|
 veggie
Registered: 07/26/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc: 
|
 Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence 
#13215542 - 09/18/10 09:36 PM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence
September 15, 2010 - Drug War Chronicle
Felipe Gonzalez has joined the ranks of prominent global political figures calling for the legalization of drugs.
 In remarks made Monday at a Madrid event commemorating Mexico's 200th anniversary of Independence, Gonzalez said that legalizing drug consumption should be considered as a solution for the violence currently sweeping Mexico.
But the violence in Mexico isn't solely a Mexican problem, Gonzalez said. It has much to do with the United States, and the solution could be to legalize drug consumption.
"Mexico is burying the dead, but it isn't just Mexico's problem," Gonzalez said. "The $350 million or $350 million is on the other side" of the border with the US. "From there come the weapons," he added.
Gonzalez joins Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos and Mexico's Vicente Fox as the latest current and former heads of state to call for legalization. Mexico's current president, Felipe Calderon, has also lent recent support to discussing legalization, though without taking the pro position.
Organized crime is "one of the most serious threats to security that the world faces," Spain's former prime minister said. An international conference on the matter could be "an option," he added.
One need only look at the experience of alcohol Prohibition in the US to see what happens, Gonzalez continued. "Look back and think about the organized crime in the United States, with thousands of deaths, that occurred as a result of the criminalization of alcohol," he said. That violence "did away with Prohibition, and the business, with its taxes, was made legal."
In that sense, legalization of drugs could be defended as a solution, Gonzalez said, although he added that "no country can do this unilaterally without an extraordinarily grave cost for its leaders." Instead, "there must be an international agreement that is agreed to by all" because if only one country legalizes, there would be "a growth in consumption with an unsustainable cost for political leaders," he said.
An international agreement to end drug prohibition is the way to go, Gonzalez reiterated. "I think that that's going to be the only path that we really have to confront" the problem.
|
ToiletDuk
Give me Librium or give me Meth!
Registered: 05/17/03
Posts: 81,276
Loc: Earthfarm 1
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: veggie]
#13215585 - 09/18/10 09:47 PM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Slowly but surely, the tide is turning, the world over. This is good news indeed.
--------------------
|
SuperD
Lophophiend
Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 5,753
Loc: My stash box
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: ToiletDuk]
#13215666 - 09/18/10 10:14 PM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
It's almost hard to imagine all drugs becoming completely legal within my lifetime, but articles like this give me great hope.
--------------------
  
Manoa said:
I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin.
|
ToiletDuk
Give me Librium or give me Meth!
Registered: 05/17/03
Posts: 81,276
Loc: Earthfarm 1
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: SuperD]
#13215677 - 09/18/10 10:17 PM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Yeah, I know. I doubt they'll all become legal in a lifetime, but I'm just shooting for them to make weed legal, It would be great if I could just go to a store and buy it like I could cigs or booze.
--------------------
|
 aiyobro
Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 10,469
Loc: Outer Space
Last seen: 10 hours, 47 minutes
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: ToiletDuk]
#13215966 - 09/18/10 11:26 PM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
yea i think you should be able to grow your own shit and not worry about goin to jail if its just in your house
--------------------
Education and Recovery Based Sentencing
http://www.petitiononline.com/LERA/petition.html
Patient Right
www.viennadeclaration.com
|
skatealex2
/////////////////////////////
Registered: 07/04/08
Posts: 17,514
Last seen: 1 day, 16 hours
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: aiyobro]
#13216427 - 09/19/10 01:47 AM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
It's great to see articles like this. Honestly it isn't that hard for a rational minded person nowadays to realize what's going on. At least with weed, the fight is really absurd. I think our time could come. Who knows. I have hope that weed is bound to be legal in alot of places once it's legalized in a state, hopefully it'll start with Cali this year....
--------------------
|
aiyobro
Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 10,469
Loc: Outer Space
Last seen: 10 hours, 47 minutes
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: skatealex2]
#13216435 - 09/19/10 01:50 AM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Come on guys lets look at this from a rational perspective!
--------------------
Education and Recovery Based Sentencing
http://www.petitiononline.com/LERA/petition.html
Patient Right
www.viennadeclaration.com
|
veggie
Registered: 07/26/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: ToiletDuk]
#13216704 - 09/19/10 04:15 AM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I'm confident we will see cannabis legalized in our lifetime.
Legalization of all drugs may take a bit longer. Until then we might see some countries legalize drugs and some states. It would be a combination of legal drugs as well as a black market. The cartels and terrorists will continue getting stronger and wealthier and better armed until Prohibition ends completely. Even if the rest of the world gets fed up with the violence, easy access to drugs by kids, crime, corruption, costs, etc. and calls for an end to Prohibition, the USA has to come on board for it to work.
I think most people of the US have been living under Prohibition for so long, some all of their lives, that they can't even visualize a world without it. They have accepted the distorted notion that what they personally like should be legal and what they dislike should be illegal, that it is okay that we allow the government to approve and condone every aspect of our lives.
When the people who dislike drugs, who downright hate drugs, come to the realization that the problems associated with drugs are not caused by the drugs but by their prohibition is when change will take place.
And this is happening now. Years ago the people who wanted to legalize drugs were the hippies, the criminals, outcasts, the fringe nutjobs. Now it's the pro-Prohibitionists who spew outdated, debunked, off the wall arguments that come off as the nutcases. Legalization is mainstream now. It is just a matter of time.
|
usefulidiot13
Dark Passenger
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 11,583
Loc: Death From Above
Last seen: 11 months, 7 days
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: veggie]
#13216797 - 09/19/10 05:29 AM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
for sure man, i completely agree.
--------------------
What Would Dexter Do?
|
German Kahuna
Facepalmer of Stoopid
Registered: 10/31/08
Posts: 15,798
Loc: On a Chemical Vacation
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: aiyobro]
#13217262 - 09/19/10 10:43 AM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
aiyobro said:
yea i think you should be able to grow your own shit and not worry about goin to jail if its just in your house
Ain't going to happen. To many powerful people are making ridiculous amounts of money off of drugs because they are illegal. DEA and FBI raids are just smoke screens. It's part of the game and your government is in it. They have absolutely no interest in legalization, it will kill their profit margins.
--------------------
"Vegetarian" [ /ˌvedʒəˈteəriən/] - Ancient slang meaning "village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride".
|
FleshCap
Steve Savage
Registered: 11/10/08
Posts: 647
Loc: Los Angeles Underground
Last seen: 17 hours, 48 minutes
|
Re: Former Spanish Prime Minister Says Legalize Drugs to End Violence [Re: veggie]
#13217325 - 09/19/10 11:08 AM (2 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Full legalization is not likely... just look at history. The opium wars are evidence that full legalization will not work. On the other hand,it is the pursuit of money as it relates to drugs that produces violence.
|
|
Images only 
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Edit 
Reply 
