Mexico adopts new drug policy

[Black Dog]

Then why not play that card with things like speeding? Are you telling me people wouldn't drive faster if it wasn't illegal to do so? Permission can be approval.

Speeding has the potential to harm others, not just the individual. Thus it is not an issue of individual soverignty at all.

Well instead of spending it on things like clothing for their kids, a house, food... they spend it on drugs. Or, they sell themselves for a few bucks or just payment in drugs...

I have many friends that the first thing they do with their paycheque is go by a big bag of weed. Then they bitch when they are broke for the next two weeks, or can't meet rent payments and ask me to help 'em out (which I wouldn't), before they go do it again the next week. And the next week. And the next week. Big sign of addiction actually.

Same reality behind gambling addictions, same symptoms.

Interesting. Yet all this is occurring against a backdrop of prohibition. So I have to ask: what evidence is here that legalization will make any of these problems worse?

[geoffrey]

Then why not play that card with things like speeding? Are you telling me people wouldn't drive faster if it wasn't illegal to do so? Permission can be approval.

Speeding has the potential to harm others, not just the individual. Thus it is not an issue of individual soverignty at all.

Depends where at. If others are on the road, ok, if not, I should really be able to drive as fast as I want. It's my right to injure/kill myself apparently. And I hold adequate insurance to cover damages to anyone else, whereas I don't think most pot smokers have insurance to cover their future impacts on the health care system do they?

Either way, the argument was about the statement 'permission does not equal approval'. I suggested that permission does equal approval. If you were legally allowed to drive 20km/h faster on the highway, you likely would, whether or not it was the ethical/moral/safe thing to do.

Interesting. Yet all this is occurring against a backdrop of prohibition. So I have to ask: what evidence is here that legalization will make any of these problems worse?

Worse? Likely not much worse if at all.

Better? Can't see how that is possible either. Look at the U.S., look at Amsterdam. How many people smoke pot relatively between them?

[BubberMiley]

Depends where at. If others are on the road, ok, if not, I should really be able to drive as fast as I want.

I guess on this hypothetical, fantasy highway that only you occupy, you actually can drive as fast as you want. Who's to know?

[Rue]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060502/ap_on_...ca/mexico_drugs

While I don't agree with hard drug usage, like heroin, I think that this approach will be better in the long run. it will free up police time to go after dealers and producers, rather than pursuing the common user at great cost and almost no effect.

Uh Hello this is Mexico NOT CANADA!! Stop thinking Mexico is Canada. The fact is the police in Mexico are corupt. The fact is they can arrest you for no reason and demand a bribe to let you go. Please his idea that Mexican police will be freed up to go after deals is a joke. The Mexican police are corupt from the bottom up and deeply involved with drug dealing and the biggest pushers in Mexico.

The reason this law was passed is precisely because of the corupt drug pushing criminals that control the government.

Mexico loves its drug addled tourists. Anything to make its tourists happy. This is nothing but a cheap, crass, opportunistic move to attract a kind of tourist that would otherwise hang out in Thailand.

Now that there is world terrorism, floods, and tidal waves, these druggie tourists want to stay closer to home. Why go all the way to Thailand when you can simply go next door.

Excuse me but heroin is not some recreational joke. Heroin and cocaine are part of a trillion dollar international network of crime.

Hey you know what, I can't stand Mexico anyways. It can cater to all the junkies it wants. They won't catch me paying a penny to go back there.

Mexico is corupt. Its government is corupt. Its police are corupt killers. I feel sorry for its citizens. As for Canadians, I would think twice going their on vacation. If you don't get hepititis fromt he ice cubes you can now share the beaches with junkies and if you are lucky step on a needle. Oh joy.

[BubberMiley]

Ah, but your post is based on the assumption that drug use would increase under decriminalization. Dollars to donuts says it stays the same or goes down.