What is Digg?94 Comments
- TheLegionWolf, on 03/03/2009, -2/+25One of the biggest benefits comes from cutting out the gangs!
People act like its going to worsen public health and safety, if they only saw the harms of these cartels up close. What they do to our forests here in California not to mention the violence and murder - mjk340, on 03/02/2009, -5/+27Criminal activity is not a zero-sum game. Unscrupulous and greedy men may migrate towards criminal and profitable behavior. However, if you take away the carrot of easy profits, fewer would be drawn toward criminal acts. There are so many in the industry only because there is enough profit to support so many.
- jasmus, on 03/03/2009, -5/+26Seriously, digg needs a drugs section, or marijuana section. The front page is fast filling with the same story about how it should be legal over and over again.
- killthefluxx, on 03/02/2009, -3/+13NO *****. i know gang members, trust me you take the drugs you take their money. their isnt much else gangs can easily do to get money. of course crime is always gonna exist whether gang related or not, but you take drugs from them and they will slowly crumble. most street gangs are fueled by the urge to make easy fast money dealing drugs, whos gonna want to join a gang when theres no easy fast money to be made?? this ***** common sense you gotta be an idiot not to understand or want to accept this. gangs have other ways of making money, extortion, gun sales, prostitution. but when it comes down to do it their main money source is drugs. you take the drugs then they got no territory to protect. no more reasons to sell guns to other drug dealers. legalize and regulate them already...its stupid to sell drugs legally and say "these right here" you cant have...people abuse the legal ones too anyway...its never gonna end..
- calypsoschnitzl, on 03/03/2009, -1/+11In other news, the prisons are full:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/02/record.prison. ... - inactive, on 03/03/2009, -4/+13Take the weed and coke out, and you remove 90% of their money. They will then kill one another off or simply hang out the "Out of Business" sign.
- howitzeral, on 03/03/2009, -1/+10From the article:
For such a change in strategy, the U.S. must recognize that all drugs are not created equal. It is now clear that marijuana and methamphetamines do not have the same harmful effects as cocaine, heroin, opium and other hard drugs.
Methamphetamines are not as harmful? What the hell!? Meth is one of the worst drugs and certainly shouldn't be lumped in with marijuana. - ASfinkterSezWut, on 03/03/2009, -1/+9It's really not that much different than Al Capone and the Seagram's back in the days of Alcahol "Prohibition". The country just never learned the lessons from Prohibition - it simply doesn't work.
- Hetman, on 03/03/2009, -3/+11I agree, as moral and responsible citizens, our only recourse is to end the war on drugs. The war on drugs is fruitless, it has only caused death and pain to Americans and Mexicans a like. This war should be ended. How many innocent victims is it going to take?
- moothemagiccow, on 03/03/2009, -8/+15can we go one day w/o a cannabis story
- scrtyfrk, on 03/03/2009, -1/+7There are several misconceptions about organized crime in Mexico. First of all, they are nothing like gang members in the U.S.. In other words, their leaders are well trained, heavily armed, highly motivated individuals who will stop at nothing until they are dead. Their leaders have been trained by American anti-drug units before deserting from the Mexican military..
Secondly, the major source of income on the border with Mexico is not the drug trafficking. Their reason for existing was to provide protection for drug shipments going through the area. They have no hand in the production of narcotics and a very minor role in the distribution in the sense that they keep small quantities for local distribution. The bulk goes to the larger markets in the U.S.
As they've grown more powerful, their overseers have had to find ways of keeping them in check by granting them control of the territories they guard. Their bosses don't like this much attention brought to their business as long as their product sells. However, this is the only way they can keep them from turning on them.
Thanks to the fear everyone has of these armed groups, they have managed to muscle into territories where drug producers have not wanted to venture into like extortion of local business men and petty criminals as well as kidnappings not only of rich people but also regular people they just pick up from the street.
Legalizing drugs might take a chunk of their income right away by making prices bottom out. However, just like with alcohol and cigarettes, criminals always make money by circumventing the governments and their tax collectors and selling them in the black market. Furthermore, what are you going to do with a bunch of unemployed, trigger happy, professional criminals roaming the streets? How do you rehabilitate a the type of mentality that puts little value on human life, specially others'?! - inactive, on 03/03/2009, -0/+6Sadly, Ross Perot predicted this back in 91 during the presidential debate on the subject of NAFTA. Everyone knew Mexico would become the primary channel for illicit goods YEARS ago.
- CopsSayLegalize, on 03/03/2009, -1/+6Just as soon as we go one day without a cannabis arrest!
