Do you really believe that without prohibition these mafiosos wouldn't exist?

Couldn't have said it better myself. Reform our National Drug Policies now!

Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Alcohol prohibition resulted in the underground sale of unregulated, unsafe products by organized criminals who reaped tremendous tax-free profits while engaging in violent behavior to protect their territory. Sound familiar?

Well they could try something different: death penalty

Do you see black markets and crime pertaining to alcohol these days? Only in places where it's banned, such as some Indian reservations and a handful of dry counties.

These crime cartels could be literally stopped in their tracks overnight, with no bloodshed, if prohibition was ended. Same goes for the Taliban and other terrorist organizations that fund their works through the illegal drug trade. Prohibition increases the risk, which therefore increases the profits these organizations can achieve.

Why should there be imposed punishments on people who choose to use drugs, anyway? Do you not believe in personal responsibility, Rudy-361417? If someone chooses to mess up their own life via irresponsible usage of drugs, they will already be suffering the consequences of their own actions and should have to pull themselves out of their own ditch. Taxpayer money should not go to those who are irresponsible -- unfortunately, that seems to be exactly where taxpayer money goes these days, and that needs to stop. Freedom is not the problem. Rather, it's socialist policies and desiring the government to take responsibility for one's actions.

Perhaps, you fear yourself and your own ability to control your desires. Maybe, you feel as if you need laws to protect you from yourself and assume everyone else is of the same weak mental state. Or, do you have a child, spouse or relative that succumbed to addiction problems?

Actually, Joe, I do agree with lifting prohibition. I just mention the death penalty as an aside, due to its success in places like Singapore. But I don't agree with enabling by allowing those people to receive social services while they're incapacitated due to their abuse. You speak of personal responsibility? That means accepting the consequences of your actions. I don't believe in enabling, and that is what we are doing wrong now. Furthermore, I do not agree that the drug cartels will suddenly or ever disappear once narcotics are decriminalized.

Rudy ... are you serious about the death penalty for drug users? Talk about cruel & unusual punishment! In my view, criminalizing any victimless crime in unconstitutional. I have no problem if you want to add time to a prison sentence if a crime is committed while under the influence of any illegal substance but if someone is sitting at home, smoking a joint & watching TV, I fail to see the harm in that.

Like I said, I just mentioned the death penalty as an aside. I actually don't support the death penalty because it is plainly open to abuse, and I never want someone innocent or someone who has really changed to die. That being said, the application of the death penalty is very effective in Singapore against drugs. I don't agree with it, but you can't say it doesn't work. But I will not be a slave to people who abuse drugs and expect my hard earned wages to be taxed so they can sit on their duff at home and smoke a joint and snort crack, and produce children with serious disabilities.

Smoking a joint and snorting crack are two completely different things. Marijuana has never killed anyone in the history of humanity. In fact, it's much safer than alcohol, tobacco & most pharmaceutical drugs. I'm hoping that the California vote on decriminalization this November will open the door to country-wide legalization.

Crack is much more dangerous & should be treated differently, though I'm still against any jail time for non-violent drug offenders. Treatment is less expensive than jail & is far more effective.

I don't see why we don't follow the lead of Amsterdam. After decriminalizing marijuana, use of the drug actually went down slightly while use of hard drugs dramitically decreased. They're approach to prostitution also works a heck of a lot better than ours. By making it a legitimate business that is regulated, the government is able to receive tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue while nearly eliminating the sex slave industry that exists in the US.

You're trying to justify, Adam. Justify all you want. But the fact remains, I (nor anyone else) should have to support you while you abuse. You shouldn't be granted a driver's license, nor should you be able to put anyone's life in jeopardy because you choose to abuse. I don't believe in enabling.

I'm not justifying anything & the fact that I occassionally smoke some weed doesn't mean that I am relying on you or anybody else for support. I make 6 figures a year and certainly don't receive any sort of government help. How I am putting anyone's life in jeopardy by occassionally smoking a creation of G-d and hanging out on my couch? I don't condone driving while high & if I were to drive high (which I never do) & get caught, I deserve to go to jail.

There is a huge distinction between responsible people who enjoy an occassion joint after a hard day at work & unemployed crackheads who are being supported with our tax dollars. As far as the latter group goes ... I think they're a serious burden to society & we should take any steps possible to eliminate those types of individuals short of your death penalty suggestion. As far as the former group, I don't see any problem whatsoever with them. I'd much rather have a nation full of pot-heads than a bunch of alcoholics.

