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In the case of marijuana, you would deal a significant blow to the drug traffickers. Government go to such extremes trying to find a way to thwart the cartels, when the simplest, swiftest way is to pull the rug out from under them, and then regulate and tax the product. Everybody wins!
In the case of prostitution, again you then can have regulatory control. Collect fees for licenses that must be renewed every three months with a health certificate. If you were a john would you choose a licensed or unlicensed hooker when you can be more sure about the safety of one over the other?
Follow the model of The Netherlands with regard to both. They don’t seem to have any significant fallout from the pot or the brothels. When it’s legal and regulated, you can more easily confine the operations so those who are opposed to either can more easily avoid exposure. I don’t understand the problem.
Cigarettes and alcohol have been legal for a long time but the mafia continues to undermine that market by stealing shipments and then selling it cheaper. The drug cartels are big business in Mexico and are protected by many corrupt government officials, they already have a firmly established foothold in the US and Canada, they will just figure out a way to sell it cheaper. I don’t think they are that willing to give up their control of the market.
Several "pot clinics" have opened up in Los Angeles, there are so many it is troubling the authorities because there are not that many legal growers - legal meaning government regulated, so where is the marijuana coming from? They know it is coming from the cartels. So it seems to me there is a big disconnect.
It has always been my contention that if Americans stopped getting high so much and making the drug lords prosperous, Mexico would have a better economy and the government would put more resources towards their people. Mexican citizens that have to leave their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands and children to come to America to find work. If the Mexican government weren’t laced with corrupt officials that are in the pocket of the drug lords it might be a very different world.
As for the Netherlands, they have had a tremendous problem with their pot cafes. Since drugs are illegal in the surrounding countries many of the addicts as well as casual users come to the "legal towns" to imbibe. When they run out of money, they steal and turn to prostitution. Many are homeless which is another unhappy situation for all, the users and the residents. The cities that have hosted the drug cafes have closed many of them and have requested that those drug businesses move closer to the border to keep crime at a minimum in their areas, because it was decreasing traffic to their non-drug businesses and some were having to close down.
There have been several articles written in international newspapers on the subject. It seems to me the experiment didn’t work. In our border towns were the cartels operate crime is up as well as kidnappings for ransom. This has also been in the news lately.
I used to believe that legalization was a good idea, but, as many of my friends have told me who had trouble getting off of it, it was addicting to them, and they laugh at anyone who says it isn’t. The chemicals that are used on the plants in the form of pesticides and other things used in the processing are not too healthy and will cause a health risk down the road.
At one time I looked up the statistics of people who were dying from drug overdoses or drug related diseases, and it surprised me to learn that the highest rate of mortality was ages 45 and above. Drugs wear the lungs and liver down - so if they are legalized - in the long run will it further run up the cost of health care in the country? I think there are more questions to be asked before we take on more.
Thanks Sibelle
I just think that no one asks the intelligent common sense questions anymore. It is just ideology based on more ideology. It is obvious the entitlement headset from the politically correct quadrant of our society has driven this issue. I used to be among them thinking just legalize it and everything will be better. I am not so sure anymore. I have posted before that I believed prostitution should be legal to take it out of the hand of men and let the women run their own businesses. I viewed it as a "pro choice" issue that a woman has the right to choose what to do with her body, but I think many of the reasons young women go into prostitution is to support drug addiction. So what is the answer?
Hi Frannie, I agree and there is no perfect answer, but it seems to me that people should be more aware of the health hazards of Marijuana. Someone who smokes pot regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems as tobaccco smokers, plus…..
More than 120 000 people enter treatment per year for their primary addiction. Yes, maybe get a doctor prescription as a pain killer, but why legalize it and have the Gov. in few years tell people about the dangers of marijuana, the way they did with tobacco? If you do some research, results are not pretty! It’s like opening a can of worms! lol
Yes Sibelle
I have done a little research because many times when I post the way I see this issue I get challenged that it is not harmful for you. It is usually by someone who then goes on to defend what a great thing marijuana use is. It always amazes me how politically incorrect it is to smoke marijuana for so many reasons, especially that it is destroying Mexicans, but the smoking crowd is just too far removed from seeing all the unintended consequences of imbibing. Alcohol is a dangerous drug as well but it is legal so it just complicates the issue.
I guess people have a right to do what they want with their body, but I think one of the big arguments going on within the healthcare debate is lifestyle choices and how it affects the cost of medicine. So if smoking, drinking, using hard drugs, overeating and lack of exercise cause health problems wouldn’t smoking dope do the same? If we legalize it are we agreeing to pay the costs for healthcare that it will incur?
Frannie, " The smoking crowd is just too far removed from seeing all the unintended consequences of imbibing"
You make me laugh! Isn’t that the essence of addiction? And that same crowd is also the crowd who expect the gov.to give them the "right" to Healthcare." The pursuit of happiness" is the "right" for all! So make your lifestyle choices!
Laurel,
The fact that alcohol and marijuana are both drugs is what complicates the issue. Most people just keep their drug use simple and stick to marijuana, but it is becoming more and more a gateway drug. I don’t know if banning something makes it more enticing or not. People liked to drink, man evolved from early times with some kind of fermented brew that was imbibed, so they had the habit and wanted to continue it. I grew up in the 60’s and certainly had my share of fun, but I saw many of my friends that got paranoid when they smoked weed. My husband didn’t smoke it because it always made him anxious. So it affects many people in different ways. I have a friend that has smoked for the last 40 years. I don’t judge him, but he isn’t a very productive person. He was obese for a long time, cut back his weed use to lose weight, but said he couldn’t get off of it and doesn’t try anymore. It is his life, he can do whatever he wants to. He has a right to choose what he wants to do with his body.
