In theory, the drug decriminalization bill passed by Mexico’s Congress has merit: If it were no longer a crime to possess small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, meth and other drugs, then law enforcement could focus on catching dealers and traffickers. But in reality, such a move would create new problems, especially for the United States and its border towns, by turning Mexico into a tourist mecca for wannabe drug users, especially young Americans. For that reason, Mexican President Vicente Fox was right to withdraw his support Thursday. Given the failed war on drugs, there is a good case to be made for decriminalization of some kind. But Mexico’s proposal seemed like a unilateral surrender that would make matters worse for Americans.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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59 Comments
Given the attack on JR by hank, I dont think I will be posting here. I wonder if anyone else will either.
I have never used any narcotics, I never even smoked weed. As such, I don’t understand the appeal.
As to mexico, this is just another example of the untrustworthyness of that narco-terrorist shithole. The shrub regime made noises about retaliating against Canada for legalizing small amounts of weed so I wonder how they will respond to this? I recall the traitro whining about beaner family values and about how those “values” don’t stop at the Rio Grande! rotflmosrfao
Viva La Raza Blanco!!Deportacion Total!!
Well, there goes my Mexican vacation.
Hank?
KFG, we eat Hank for breakfast around here, heh . . . At least Rush had the excuse of being on drugs. Hank doesn’t even have that excuse.
As far as the “war on drugs” is going, I hoped that the “war on terror” would be a little more successful.
But as usual, if Bush wants it, it’s a failure . . .
Ian is just “high” on the joy of life–hating non-whites–proving that when you’re already insane, you don’t need drugs to achieve an altered state . . .
J R?Who’s J R?
But back to the point.
I guess it is not enough to have a government so corrupt that it forces its poor citizens to flee to the US to work illegaly and send money back to their starving families in cardboard shacks.
No that’s not enough source of imported revenue.
Gotta get in on the drug trade revenue now by encouraging Americans to come to Mexico and spend their money there!
If we had a real government, we would have inavded mexico. We would have carried out regime change in mexico city. The day of the rat, monkey, snake and cockroach is coming to an end and the day day of the eagle and wolf is at hand!
Glahad/Proudlib/lefthook,
The fact that you equate racial pride with hate and “insanity” say something about you. Guilt ridden, self hating Whites are truly deranged.
Viva La Raza Blanco!!!!Deportacion Total!!!
Works in Amsterdam!Ian, you might TRY smoking a little weed, it might mellow you out and do you a world of good.
Damoon,
Drug use and race mixing are abominations, don’t you know? It is no coinkydink that both activities can cause aids! :)
Viva La Revolucion Blanco!!!
We already invaded Mexico about three times.
Sheesh.
Read some history. If anybody took you seriously, you’d be an embarrassment.
Fortunately, no one does . . .
Please explain Ian. I know that sharing needles (drugs) can spread AIDS but how does mixing races? Last I knew all unprotected sex in a non-monogomous releationship was a risk for AIDS. How is the race thing special?
“Drug use and race mixing are abominations”
Isn’t this the same person who was just inquiring about alcohol on another thread? Maybe he was just making sure we didn’t participate in that “abomination.”
Oh wait: Alcohol’s not a drug, is it?
I dunno Rage, seems like beer-goggles can be pretty dangerous:)
Oh yes, let’s compare drinking a pint of guinness or a glass of wine with used of meth, heroin and coke! oy vay!
viva La Raza Blanco!!!
Seems like we have some damned pot heads here. Lock em up. Better yet, deport them to Amsterdam. Or California, so they can grow their own sinsemilla buds in the Redwood rain forest and drive DEA agents nuts.
Funny about how wild-eyed some people get about “Drugz”. Alcohol and caffe1ne are narcotics. Get between me and my first cup of coffee and “YOU DIE, PIG!!!!”. Being pretty much a non-drinker myself, I’d much rather be around a pot-head than a drunk. I’ve never had anybody stoned on pot threaten to beat me up.