Just for the record...people smoke crack, not snort it. Cocaine HCl is what people snort.

They would still exist and might turn a small profit....if they're smart enough to build a rope factory.

And thus guarentee our prisons being over-run with drug abusers who will only be able to feed their addiction via crime. Brilliant. Long term treatment programs have a very high success rate, at a cost that is less then incarceration. A lot less. If you truly want to eliminate the drug cartels, stiffen the border controls, stop jailing drug users, fund functional, long term care and understand addiction as a disease and often an off-shoot of other serious medical problems, such as depression, bi-polar and others, which is why drug abuse is often called 'self medication'.

Really? You think we should enable drug abusers by giving them taxpayer money to purchase their drugs? WRONG!!!

rudy-361417, do you support the legal market for pharmaceuticals, most of which is pure crap? Because if you do, you are a hypocrite.

fgh,

Apples and oranges, stay on subject here. I don't believe I should support anyone's drug habits PERIOD. I refuse to enable. All programs that deal with families of drug addicts insist that they not enable the addict. That my friend is a fact, and has nothing to do with hypocrisy. Do you even know what an enabler is? Do you enable? Or are you being enabled?

So, if we don't agree with Rudy, we're all druggies. Agree with Rudy or you can't have a family hahahahahahhahahahahhahaha

So, if we don't agree with Rudy, we're all druggies. Agree with Rudy or you can't have a family hahahahahahhahahahahhahaha

Rudy says enabling is bad. Rudy thinks that "long-term care" means supplying the drugs for the user free - hahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahaha

All programs that deal with families of drug addicts insist that they not enable the addict. That my friend is a fact, and has nothing to do with hypocrisy.

What? I want to laugh, but I can't understand your point.....

You seem preoccupied in a "Rainman" sort-of-way

Yep, I am obviously upsetting the druggies with my comments about enabling. Bunch of sorry losers!

Agree with Rudy or you can't have a family

Yep. Neutering will definitely work so that you can't produce those babies that are deformed and incapacitated from birth. You shouldn't be able to bring children into this world if you're abusing drugs.

How is abusing drugs any different then abusing alcohol? If you say a person who smokes a joint shouldn't have a drivers license, what about the martini drinker?

Here it comes: what about the alcoholics? Yeah? What about them? You think I should have to support them on welfare, because they are also abusing? No Dale, I shouldn't, and yes they too should get their driver's licenses revoked if they are endangering others. I don't want some guy high on marijuana driving, nor do I want some drunk driving either. Oh, and I don't want them having messed up children because of their abuse, either.

That's right, Rudy, "kill all the martini drinkers." I don't think we need to worry about you getting any legislation passed any time soon. You'll be busy out burning Koran's, right?

you know people like you are the main cause of violent crime in America? Serious you piss a lot of people off because you don’t know a lot of the way the world really works but have Nazi like solutions that you think work but have proven don’t. For some people they want to handle people like you the way that feels good other than shouting a lot. To you the world is black and white and while I think everyone is guilty of something you can‘t blame people just for smoking. Your a different kind of Nazi and your wrong the death penalty won’t decrease crime unless you go to Nazi like measures of social conformity to enforce it and even then once we’ve all lost our freedoms it’s a bitch to get to work. The criminals at this point have already made billions of dollars that they didn’t pay taxes to the government but just paid loyal people instead. You can already get the death penalties if your in a cartel for all the side work your doing on the side and if your going to go to jail for life over a hundred lp‘s of bud I bet their willing to kill not to(which the Mexicans and Humboldt county California is where most bud in the Sates comes from now days and Eugenie too I guess or its homegrown which even illegal helps the economy but not as much as it could because we‘re sending billions of dollars to Mexican Cartels) besides the law is not hurting you. Weed can be grown at home involving nothing but lights and fertilizer and smoked with a vaporizer which can be basically a hot plate and is not bad for you because the tar and brain cells you loose are the bad points of smoking it which are eliminated using a vaporizer. Why declare war on plant that grows in nature and if your Christian (I’m not and you may not be) god made it and man made beer who do you trust? How about THC pills? Ask a Dr. THC by itself is not bad for at you at all just really weird the first time and that’s the part that @!$%#s you up. Imagine the even cooler ways we could make it healthy if you make it legal? We’ve been to the moon, made the atom bomb and fly around regularly I bet we as the human race could make progress on getting @!$%#ed in a healthy manor but besides the fact it can be bad for peoples health there is no reason because prohibition only stops the people scared of the laws not the people who don’t care and or the people who don’t believe its just. That fact that it is unhealthy is not a good reason in America were we except you to make your own choices and if you make it legal your taxing its sale and letting honest people grow it instead of criminals and dangerous people. A pot dealer gets ripped of then he won’t have to go beat the guys ass he’ll just call the cops. In the world their will always be responsible people and people who are not. People who know better won’t drive on it, won’t eat all their kids food over it or spend their kids clothes money one it, like everything in life people who like pot try and balance it with the rest of their responsibilities or their maybe they @!$%# up on drugs and are evil but that’s the person not the drug. If they didn’t know what they were doing they should have at least have known what could happen. If they really thought they could fly before they jumped off that building on Acid they should have tried it from the ground first and if you don’t know how you going to handle drugs don’t do them or take responsibility for what you do on them. Using your logic let me go one a rant about things I hate. Fat people.... there should be a fat tax... its bad for health, many fat people complain or put unnecessary strain on various travel facilities, school desks and a lot of fat people dress in ways I find offensive and some I know personally are incredibly unhygienic. I think we should have roving death squads for poor people because poor people commit crimes and they do nothing but drink, white people should be killed because we’re all racists, black people eat chicken and watermelon and have AIDS, Jews are greedy… once you start generalizing on important things like the death penalty or something as very different and random as all and any people can choose to be… well your just being a dick.. but I've been their saying stupid things myself so I understand

