How does one deal with a country supported by drug $$?

Legalize the drugs.

 

The only solution is to legalize the drugs. Paying the farmers not to grow the stuff will just further push the price up and the incentive for them to grow will still be there.

The problem is caused by prohibition cutting the supply and thus increasing the price because the demand never really goes away. Currently the "War on Drugs" policy that Nixon established has been a colossal failure because they have pumped billions of dollars into attacking suppliers by burning their fields, etc. and thay have been pumping billions into attacking the demand by building prisons and putting drug users away. Now the US, the most "free" nation on earth, has the largest prison population on earth, approximately 50% of which is drug crime offenses with a still steadily increasing rate of drug crime. And countries like Mexico are on the verge of collapse because of the drug money which has allowed the cartels to gain immense power. In short, it is another case of where an attempt to legislate morality has failed miserably and lead to even greater problems.

 

Legalize the drugs.

It's like anything, you want what you can't have. And people will fight tooth and nail to get it.

 

Give the drugs and money to me.

Or legalize the shit. Either way is cool.

 

Holland is the perfect example... xD

 

No, Make it Mothers Against Intoxicated Driving. MAID, and she should get back in the laundry.


Seriously, there's nothing wrong with drugs, if your nation has it as illegal, then yippee for them, but you can't treat a nation as if THEY'RE breaking the law, because they're their own nation, not a tributary nation to yours.

That's a fallacy most Americans have; "How are we to deal with a nation that's got values/culture different to our own? I know, demand they use ours."

 

This is so true and makes me ashamed to be an american.

I think legalization is the only way to go.

 

I honestly can't think of a single good thing that criminalizing drugs has done for this country. Does anyone wish to venture some suggestions?

 

It has saved countless terminally ill patients from marijuana addiction.

 

Actually, Holland has some very strick policies and laws concerning drugs, though I do admire their policy of gedoogbeleid (condonance policy) regarding soft drugs.
See: Drug policy of the Netherlands

I had a friend who went through heavy chemotherapy. After, during his convalesence, the presciption drugs had wicked side-effects. After a while, he set aside these drugs and would use marijuana. He would smoke a joint over the course of the day, taking only a couple of hits when the pain got to an unbearable point. He didn't get 'addicted' and stopped once he was well enough to start living again.
I've also seen the benefits of those with AIDS during the times of deep pain. It is better to be with someone slipping into death peacefully and with dignity than watching one suffer needlessly during their final time of life.

 

Exactly! They were saved from a psychological addiction as opposed to all the people who suffer physical dependence on legal substances like alcohol and tobacco. And people wonder why I get so angry at the religious right and their backwards policies.

 

There has to be a balance, though (lol...I'm all about balance). I believe in some cases drugs could be legalized, and in some cases they shouldn't. We have OTC medications after all, and some of those medications can be and are used improperly - so really, what's the difference in legalization of an illegal drug? You can grow certain drugs in your backyard and hardly anyone would know about it except for certain officers of the law and their animals. And if we wanted to balance our economy, I could think of no other way than to legalize pot at special places and tax the heck out of it. Contact highs could be a problem, though...

Still. Even legalizing an item doesn't necessarily change the issues or the problems of a culture. You just trade one problem, for another. Alcohol is one case. Prohibition caused a lot of lawlessness and illegal activity and gang warfare. Then prohibition was repealed, great! But now? We have DUIs and alcoholism and social ills due to the over consumption of alcohol. You trade one problem, for another.

The question might be this: What is the lesser of the two evils? If we legalize certain drugs, will we put more money into social programs that help addicts get clean? Will we put more money into police patrols so fewer DUI accidents occur? Etc., etc. Legalization changes the problems. It doesn't eliminate them.

 

Actually they found out that the alcohol rate had signficantly increased by the later parts of Prohibition. So by legalizing it, there was a reduction in the consumption of alcohol. No real trade off there. Also while violent and sexual crime rates have been going down over the last few decades, since Nixon began the War on Drugs, the drug crime rate has steadily been increasing. So some experts wonder if drug use would be significantly lower if they were legal.