. Killing innocent people so they can get more money.



And sadly most people have been so brainwashed with the lies about most of these drugs though I doubt anything will come of it

 

[significationof?!?]

Well we're getting raped pretty badly these days, thanks to our squarehead Harper... I can't believe he's still here after we had the chance of kicking him out.

 

[????????]

[quote:1bltps48]“The success of our efforts to reduce the flow of drugs is largely dependent on our ability to reduce demand for them,

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

CNBC on marijuana and the economy

And:

[quote:2fzc1koc]California’s highly publicized effort to legalize the commercial cultivation and sale of cannabis is getting some well-deserved company!

A pair of bills — House Bill 2929 and Senate Bill 1801 — seeking to “tax and regulate the cannabis industry