With as much carnage as we see on the streets and highways because of alcohol, seems to me that should be high on the list of illegal drugz.
My take on the war on drugz?
“How’s that working out?”
I’m so glad the big responsible government can make decisions for poor little old me and every other adult. We would get so confused about what was good or bad for us if it wasn’t for our awesome big brother the government! And I’m also glad our super-responsible government has its own affairs so well in order that it found the time to tell a sovereign nation what was best for it! Thank goodness for our swell government!
Gotta agree with XXX. But the last time they outlawed booze, we got rampant crime, illegal booze, drive-by shootings . . . Isn’t that what’s going on now with drugs?
While I won’t condone drug use, there are fewer pot-heads out there head banging than drunks.
One of my tenants called me complaining that the people next door were smoking pot. All I could say was that I’d rather see them stoned than drunk. Potheads just sit all nice and mellow in front of the TV, while drunks fight, tear things up, and shoot at each other.When I do indulge, alcohol is my only drug of choice, though. The couple of times I smoked pot all it did was make me hungry and very paranoid.
Gee, I’m surprised everyone’s up in arms about marijuana when Big Tobacco gets a slap on the wrist making a killin off killin Americans!
Good point X, Smoking kills almost 400,000 people in this country each year.
I suppose if the pot-folk put as much money buying congress as the tobacco people do, pot would be legal.
I’ve read some articles that marijuana was less dangerous to your health than all the chemicals combined in cigarettes. Will try to find links…
People don’t smoke a pack of joints in one day–I think that’s why pot is less deadly than cigarettes.But smoking anything has got to be bad for the lungs.
Of course! human lungs weren’t designed to inhale smoke on a regular basis.
Ian is a funny guy he claims to to be white and hate immigrants. But is a cuban last I checked cubans are hispanic and brown. Plus by being Cuban that also makes him an immigrant. By his delusinal nature I would venture a guess that he was part of the mariel boatlift when Castro cleaned out his prisons and mental homes. Ian like to brag about his arsenal he has why doesn’t he use it to help cuba, unless he is a coward, which could explain why he is here not freeing his homeland
I doubt if Fox will sign the bill. He doesn’t want Americans coming over to Mexico for drug tourism.
My glaucoma is bad, Presidente Fox, please let me in….
I’m afraid the superiority complex applies to Ian. It is funny though since I have seen very fair-skinned Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans yet Ian would still liken them to being inferior. It makes absolutely no sense, especially when many fair-skinned Hispanics are much whiter than “white” people. Ian still must figure out an acceptable line of demarcation when it comes to skin color. Just how white does a person have to be to be classified as white? What is the acceptable skin hue that makes whiteness be eligible to be classified as non-white? Ian of course would argue that Europeans whiteness is different from Hispanic and even Oriental / Asian whiteness. Consequently, if this is the case, then isn’t Ian technically not a racist, but a European phenotype advocate?
CrusaderX, that reminds me. Anthropologists lumped us in with Caucasians. That a large point made in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind–Asian Indians were of the same race as whites.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Bhagat_Singh_Thind
My foundation is the second darkest that Revlon makes. Yet I’m Caucasian.So it’s not SKIN color Ian is concerned about (since pale Hispanics or Asians are still not white) and it’s not Caucasians (because I’m sure he’d think that an Indian/white couple were “race mixing”)…I guess you’re right about the European phenotype thing. Strange.
Oops on the thread drift.Decriminalization should catch on here. Jails should be filled with violent, predatory drug dealers, not harmless old men who grow their own stash, smoke joints and listen to Bob Marley.
Every time I fill out a FAFSA for financial aid, that box that says “check here if you’ve ever been convicted of a drug crime” or something like that bugs the heck out of me. Shouldn’t we ENCOURAGE people to turn their life around and go to college?
Common sense.
United States v. A. Kumar (1913), not the other one. My bad.
