B.C. court is soft in the head.

[Wilber]

How on Earth do consumers benefit from inflated prices?

Cheaper drugs, that's what we need. While we're at it, lets slash the price of booze and smokes in half. What the hell, by 75%. The world will be a much better place.

[ToadBrother]

Actually you don't hear cops saying that. You will find many police officers who think that continuing to criminalize marijuana use is a waste of time. Their only question is, how do you go about legalizing it in the present political climate on both sides of the border? Police actually spend more time dealing with the results of drug (including alcohol) use than they do fighting the "drug war". Most of our property crime, domestic violence and yes, prostitution is a result of addiction.

I have yet to see a police association anywhere in the English-speaking parts of North America get behind any form of decriminalization. Perhaps you would be so good as to point me to some actual sources here.

You are right about them not being unbiased though. They have to deal with the results of addiction every working day, not just beak off about them on internet forums.

They also have to deal with the byproducts of a pointless and utterly unwinnable war on drugs. Maybe we'd need less cops if we accepted reality and made more pointed efforts, but hey, who am I? How dare I ever question the cops, those righteous Jesus figures.

[Wilber]

I have yet to see a police association anywhere in the English-speaking parts of North America get behind any form of decriminalization. Perhaps you would be so good as to point me to some actual sources here.

Perhaps it is because they know that half assed measures won't work. You either legalize and regulate it or forget it. It's the politicians who can't seem to make up their minds. Prostitution won't disappear if the only thing you do about it is leave the johns alone.

They also have to deal with the byproducts of a pointless and utterly unwinnable war on drugs. Maybe we'd need less cops if we accepted reality and made more pointed efforts, but hey, who am I? How dare I ever question the cops, those righteous Jesus figures.

What byproducts? Do you think the problems associated with addiction are magically going to go away if all drugs are legalized?

[ToadBrother]

Perhaps it is because they know that half assed measures won't work. You either legalize and regulate it or forget it. It's the politicians who can't seem to make up their minds. Prostitution won't disappear if the only thing you do about it is leave the johns alone.

I was hoping for some citations. At any rate, trying to stop prostitution is an utter waste of time, too. The best solution is to bring back the legalized bawdy house, where access is controlled, safety guaranteed, and the pimps and organized crime are removed from the situation, you know, sort of how like ending Prohibition pretty much killed the bootlegging business, though by banning everything else, the mobsters had little difficulty finding new vices to profit from.

What byproducts? Do you think the problems associated with addiction are magically going to go away if all drugs are legalized?

I never said all the problems would go away. When it comes to vices, you never get rid of the problems. But policies that make things worse all around, well that's just plain immoral in my books.

[dre]

Perhaps it is because they know that half assed measures won't work. You either legalize and regulate it or forget it. It's the politicians who can't seem to make up their minds. Prostitution won't disappear if the only thing you do about it is leave the johns alone.

What byproducts? Do you think the problems associated with addiction are magically going to go away if all drugs are legalized?

The addiction problems wont go away, but theyll be reduced. This is inevitable because the incarceration/enforcement approach that we use is the very worst possible way to treat addiction.

The best case study we have right now is portugal.

They legalized pot, cocaine, heroine, and meth.

Since legalization drug use is DOWN across the board in almost all age groups, and the number of addicts seaking treatment has gone through the roof.

The Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.

This shouldnt be a suprise to anyone that really thinks about it, because drug addiction is a TREATABLE illness. Criminalizing addicts instead of treating them is of course going drive rates up. Imagine if we threw people that got bacterial infections in prison instead of giving them anti-biotics? The rates of bacterial infection would go WAY UP.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

Edited July 26, 2010 by dre

[Wilber]

I was hoping for some citations.

Don't need them, just ask a few cops.