Maybe instead of random people (like myself or yourself), or people with clearly self serving interests (such as the police and criminals) make the decisions on how drugs should be controlled, and what drugs should be controlled. (Tylenol is a drug. So is Ibuprofen. So is Cocaine (it does still get used in operating rooms in the united states). So is Heroin.) Maybe the people that should decide what we do with all of these drugs and how we control them should be left to people that even remotely understand their actions, clinical signifigance, and long terms effects (both physiologically and socially). It seems to me that it is a always a cop that comes to teach drug education in middle school or high school...when it should be a chemist, or a pharmacist, or a doctor. There is a culture of presenting falsified information to youth in this country and then have them grow up accepting it as truth. This doesn't breed creative or analytical thought. We should do things because someone says we should. We should do things because we all spent countless hours thinking it over and came to an agreement.

Listen to all the druggies on here justify their contribution to the slaughter in Mexico. You people are disgusting. And if that wasn't enough, you think I support your rear ends on welfare while your checked out in your wonder world of drugs.

I'm with you Rudy. I know a guy that was a recovering alcoholic in a residential program. He worked for a charity that I volunteered at. He won a small lottery and it almost killed him. He abandoned the program and rented a room. He had alcohol delivered to the room. When you give a drunk or an addict disability you are just hastening their death. I like the idea of farms where they work and live until they slowly come back into society. As for Mexico blaiming the U. S. for their trafficing problem, that is unprofessional at best. They need to admitt that you can't have lawlessness and honest society in the same place.

rudy, are you even aware of basic facts like marijuana is not addictive?What rehab?You need rehab for Valium or alcohol,not pot.

Nice and compasionate comment (all sarcasm intended)

"Let them continue to kill each other. Thats less illegals we have to worry about coming into our country."

I must inform you that violence and killing in Mexico leads to an INCREASE in general populations running north to escape crime, not a DECREASE due to depopulation. Get real.

Okay... and if you support our war on drugs then you are responsible for the bankruptcy of our nation, the loss of hundreds of lives needlessly, the incarceration of thousands of productive members of society, and the massive profits these cartels are enjoying.

I smoke pot. But not that crappy Mexican brown crap. I smoke the good stuff from Calif.

You don.t understand the meaning of that?

tinman..... are you kidding? Your statement is a joke.... "could spread" it's over!!!!

America is over.

Franklin: Haven't you heard, We simple people are inflating the violence on the border and elsewhere by the Cartels and illegal aliens. We commoners are not in posession of all the data and if we were we would see that violence is coming down. We are hysterical and we are reacting hysterically. So the guns being sold to illegal immigrants, at outdoor sales, are insignificant. The tractor-trailor loads of drugs being driven by illegal aliens across the country are acceptable diversions from the norm, which is tractor-trailor loads of people. I really think that it is the U. S. government that is collapsing.

They're trying to. It isn't working so well.