Yeah, that was an incredibly ridiculous ruling by the SC ranking up there with Jim Crow law. One is not eligible for American citizenship based solely on an individual’s being Caucasian. If that were the case, then every Caucasian the world-over would be eligible for American citizenship automatically. Yes Tara, ours is indeed a profession tarnished by some of the most morally-reprehensible, mentally-unbalanced, illogical idiots to have ever attained an L.L.B. How these buffoons ever got into the SC is totally beyond me.
The war on drugs usually only poor people ever get thrown in jail/prison. If your a rich celeb you get 100 chances at rehab. Charlie Sheen, Robert Downey Jr ect. Or connected politically Jeb Bush’s daughter, Limbuagh, Al gore Jr its a “private family affair.” Poor kid from the projects or a dumb country redneck it jail. I also find it odd that on the 1st ann. of 9/11 instead of hunting terrorists the FBI is busting Tommy Chong for selling bongs.
Good pot is worth more than gold per oz on the black market- that kind of money draws the wrong crowd. Make it legal & the cost goes down & the thugs run out of profits.
I’ve been smoking pot for over 25 years, and the worst side effect I’ve found is the criminal element being involved due to its illegal status.
Thanks to marijuana, I’m a tax-paying, productive member of society (aside from using pot, I’ve never broken a single law in my life). It helps me with crippling fybromylagia and helps to alleviate pain- far better than the heavy narcotics my doctor used to prescribe.
(Personally, I’d much rather just grow my own personal stash and eliminate the criminal element entirely…)
I’ve never understood why Americans are so shy to openly discuss this topic. The “war on drugs” is an utter failure and a colossal waste of BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars while putting countless thousands of nonviolent citizens into prison.
When will we wake up to reality and common sense?
You are correct, Noshame. The prohibition against hemp is not based on rationality–it’s based on tradition and a racist tradition at that.
Poor Mexicans used to smoke “pot” or potiguaya.
Unlike heroin, nicotine or alcohol, pot is not addictive. It is almost impossible to take a lethal dose, which is quite common with alcohol.
To lump this innocuous euphoriant in with addictive and lethal drugs reflects puritanism, not logic.
I never saw anyone lying in a gutter with a joint in their hand.
It’s the stigma of pot brought on by the ridiculous government anti-drug movie (I know someone will remember the name)shown nation wide in the 40’s or 50’s. Talk about a crock. People now have this idea in mind that pot smokers are all freaked out nut cases. I think if Carl Sagan were alive now, he could banish that nonsense. How do you condemn a man who brought “Cosmos” to the living room of every home in America who, after his death, had his wife inform the world he did the show high on pot?
Kinda kicks that nonsense out the window, doesn’t it.
http://www.druglibrary.org/think/~jnr/sagan.htm
Reefer Madness (duh)
While in the 30’s and 40’s the goverment began its crackdown om hemp it also produced a film called hemp for victory during WWII to help farmers grow hemp, because hemp is a good source for rope, canvas, plastics, paper, thread in boots and parachutes. Because hemp is one of the strongest natural fibers. But growing hemp for cloth, paper,plastics or biomass fuel is illegal.
“I’ve never understood why Americans are so shy to openly discuss this topic.”
Noshame, we’ve seen the answer on this blog. If you even suggest that you might have tried drugz, or aren’t virulently against drugz, somebody (like Hank) will use it to attack you and question your morals, honesty, intelligence, or patriotism.
We’ll take Mexico’s migrant workers and Mexico will take our drug users. That sounds like a good deal.
However, if you admit to excercising your rights under the second amendment somebody (like XXX) will use it to attack you and question your morals, honesty, intelligence, or patriotism.
What XXX says is true.
And it seems like some will never learn from it.
I still say this Mexico drugs thing is just set up as another revenue stream to funnel American money down there. But perhaps this is a good thing. If small quantites of SOME drugs become more commonplace, attitudes as to them might change.
I myself can see no reason not to allow the medical use of marijuana. I have read so much about how it can help people with terrible pain. Would its use be worse than legal but highy addictive drugs like Oxycontin?
People can use medical marijuana under a physican’s supervision, it’s a prescription in a pill form. There is no such thing as a harmless drug, and pot has it’s negative effects also, but I do think it’s less harmful to people than alcohol.