- RNAPolymerase, on 03/03/2009, -2/+7I'm sure this is all well written and logical, but honestly you might want to cut out a paragraph, or 7. Or maybe consider forwarding this to a few legislators who might be involved in the decision making progress in some states trying to pass laws for medical use or decriminalization, Digg might not be the best outlet for you to drop this much text.
- mithrasinvictus, on 03/03/2009, -1/+6Consider how this industry got started. It is a direct result of the drug prohibition.
Alcohol prohibition is what made the mob big, ending that prohibition started their decline. - Frankyfan3, on 03/03/2009, -2/+7We spend 300 Million dollars more annually on the War On Drugs than we spend on the rising industry of human trafficking.
I just can't accept any rationalization for this disparity. - PopcornDave, on 03/03/2009, -0/+4And it's time for us to all get unicorn ponies as well. Unfortunately neither one is going to happen any time soon.
- Frankyfan3, on 03/03/2009, -1/+5The original laws enacted to criminalize cannabis hemp cultivation and possession were put in place by process of vilifying mexican farm workers and negro jazz musicians to obtain a commodity monopoly for the wood pulp and plastics industry.
If you look it up, the initial targets were not small grow ops or jazz houses, but the large industrial hemp farms of the midwest.
The people responsible for these laws include (but not limited to):
Harry J. Anslinger
William Randolph Hearst
Dupont corp.
Richard Nixon
Mayor of New York City, Fiorello Laguardio commissioned a report on the use of cannabis, and the American Medical Association submitted voices of concern and dissent on the Tax Stamp Act that were never even entered into the record of congress. The entire vote was based on salacious and often outright fictitious news accounts of reefer madness. (mostly published by papers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who had a vast empire of land and trees to pulp)
Here's a good & quick summary:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/ ...
La Guardia's report:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studie ...
The USA federal ban on cannabis, a history:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/m ... - PopcornDave, on 03/03/2009, -0/+4It's simple. You can confiscate drug dealer's homes, cars, boats, etc... and sell them to fill your coffers. It's harder to sell human beings.
- outoforder, on 03/03/2009, -1/+5Not a bad idea...
- inactive, on 03/03/2009, -1/+4Propaganda pure and simple
- GTRagnarok, on 03/03/2009, -0/+3Instead of spending $300 million a year on fighting drugs, why don't we just build that damn wall? What could possibly be so bad about that idea?
- overtoke, on 03/03/2009, -1/+4you are completely wrong
- coldkill3r, on 03/03/2009, -1/+4or Obama
- Wakkyweed, on 03/03/2009, -0/+3Yes, but MDMA is not the same drug people refer to as "meth" on the street.
- c010rb1indusa, on 03/03/2009, -1/+4If people are concerned about public health and saftey they should look no further than the Netherlands were marijuana is legal, and prohibition does not exist. The usage rates for Marijuana and Heroin are LOWER than those in the US. Prohibition has blowback and unintentional consequences, and in reality legalization is a much safer alternative to the reality we have now. Proof of usages rates sited below...
http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/67 - inactive, on 03/03/2009, -1/+3Kurt Schmoke, former Mayor of Baltimore, MD suggested the same thing many years ago and was ignored.
- Demand911Truth, on 03/03/2009, -2/+4It's time for politicians to embrace the powers of logic and reason.
- inactive, on 03/03/2009, -1/+3Sure it might not eliminate them, but it sure as hell will weaken them.
- Wakkyweed, on 03/03/2009, -1/+3The idiot was probably thinking about MDMA, not meth.
- Rivetgeek, on 03/03/2009, -1/+3tl;dr
- UEichen, on 03/03/2009, -1/+3where are the APA style citations?
haha just kidding, in short, my thoughts are: "f¨**ing legalize it!!" - Wakkyweed, on 03/03/2009, -1/+3Yeah, I know.
I originally wrote it a couple weeks ago in reply to an ***** who denied legalization could ever work and demanded all the details. But really, I'd love any constructive criticism, and maybe people can refine the idea for their own arguments. - mithrasinvictus, on 03/03/2009, -0/+2So the biggest ***** get to use the less insane inmates as slaves? That's your idea of justice?
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1Right.
Drug dealers are more likely to murder witnesses than rapists.
If you think drug dealers are not killing people then you must be getting your news from the cartoon channel. Drug dealing gangs are quite deadly. Bodies from drug deals are showing up all over the place.
The number of murders involving a drug dealer and drug buyer where one of them is killed by the other is getting pretty high. If you investigate the media, you will find tales of this are not hard to find.
That is in the US.
In Mexico, things have taken a twist into the even more bizarre. Both the street dealers AND the drug additcts in rehab are getting killed.
http://digg.com/world_news/Drug_cartels_in_Mexico_ ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5810 ...
