Posted on 02/17/2009 1:25:56 PM PST by AuntB
“very people you would like to legitimize”
Huh? The scum would be crushed out of the market in a second.
Phillip-Morris, Altria Group, Reynolds American and Lorillard would take over the market and distribution.
Your answer to the war on drugs is to surrender to the enemy. It's nothing but utopian liberal-tarian fantasy which would turn our nation into one big needle park. Then you could sit back and feel superior to all those "morons."
While thinking of Phillip Morris, think about Busch, Coors, Miller Brewing and the like.
Don’t see many Chicago mobsters running them, do you?
Same would happen with legalization.
The underbelly only can survive due to the black market created by government regulation.
“Who would control the black market?”
What black market? It’d be sold above-board.
“Who would American corporations do business with?”
Farmers, just like they do with tobacco.
“Where would they get the drugs that they would get rich selling to Americans?”
Farmers, just like they do with tobacco.
What would happen is that the government would tax the drugs like they tax tobacco. Government would become a drug-pusher, getting rich off of the destruction of the American people and their enslavement to the interests of foreign terrorists who control the Coca and Poppy fields. It wouldn’t be a libertarian or conservative solution at all, but a socialist one. People who value freedom and love their country would fight such an evil drug-pusher government.
I guess one man's terrorist is another man's "farmer."
Doesn’t happen with alcohol or tobacco, and they are taxed similarly.
Truth is, studies show drug use declines when legalized. Happens everywhere where tried.
We’ve lost the social control experiment known as the drug war.
In the process, we’ve spent more than WWII, built a secret police that Obama will use against us, created massive violence in the US Southwest, FUNDED TERRORISTS (Taliban get their $$ from drug sales), and destablized the entire southern portion of the Western Hemisphere.
Yeah, let’s do MORE!
“The black market that would be there so people could avoid paying exorbitant “sin taxes” on their drugs.”
Yeah, I see all them rum-runners trying to outrun the rev-e-newers all day. Why, Beau and Luke Duke just got away from Boss Hogg.
Pffft. Just not going to happen.
Instead of declaring failure and surrendering to our enemies, I offer another solution, destroying them. We should fight a real drug war in Colombia and Afghanistan and win it, instead of playing defense fighting an unwinnable war on the streets of America.
Are you comparing Budweiser with being on the same playing field as a drug dealer?
Marijuana is not a naroctic addicting drug; what the dealer could put in the pot is. This way they have a permanent customer hooked on something they have no chance of stopping such as heroin, crack, crank, whatever you want to call it.
By the way, beer drinkers can become alcoholics just on beer itself. They don’t need to try and hook them on hard liquor.
“The Taliban would still get money from drug sales if it was legalized.”
Less. Dramatically less. I don’t have the figures, but if we are not more than 1/2 the market, I would be greatly surprised.
“You can legalize drugs in the US, but not everywhere in the world. We would be declaring ourselves the enemies of all the governments around the world still fighting against narco-terrorists.”
Yes, I saw all those countries that declared war on Holland. On a serious note, most countries don’t give a damn. They only have the laws because we do. If we stop, everyone would follow (well except Iran, which has the strictest drug laws in the world — and the highest drug use rates).
“We would be helping jihadists and communists take over those countries and going into business with them.”
No, we would be producing the stuff ourselves. This crap grows everywhere. The only reason it is grown in the mountains of Pakistan is its hard to get to the mountains of Pakistan, thereby protecting them.
“We would be helping them destroy our own nation.”
Again, drug use rates drop in countries that have legalized drugs. So no, this is false. We would help save our nation by spending much less money on stupid, useless, efforts and creating a police state used by Obama.
“Marijuana is not a naroctic addicting drug; what the dealer could put in the pot is. This way they have a permanent customer hooked on something they have no chance of stopping such as heroin, crack, crank, whatever you want to call it.”
A danger that would cease to exists with above-board sales from major companies, with regulated products.
Camel-brand pot. Malboro Pot pack. etc.
Taliban huh?...
Biggest U.S. Cash Crop: Marijuana
The annual marijuana crop harvested in the U.S. is now the nation’s most valuable, worth more than cultivation of corn and wheat combined, according to an analysis by the former head of the legalization group NORML.
