Former Seattle police chief calls for drug legalization

[Tech]

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/370673.html

Speaking for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Stamper called the drug war an “abject failure” that has led to the unjust incarceration of millions and created a system that promotes a violent drug trade that has ravaged Mexico and the rest of Latin America.





Amen.

 

[Bulkboy]

thank god thats never gonna happend. steroids are one thing, that could be legal, but no way in hell cocain, heroine and meta amphetamine should be legal...

 

[Tech]

thank god thats never gonna happend. steroids are one thing, that could be legal, but no way in hell cocain, heroine and meta amphetamine should be legal...

methamphetamine is available by prescription, so regardless what you think of it....it does have a medical use.

just wondering, why are you opposed to the legalization of drugs? I know you've said before, but I forgot.

 

[Bulkboy]

just wondering, why are you opposed to the legalization of drugs? I know you've said before, but I forgot.

i just dont think it would benefit the society in any way. i dont see the point, what good would come out of it? i know for sure that the use of drugs would increase dramatically if they became legal, it would send a signal to teens as well as adults that they aint that bad.

i know that u and many other RP fans, are very individualistic, however sometimes the concern of our society must come first. and no matter how much u dislike it, drug users arent just people who make poor choices. some people just have it in their genes to get addicted to that shit. i know alot of people on here can smoke weed from time to time or take some coke without making a habit out of it. but some people just get addicted the first time they try it, and they become a huge problem for society. and in their cases u cant just argue that its their problem, it partly is, but the society must protect people from it.

a dude i knew before, went to high school with him, he took amphetamine, stayed up for 5 days straight and basically went rampage, started beating people up, smashing stuff. a cop eventually got hold of him, and basically broke his arm. the dude on amphetamine beat the cop senseless with that broken arm...

when stuff like that happends, and other people so blatantly have to suffer from it, its no longer just an individual choice.

 

[Ironslave]

i just dont think it would benefit the society in any way. i dont see the point, what good would come out of it? i know for sure that the use of drugs would increase dramatically if they became legal, it would send a signal to teens as well as adults that they aint that bad.

Perhaps initially, if everything was legalized all at once. But look at Amsterdam, where you can buy weed in coffee shops. How much taxpayer money was spent on police against weed, jailing "criminals" who use it, how many gangs are able to fund themselves through selling it? How many people were killed over a weed drug deal gone wrong??

USA vs. Netherlands

Comparing Important Drug and Violence Indicators
Social Indicator Comparison Year USA Netherlands
Lifetime prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+) 2001 36.9% 1 17.0% 2
Past month prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+) 2001 5.4% 1 3.0% 2
Lifetime prevalence of heroin use (ages 12+) 2001 1.4% 1 0.4% 2
Incarceration Rate per 100,000 population 2002 701 3 100 4
Per capita spending on criminal justice system (in Euros) 1998 €379 5 €223 5
Homicide rate per 100,000 population Average 1999-2001 5.56 6 1.51 6


Source 1: US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Volume I. Summary of National Findings (Washington, DC: HHS, August 2002), p. 109, Table H.1.

Source 2: Trimbos Institute, "Report to the EMCDDA by the Reitox National Focal Point, The Netherlands Drug Situation 2002" (Lisboa, Portugal: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Nov. 2002), p. 28, Table 2.1.

Source 3: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (fifth edition) (London, England: Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office), Dec. 2003, p. 3, Table 2.

Source 4: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (fifth edition) (London, England: Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office), Dec. 2003, p. 5, Table 4.

Source 5: van Dijk, Frans & Jaap de Waard, "Legal infrastructure of the Netherlands in international perspective: Crime control" (Netherlands: Ministry of Justice, June 2000), p. 9, Table S.13.

Source 6: Barclay, Gordon, Cynthia Tavares, Sally Kenny, Arsalaan Siddique & Emma Wilby, "International comparisons of criminal justice statistics 2001," Issue 12/03 (London, England: Home Office Research, Development & Statistics Directorate, October 2003), p. 10, Table 1.1.


"The figures for cannabis use among the general population reveal the same pictures. The Netherlands does not differ greatly from other European countries. In contrast, a comparison with the US shows a striking difference in this area: 32.9% of Americans aged 12 and above have experience with cannabis and 5.1% have used in the past month. These figures are twice as high as those in the Netherlands."

Source: Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Drug Policy in the Netherlands: Progress Report September 1997-September 1999, (The Hague: Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, November 1999), pp. 7-8.

 

[Bulkboy]

Perhaps initially, if everything was legalized all at once. But look at Amsterdam, where you can buy weed in coffee shops. How much taxpayer money was spent on police against weed, jailing "criminals" who use it, how many gangs are able to fund themselves through selling it? How many people were killed over a weed drug deal gone wrong??

USA vs. Netherlands

read this one too, theres not only a bright side to hollands liberal drug policy

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/solom2.htm

yeah, most people come with holland as an example of the great things about legalizing weed. fact is that the use of weed has increased enormously in holland since that policy was introduced, and so has crime rates. now imagine heroine, cocaine and amphetamine also legal which is what you guys want right?

as to those statistics, there are many reasons for that. generally crime rates and such are higher in the US than Europe, that is something we all know. homicide rates are easy to explain for me, availability of guns(which is another debate) and the fact that the dutch welfare state actually takes care of people, while the US is basically a Social help state which only see to the basic needs of the poor. now if legalizing drugs in netherlands has increased crime rates and consumption, would it be sensible to do the same thing in the US?

 

[Beefcake]

Well, there's a difference between use and abuse. Use of a drug, such as amphetamine, to curb ADD or ADHD is a use. Using it to stay up longer repeatedly for many days, months, years, etc. is an abuse. What's to stop someone who has a friend with ADHD to give them their pills to use/sell? We can't stop it.

And you can't overdose on marijuana...believe me, I've tried on several occasions.