Have we lost the drugs war? ( Archived) (41)

Mao Zedong in CHina, while being a failure at a lot of things solved China's addiction problems: Forced 10+ million people to treatment and executed every dealer and producer they could find.
I think people need to realise that there is a reason why in some parts of the world we have strong laws for drugs and in othe rparts of the world not so strong.

Look at the Netherlands? They have very liberal laws on Weed for example. Why? Because the Dutch themselves never actually smoke much weed anyway.

Now look at China? During the Opium Wars, 1 in 3 adult males were addicted to Opium. Society was in ruin. Look at Russia and Alcohol. Gorbachev banned drink for a short time and there was a noticeable increase in the Life expectancy of people.

Different rules for different people.

who's "we?" you're not a united states citizen are you? or does the UK govt use the term "drug war" as well?

the drug war certainly hasn't been "lost." it's succeeding at it's true purpose rather than it's phony, stated purpose. it's all about money and social control, not public health or morality

No we're winning the drug war.
We have more than anybody else.

We should just give up the war on drugs - it's something hard to do then it's not worth doing - so let's just let it slide.

But to those pro-drugs, educated middle classers who may only shoot up once a month on a recreational basis I say to you thus: Most of you will soon be out of a job, you won't be able to afford the concrete walls and private security to ringfence your untroubled suburbia, and you'll be torn to pieces by the drug-fueled angry mob that sweeps the land.

This is the International forum and the OP is in Yorkshire - 'drugs war' seems a pretty universal bit of press reportage speak.

As for losing it? My view is that they should legalize marijuana but sell it through the same route as cigarettes - same sort of tax regime. The State gets a lot more money (some of which it can use to combat pushers) the market for pushed drugs shrinks hugely (thus a smaller problem) and they can spend more on fighting it effectively - if the link between pot and other drugs is broken, that's also a good thing. A huge amount of petty crime is due to addicts stealing to pay for their next fix - solve the addiction and you solve that too.

definitely ain't winning it!

drugs are cursed

it,was lost from day one,nixon make elvis hon.sheriff,its just job security,for fed/state police,now.

It's not a question of classes, but definitively the higher can lose more than the lower.

govt.could try rehab.not jail,it lets real criminals,out on steets,like murderers n rapists,etc.for over crowding/jails,by fed.judges orders.

The liberal attitudes and far-right individualism of the have's and the have-yachts are completely odious to the have-nots. And you ignore the problems of the underclass at your own peril.

Just start shooting them.

What war on drugs? That was just a slogan, it didn't really mean anything, other than to get the public riled up.

The reality is, it's a "war" that nobody actually wants to win, too much money at stake on either side for it to ever end.