Reuters reported Dec. 18 that public-policy analyst Jon Gettman estimated the value of the U.S. marijuana crop at $35 billion annually, with California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington each producing more than $1 billion worth of the illegal drug each year. Gettman estimated the annual California marijuana crop to be worth $13.8 billion.
The estimates were based on previous federal reports showing that the U.S. produced more than 10,000 metric tons of marijuana each year. At $1,606 per pound, that makes the crop worth at least $35 billion, compared to $23.3 billion for U.S.-grown corn, $17.6 billion for soybeans, and $7.4 billion for wheat.
“Marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the economy of the United States,” Gettman said. “The contribution of this market to the nation’s gross domestic product is overlooked in the debate over effective control … The focus of public policy should be how to effectively control this market through regulation and taxation in order to achieve immediate and realistic goals, such as reducing teenage access.”
Also, As far as the government is concerned, the devil's in the details (or in this case, the same government that is woefully failing to secure the border and stem the drug trade coming from Mexico(in this case)is the same government that would be responsible to collect taxes and somehow turn it into a victimless extension of free enterprise.
I wish it could be that "live and let live" simple, but I know it will create more bureaucratic problems and tragedy than it will ever solve. Besides, the Mexican drug lords will just undercut the retail and tax costs by offering their wares at cheaper prices in a tax free black market environment. I guess the IRS can go after them then instead of a non-existent DEA, but they can't/won't even collect income taxes from the other 50% of our population now that's supposed to be paying taxes, so I don't have much faith and confidence in their ability to enforce the plan you propose.
A danger that would cease to exists with above-board sales from major companies, with regulated products.
Camel-brand pot. Malboro Pot pack. etc.
You got it!
I apologize for stealing your thread.
Steal away, I need all the help I can get!
Says who? "Common Sense for Drug Policy?" That's who runs "drugwarfacts.org."
How did I know, before I even searched, that I would be able to link this group to George Soros?
As it turns out, "Common Sense for Drug Policy" has been funded by Soros' Open Society Institute.
The President of "Common Sense for Drug Policy" has this to say about Soros:
"My impression of Soros: extremely smart guy," says Kevin Zeese, a leading drug reform campaigner. "He can look at situations and be very helpful in figuring out strategies that make sense." When Zeese was a staffer at the Washington-based Drug Policy Foundation (DPF), which was, before Lindesmith, the leading pro-decriminalization advocacy group in the country, he sent Soros a grant proposal asking him to support lobbying and other advocacy activities. Soros invited Zeese to breakfast and confessed he didn't know enough about the policy issues to feel comfortable funding advocacy per se. But if Zeese was willing to tackle projects such as needle exchange and AIDS prevention--hands-on treatment as opposed to efforts to change laws--Soros was in. Zeese later moved on to form his own group, Common Sense for Drug Policy, which combines advocacy work with support for service-oriented programs. Last year Soros gave the organization $125,000, a quarter of its $500,000 budget. - September 20, 1999You can even find a link to "Common Sense for Drug Policy" right on Soros' own website: soros.org
You might want to ask yourself why the very same person, George Soros, who supports America's enemies, and does everything he can to make the USA lose the war on terror, is at the same time doing everything he can to make us lose the war on drugs too.
You might want to rethink making common cause with a pesron like George Soros, and spreading around Soros propaganda from Soros-funded orgs.
“The rub with my “live and let live” attitude is that neither you or I can keep Joe or his brain fried buddies from wandering into traffic or doing other mind addled nefarious deeds until they gain sobriety (if ever, in some cases).”
Here again, drug use DECLINES with legalization. So we would actualy be safer from Joe Dirt. Also, with a consistent, regulated, product, the effects would be more predictable.
Also, on the public safety issue, just as gang-land shootings dropped, so would these drug wars.
El Paso has become a virtual no-go city. Kidnappings, shoot-outs in down town, etc.
Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the world.
Innocent people are getting killed in the crossfire.
“is the same government that would be responsible to collect taxes and somehow turn it into a victimless extension of free enterprise.”
Strangely, somehow the tax portion of our government always seems to work.
“Besides, the Mexican drug lords will just undercut the retail and tax costs by offering their wares at cheaper prices in a tax free black market environment.”
That’s just not going to happen. Drug lords are horribly inneficient compared to Phillip Morris and won’t be able to match the price. Sure, some people drive miles to go to Indian Reservations to avoid cig taxes, but not very much — -and they buy Phillip Morris, sans tax, not some Mexican tobacco.
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