I believe people have a right to choose and make decisions about their own lives, but many meth users were weed users first, and meth is a scourge and is destroying families and children in those families. They are starved and neglected for their parent’s habits. They steal to keep using. Look what happened in the Netherlands, crime increased dramatically in those towns with the marijuana cafes.
Some people are responsible users as my friend is, but his doctors want him off the stuff because what it is doing to his lungs and arteries. He doesn’t like to drink or eat it, so habit wins out.
Isn’t the type of hemp that is smoked a different type of hemp that is used in other products? There are several varieties of the plant. I would agree that other products should be made out of it. Why not? It would also be a great alternative fuel.
As for politically incorrect? Ask the Hispanics south of the border how many family members or members of their government, police force, special agents, soldiers etc, have gotten killed so that the flow of marijuana to the US and Canada does not stop? Hispanics die so America can get high? It is a $60 billion dollar industry in the US that the cartels control. I live in California and have been going to Yosemite for 30 years and now those forests are riddled with Mexican drug cartel operations to supply America’s habit. They bring workers in - and if they leave are hunted down and disposed of so that they don’t reveal where the growing sites are.
Isn’t it politically incorrect to ostensibly fund corruption in another country? If Americans did not keep the drug lords so rich which supplies them with the cash to bribe government officials and essentially create a narco-state within Mexico. This resulting in a government unable to help the poorest of their population, reducing them to have to leave their families to come to the US just to get work to be able to feed their children? Isn’t that politically incorrect? I ask the question because when someone wants to light up do they ever consider the unintended consequences of getting high? Do they really need to get high? How important is it really? More important than the lives of all people that have been killed over it?
If someone could prove to me that the Cartels would be "legal" and could be taxed - and taxed richly because of the health and social problems that drugs create, then I would go for it. But after watching 60 MInutes the other night and seeing that our government can’t even control Medicare Fraud - even after it was reported for 6 years - it leads me to believe that they will not have much control over the cartels.
If you can guarantee that no Hispanics will die so others can get high, then I will retract my statement about political correctness.
Let me ask you - has it ever occurred to you that if all the weed smokers boycotted it for a month or two in an effort to stop the drug lords, wouldn’t that make it a little easier to get it legalized? The smokers can control the cartels - all they have to do is stop. But they don’t - or is it that they can’t? Would it help Mexico be able to clean up it’s corruption enough to putting the money towards building industry so that their citizens have jobs?
What is happening in Mexico is just more of a reason to legalize weed for all. The cartels will have no one to sell weed to if we can grow our own or buy a pack of blunts at the drugstore. I’m sick of people calling weed a gateway drug. Those who start smoking weed and then move on to harder drugs are trying to solve much greater problems. I have smoked on and off for years and I have never done meth, crack, coke, x or any other drugs. There are no guarantees in life and people always die. I’m not too worried about Mexico right now. I am more worried about my great state of Cali pawning off piss poor education on our youth because we are broke. Mexico needs to solve their own problems. Some weed smokers can’t stop because they need it and not because they are addicts but because they have glaucoma or cancer or ADD. People just want to be able to enjoy smoking in their own homes without worrying about being arrested.
It all comes down to legalizing weed will stop the cartels. If you can grow a couple of plants in your backyard or buy a gram at the drugstore then the cartels will have no market for their weed. It is simple supply and demand.
Laurel
I have to admit, I believe there are more people that don’t move on to other drugs from weed, but there are a lot that do. I also agree that people shouldn’t be harassed for it using it on a casual basis. The point is the cartels back most of the marijuana production in this country - except for the farm in Alabama that grows for medicinal use. The cartels back most of the farms in NoCal but where are they paying taxes?
I am a cancer survivor and used weed for nausea during chemo, and thank God I could. It didn’t really lessen the pain in my body but it really helped with the sickness. It increased my fatigue - but I didn’t care.
I just think you are missing the point about the cartels - they are essentially a narco-state that doesn’t negotiate and unless there is a big boycott we will continue to see Hispanics die so Americans can get high. You can’t separate the two. I mean think about it, what would it take for the US govt to work with them. We would have to give murderers huge concessions in order to bring them to the table. THey don’t have much restriction now - what would make them want to come and pay taxes? If the smoking crowd would say "we won’t smoke until you clean up your act" the power would be in your hands. You could change the world.
Frannie, you are absolutely correct about the cartels!
The four largest Mexican cartels now operate in 195 US cities, up from about 50 cities in 2006. One reason is that Marijuana sales have been a steady and lucrative business for them. Mexican drug traffickers have also moved into hydroponic marijuana production! Talk about how remove and naive can a smoking crowd be! :-)
laurel..you are the first to make sense out of this legalization issue..many who read this topic do not remember or know about what prohibition of alcohol did..it was illegal..then the mafia was so happy..they were rolling in money from booze sales!!!crime on the streets was exploding..turf wars etc..then damn…the feds legalized it!..God forbid!!!well,,,not to say the mafia went away but there was a grand tax income to the feds..sound familiar?…..tax it..legalize it..let the harmless smokers out of jail..free up prisons for murders,rapes.etc.. Yes California should legalize it and tax the hell out of it..personal use..small amount grown at home?..wonder what the Mexican cartels would do?.try to smuggle in better Mexican food?..why don’t we try it for 3 years with a sort of re-vote at the end of the three years?????? I would have died from a ruptured colon if i had not had a little pot …helped me sleep, eat..etc…ps…has anyone heard of someone committing a crime while on pot?..I need to know…maybe Twinkies thefts….loud laughing fits????sleeping in inappropriate places? thanks again Laurel.
Dr Hoodia