A sensible discussion about current drugs policy.

[spindrift]

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico has criticised the United States for failing to acknowledge its responsibility as "the world's largest drug consumer...the world's largest arms seller" for the unrest in his country.

 

This inconsistency within their own policies causes a serious problem in Mexico because their consumption doesn't decrease and the violence here keeps increasing, precisely because the market is being disputed between the drug cartels, which are made up of Mexicans and Americans," he said.

 

The recent discovery of the bodies 72 Central and South American migrants in a Mexican border state were another reminder of the need to act, he said.

 

"Millions and millions of people, as President Obama said, live in the shadows, and work and contribute and help American families, cleaning their yards, taking care of their children and giving them food," he told CNN.

 

Mr Calderon said that although many American leader have accepted there is a shared responsibility for drug violence "in American society, there is still not a sense of sharing responsibility, unfortunately".

 

He said: "We live next to the world's largest drug consumer, and all the world wants to sell them drugs through our door and our window. And we live next to the world's largest arms seller, which is supplying the criminals."

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/7997792/President-Calderon-blames-Americans-for-not-taking-responsibility-for-drugs-war.html

 

 

Prohibition- a gift to ruthless, murderous criminals.

[Bassman62]

You mean as they are now with alcohol? A legal and far more dangerous drug. Or could it be that the fact that it is regulated and the population educated in it's use means it tends not to happen very often

make your mind up according to you they're driving into windows already and yet you claim the population is educated.

[Magilla]

make your mind up according to you they're driving into windows already and yet you claim the population is educated.

 

No, I didn't. You need remedial english lessons.

 

Please observe the question mark!

[Bassman62]

You mean as they are now with alcohol? A legal and far more dangerous drug.

And after admitting this you want yet another dangerous substance made legal, there must be a method in your madness somewhere.

 

Let's see, drunks already drive into shop windows so let's create a fair balance and let druggies do it as well then next year lesbians will be pushing for the right folowed by asylum seekers.

 

Hmm, you haven't got shares in 'Pilkingtons' have you?

[Bassman62]

You mean as they are now with alcohol?

Didn't you write this? when I wrote about druggies doing it?

[spindrift]

No, I didn't. You need remedial english lessons.

 

Please observe the question mark!

 

magilla, you're letting a troll ruin yet another thread. I know it's hard to ignore but please try.

[spindrift]

(the fact it thinks asylum seekers, drug addicts are lesbians are on an equal footing is pretty clear evidence it's not worth engaging)

[esme]

Mod Note

 

I'm sure there was a topic here somewhere, lets see if we can find it again shall we

[spindrift]

Heroin should be prescribed to drug addicts to curb crime, the deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire has said at a drugs conference.

Howard Roberts told an Association of Chief Police Officers' conference in Manchester the idea should be assessed.

 

He said the treatment would cost £12,000 a year per addict but added that drug users steal property valued at an average of £45,000 a year.

 

The idea is being piloted in London, the South East and North of England.

 

'Terrible consequences'

 

"At the moment across the country we see levels of burglary, robbery and murder being committed by drug-fuelled addicts who are doing so in order to get the money to buy the drugs," Mr Roberts told the conference.

 

"One of the things I have found is that as a treatment it has been highly effective in actually helping to reduce crime"

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/6172392.stm

[spindrift]

The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

 

"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success,"

 

 

says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research.

 

 

"It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

 

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive.

 

 

 

Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%.

 

 

The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%.

 

 

 

Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html#ixzz0zWrDiBrW