Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!
|
 PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
Registered: 12/03/02
Posts: 8,646
Loc: beautiful BC
Last seen: 2 hours, 43 minutes
|
 "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" 
#10159947 - 04/13/09 05:21 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
http://mostlywater.org/war_drugs_has_been_complete_failure
By Barbara Yaffe; April 7, 2009 - Vancouver Sun
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Change+wind+decriminalizati...
If Vancouver has the equivalent of a public square, it's the fountain outside the old Vancouver Art Gallery downtown, where last week, I smelled an unmistakable aroma coming from the vicinity of two young men rolling white filter papers.
Pot. Right out there in the open -- in full view of, well, everybody.
I shouldn't have been taken aback; this same smell can be picked up in any Vancouver park or on a corner any day of the week. It once surprised me when I moved west 20 years ago. These days I'm accustomed to it.
But isn't possessing and using marijuana a criminal offence?
It is. But if a law is universally ignored, it becomes tough to enforce. It inevitably grows to be disdained, scoffed at by the community.
Enter Keith Martin, a free-thinking Liberal MP from Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, health promotion critic for his party.
This week he introduced private member's Bill C-359, to decriminalize marijuana possession. It would still be illegal, but those with up to two pot plants would receive modest fines rather than being routed through the justice system at great expense and, if convicted, left with criminal records.
Ottawa spends about $450 million a year enforcing Canada's drug laws. Half of all offences are for cannabis possession.
Tens of thousands of Canadians are charged annually with possession, and 1.5 million citizens are carrying criminal records for this offence. Imagine, if Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Stockwell Day or Dalton McGuinty had been convicted for using pot as teens, today they'd have criminal records.
Martin's rationale is that decriminalization would "sever the connection between organized crime and casual users."
The MP, a physician who worked in detox and drug rehab centres for 14 years, explains his bill would be "bad news for criminal gangs, which are the only beneficiaries of the status quo because it would eliminate demand for their product."
Of course, gangsters would still enjoy a thriving market for peddling cocaine, crystal meth and heroin.
But decriminalization for possession is not about to happen because private member's bills such as Martin's almost always die on the parliamentary order paper. And with a law-and-order Conservative government at the helm, the pot bill is sure to go nowhere.
Too bad. Martin speaks the truth when he remarks: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure. It has not reduced the crime rate, drug use, nor has it saved money or lives."
As a taxpayer, I'm prepared to take a lesson from the 1920s: Prohibition does not work.
I would want to find ways to regulate and tax drug suppliers who currently are running rampant, making personal fortunes, bullet-proofing their fancy cars and killing people all over the place.
Martin's bill would reflect a modest first step in a much needed paradigm shift on drug enforcement. It's not a new idea either. He has introduced similar, unsuccessful bills in the past.
Back in 2001, former Progressive Conservative prime minister Joe Clark expressed support for decriminalizing possession of small amounts of pot. The Canadian Medical Association Journal in the past has called on Ottawa to decriminalize possession of small amounts for personal use.
In 2002, then-Liberal justice minister Martin Cauchon promised the Chretien-led government would introduce legislation to decriminalize marijuana. But it never happened.
Clearly it's a worthy idea, just waiting to happen.
--------------------
GO OUTSIDE.
|
 buddhabadger
Evil Overlord
Registered: 01/16/09
Posts: 491
Loc: The Forest
|
Re: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" [Re: PDU]
#10160074 - 04/13/09 05:47 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Barbara Yaffe said:
In 2002, then-Liberal justice minister Martin Cauchon promised the Chretien-led government would introduce legislation to decriminalize marijuana. But it never happened.
It didn't happen for the same reason that Mexico's attempts at legalisation didn't work: Pressure from the States.
--------------------
- I don't abuse drugs; in fact, I think I treat them quite nicely. -
|
 Me_Roy
Stranger
Registered: 07/30/02
Posts: 1,697
Loc: Berlin
Last seen: 29 seconds
|
Re: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" [Re: PDU]
#10160085 - 04/13/09 05:50 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
This is written like a spot on the nightly news: overdramatic, uninsightful, observed with the eye of a recent escapee from the old folks' home.
Not that I don't agree with ol' Barbara Yaffe's point...
--------------------
A lotta cats a livin' in the neighborhood
Some are bandits,
Some are very, very good as I would tell it to ya'
- I-Roy
|
indian hemp
Stranger
Registered: 04/12/09
Posts: 457
|
Re: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" *DELETED* [Re: Me_Roy]
#10160501 - 04/13/09 07:03 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Post deleted by indian hempReason for deletion: asdf
|
Green_T
Getting to the chopper
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,024
|
Re: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" [Re: indian hemp]
#10160544 - 04/13/09 07:10 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
^ Yes, but you can't ignore the change that has happened in the last 10 years or so. The marijuana zeitgeist is much better than it was not too long ago. We have come a long way from the "just say no" years to today.
Bills are in California to completely legalize, more and more states have medical marijuana laws, a star athlete is caught using pot and people scoff at the media hype, the list goes on and on...
Can you imagine any of those things happening in the 80's or mid 90's? The political climate wasn't ready for it. Now people are wising up, and older politicians from the 60's are dying.
--------------------
"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson
Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Their vial of acid, which is on the table over there, tastes vile because they're incompetent chemists.
|
shroomgatherer
Connoisseur of the finer things
Registered: 11/08/07
Posts: 1,702
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 4 months, 11 days
|
Re: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" [Re: PDU]
#10163170 - 04/14/09 08:51 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Of course, gangsters would still enjoy a thriving market for peddling cocaine, crystal meth and heroin.
and...
Quote:
Martin's rationale is that decriminalization would "sever the connection between organized crime and casual users."
LEGALIZE IT ALL...the crazy addicts that can't handle the ability to consume anything they want will probably die first. "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection" will make the rest of us stronger!
.
|
Green_T
Getting to the chopper
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,024
|
Re: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" [Re: shroomgatherer]
#10163189 - 04/14/09 08:59 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
shroomgatherer said:
LEGALIZE IT ALL...the crazy addicts that can't handle the ability to consume anything they want will probably die first. "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection" will make the rest of us stronger!
.
QFT
Assuming hardcore addicts are doing as much heroin/meth/coke as possible (i.e. money is not a factor - if they don't have it they steal), lowering the price to 10 cents a hit wouldn't increase use, but lower the cost and thus lower crime associated with supporting the habit.
--------------------
"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson
Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Their vial of acid, which is on the table over there, tastes vile because they're incompetent chemists.
|
DebuteMachine
Psychonaut
Registered: 09/29/06
Posts: 1,670
Last seen: 2 months, 8 days
|
Re: "The war on drugs has been a complete failure" [Re: Green_T]
#10163588 - 04/14/09 10:42 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Green_T said:
Quote:
shroomgatherer said:
LEGALIZE IT ALL...the crazy addicts that can't handle the ability to consume anything they want will probably die first. "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection" will make the rest of us stronger!
.
QFT
Assuming hardcore addicts are doing as much heroin/meth/coke as possible (i.e. money is not a factor - if they don't have it they steal), lowering the price to 10 cents a hit wouldn't increase use, but lower the cost and thus lower crime associated with supporting the habit.
Haha dude, you got the right idea, but oh man would it rise use. Hell if I could get it cheap and legal I would do it...
| |
|
|
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: veggie
822 topic views. 2 members, 21 guests and 1 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Toggle Favorite | Print Topic ]
| | |
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Shop for: 
Edit 
Reply 