It's not the police doing it. It's the people in the drug trade. They like to exercise a high degree of control. And murder people.
It of sucks when the police in Mexico give you a few free passes but those nice guys in the drug dealing business are murdering you. Kind of a bummer, eh, dude? - inactive, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1Thanks for the reply. I live in Baltimore and I am fully familiar with the drug problems here. Actually CRACK is a much worse problem than Heroin. I understand that the reality of making drugs legal will likely be different from what ever we imagine now, but the fact remains that as long as drugs are illegal, the drug cartels and associated street crime will remain and probably grow. If all drugs were made legal and CHEAP there would initially be a die-off of addicts and in a rather short span of time you would in fact pull the rug out from under the drug cartels. The drug related street crime will likely drop off a bit because there's no point in having drug mules and gang turf warfare over drugs if they are readily available legally. Believe it or not, I've actually put more than a few minutes of thought into my suggestion.
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1They built it. Illegal immigrant PR groups are claiming it has reduced the number of illegal immigrants.
I do not know that is the case, though. The number of immigrants involved in violent crime seems elevated right now in my area. We have had illegal immigrants involved in ultra violent crime this year.
Border guard was killed this summer defending the border against intruders. They got in. He was dead when American authorities discovered his body at his post. Apparently, he died defending his country. - JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1Baltimore is like the heroin capital of the US. Baltimore's drug crime problems are infecting other communities as its residents move outward to other areas. With their drug dealing, the murder rate goes up.
Baltimore's high school graduation rate is shockingly low. The number of high school dropouts in Baltimore is huge.
I was asked for cash by a beggar once as I used a Baltimore McDonald's restroom.
I do not think them having more of their residents on drugs would help make matters better. - blikemike88, on 03/03/2009, -1/+2Idiot
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1I think the drug dealers at every level of the drug trade are killing more druggies than the police are.
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1Mexico passed a law making possession of tiny amounts of addictive and non-addictive often abused, non-medical drugs to be legal - up to 3 times.
Since this was obviously going to create more addicts, an addiction treatment program was created. Third time offenders would be routed to drug treatment clinics.
That worked for about two weeks. Then all of the patients at one of the drug abuse treatment clinics were executed by hit men.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5810 ...
That puts a crimp in the program. If the government cannot product addicts sent for treatment from getting murdered then recreational use of addictive drugs is going to have more addicts on the street doing everything they can do to avoid going to rehab.
Rehab forces them to make a break with the crooks. Being afraid to go to rehab as legally required forces them to break with the cops & society and stick with the crooks.
Anyway, the possession laws have been relaxed and the cartels have not stopped killing. If the rehab murders are their doing then they have actually increased the killings. - rogue780, on 03/03/2009, -3/+4Great logic. Next we should legalize rape to stop rapists.
- gailkim, on 03/03/2009, -1/+2Instead the US sends CIA in to train future narco traffickers in the art of urban warfare, for what reason? The war on drugs is a sham just like most other wars being fought. Do the research.
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1Yet every few years the leading cartels get replaced.
- deema1, on 03/03/2009, -1/+2If you legalize weed but insist on taxing it you'll just get locals growing and dealing it themselves under the table so they can bypass taxes. It's not like cigarettes or alcohol -- you can just make it on your own.
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1The solution is straight forward but corruption ni Mexico adds a ot of complexity. Look at the latest prison break by a Mexican drug lord. He just walked out, escorted by the prison's guards, even.
Everyone knows this happened because it was captured by the prison's security cameras. Authorities arrested teh guards and the warden. A bit late, now. - mithrasinvictus, on 03/03/2009, -1/+2Why not limit frontpaged articles to 1 per subject.
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1Every TV special I have seen and every article I have read on the subject of meth has made it very clear that meth is very, very bad for people - both physically and mentally.
I've come across 2 or 3 news stories about women on meth reeeeeally neglecting their kids. Have not heard of any stroies of any meth using women being normal mothers to their kids. - blikemike88, on 03/03/2009, -0/+1Fallacy: A statement that appears to be an argument, but is not.
- JohnnySoftware, on 09/04/2009, -0/+1The profits from crime are easy. The risks are just high that you will be killed or go into prison.
They decriminalized a long list of illegal drugs to an extent somone has murdered a large number of drug addicts at a rehab clinic in Mexico.
I think when someone uses hit men to kil that many people in once place at the same time, there is a profit motive. The drug addicts were all shot execution style.
This occurred a couple of weeks AFTER Mexico's decriminalization law went into effect.
So, obviously it not only did not work - it was EPIC Fail.
You are right about one thing. I doubt they found any carrots at the scene of the mass murder. -
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