Mexico has caved in. No more fighting against drugs.
The tidal wave moves up the shore. Soon, in the first self-inflicted global pandemic, we will all discover just how strong our will is; Damian Thompson knows already.
And now I must prepare to be verbally flayed by those who just know that they can handle it, and whose philosophy is atomised freedom: the solitary individual, totally disconnected from all others, making his choices in a moral and cultural vacuum and unaffected by his physiology or subconscious compulsions.
I think the fundamental issue of our age may turn out to be the Four Noble Truths.
I assume that’s a spoof, unfortunately.
Mine isn’t, but maybe that article is. But maybe Colombia, Mexico etc have lost patience and say fine, let the gringos destroy their own country. They’ve tried a war on drugs and we haven’t, not really. Too many cool characters and media apparatchiks already recruited.
“the solitary individual, totally disconnected from all others”
No flaying, just pointing out straw man arguments. Anyway as Damian observes, Mexico tried it his way.
Still no coherent philosophy, then.
And the challenge is with us, of course. But when temptation increases, so does the number of falls.
It looks to me that drugs are readily available to all that want them…
Meanwhile the ‘war on drugs’ kills hundreds of thousands both in violence and the consumption of impure doses.
Legalise it, tax it and control the quality.
“Legalise it, tax it and control the quality.”
Because people with big guns and big knives who slaughter a small village worth of civilians and law enforcement… week in week out… will happily surrender to The Taxman…
No, you’re being a bit obtuse aren’t you…?
Legalisation would surely bring down the street price and exclude the ‘people with big guns and big knives’ from the market…
People that made hooch and ran speakeasies during prohibition surely didn’t continue to do so afterwards? Legitimate companies returned to the market to make the booze and individuals and companies set up bars.
Precisely. It is the illegality that provides the super profits that attracts the criminals. Remove the profits and the crims will go elsewhere.
Imagine a drug legal world. I fancy a spliff. Do I go to Tesco and buy a guaranteed good quality product at a cheap(ish) price, or do I buy from some dodgy bloke in a pub who I don’t know, with unknown quality to boot?
Its not difficult to see who would be making the profits under legalisation – the State via taxes, the retailers and the producers (probably the tobacco/pharmaceutical industries). Dodgy blokes in pubs wouldn’t get a look in.
Cigarettes are legal, but there’s gangs and violence involved in the smuggling of them.
Yes and why are there criminals involved? Because the State has gotten too greedy. Its trying to take too much of the ‘action’ for itself via taxation. Thus the real price (what the cigarettes cost to make) is massively lower than the retail (taxed) price. Thus there exists a market for smuggled/fake cigarettes. If the State stopped trying to gouge the customers so much, the criminals would have no excess profits to make, and the market would be left to genuine producers/suppliers.
The problem on this planet is, too many births, not enough deaths, and dying resources. Humans doubled in last 40 years. Resources haven’t. Drugs help reduce the weak. It’s how nature works.
I’m glad I’m not the only heartless b*stard who thinks along exactly the same lines.
That’s because government got greedy.
DaveE.
Quite so.
With cigarettes at £7 per pack it is no wonder that criminal gangs have moved in who can supply them cheaper. Especially when they are available legally all over the EU for much less.
See also: Petrol and diesel.
Yes, I would agree that government is an essential part of the problem, they will neither s*** or get off the pot.
Because they are taxed to buggery and beyond. If they weren’t, there wouldn’t be a market for the smugglers.
Otherwise on the main thrust; it is no one else’s business what people put into their bodies, not the state’s and not society’s. There is no moral argument to be made – it is a personal decision – everyone else can and should butt out. Sure, I can handle it as I choose not to use any mind altering substances at all. If I chose otherwise, well, my choice and I can go to hell in the hand-basket of my choosing.