Are you talking about Sativex, Damoon?I heard that the first death from it (possibly) was reported earlier this month. I’ll have to poke around the Something Awful forums for the link.
I understand not wanting to prescribe something that requires smoking (and can lead to lung damage). But terminally ill cancer patients aren’t really too concerned about lung disease, are they?I imagine many drugs on the market have worse side effects.
Drug companies don’t want medical marijuana because they lose a lot money when they cant charge 100 dollars a pill for a drug that you can grow for free. You also have a interesting coalition of groups that don’t want to allow for liberalizing the current drug policies, Drug companies, Organized crime and moralists.
heheh dingus. Isnt that the same unholy trinity that runs things in washington anyway?
Da,Actually, there is very little of anything on this earth that can’t be overdone to the point of being harmful. I’ve known people who were harmed just as much by an overdose of religion as they would have been by addiction to crack.We’re forty years into a “war on drugs,” and it’s still easier for a kid in this town to score a baggie of pot or a vial of crack than find a decent chocolate milkshake! I’d call that a monumental failure, one that illustrates how unwinable this war is under our present strategy.Legalization and sales in a controlled system, such as liquor stores, could take the profit out of the hands of gangsters and place it in research and treatment programs which are presently almost criminally underfunded. It certainly couldn’t do worse than our repeated attempts to cut off the supply.
Ps. As someone who nas recently undergone major surgery, I give thanks to whatever power created opiates!
Just as an FYI- marijuana does NOT actually need to be smoked in order to gain medical benefits. It can be vaporized and can also be eaten. However, smoking tends to be the easiest route for those with chronic nausea (ie chemotherapy & AIDS patients to name a few).
I still find it bizarre and utterly nonsensical that although marijuana supposedly nas NO medical benefit whatsoever (according to the gov’t), “Marinol” (a pill derived from cannabis) is readily available by prescription.
BTW I’ve had “Marinol” and frankly- I’d still rather just grow my own stuff for free instead of relying on the REAL drug dealers (big drug companies). But, I can’t- if I’m ever caught growing my own pot, then I’m suddenly a dangerous ‘drug kingpin’ in the eyes of the law and stand to lose my home, my family and my freedom…
One more thing while I’m at it- drug use does not always equal drug ABUSE. Anything and everything can be taken to excess…and yes, that includes cannabis. In my opinion, cannabis should used wisely and in moderation (that’s the key) by people of legal age.
As a cancer survivor, I can tell you that there are many drugs that control nausea better than marijuana. I think it’s medical benefits are exaggerated by those who have an agenda to get it legalized for other reasons.But I think it’s stupid to criminalize it’s use, it’s less harmful and doesn’t have as many negative societal effects as alcohol.
Da,Did you actually try marijuana? I have friends who swore by it when compared to other drugs, including Marinol.
If Marijuana were legalized, then you Americans would have to pay import taxes because all the weed that comes to this country is from Latin America. Then we would be economically stronger, and then none of us would have to immigrate to find jobs in North America. You would be the “wetbacks” flocking south of the border so you could get cheap weed.
Gen,If pot were legalized, we would be growing our own superior pot, and wouldn’t have to import it.
Good point, Jed!No I didn’t try pot when I was going through cancer treatment, because the drugs I was given worked really well. I was able to work full time without any problems. I know people who did try it and said it didn’t work as well as the legal drugs. There was one guy I knew with a brain tumor that said pot worked better for him, so I’m sure it’s an individual thing. I certainly had a lot of offers from people who were willing to supply me if I wanted to try it, but it wasn’t necessary. Like I said before, my pot smoking experiences were not good ones!
Da,Yes, there appears to be a wide variation in responses to many medications. This seems to me to indicate as wide a variety of medications as possible.The exclusion of cannibis is a political decision, not a medical one. The primary reason there are so few studies supporting it’s use is that by law,the government must approve all studies of marijuana, and the studies must be done with marijuana supplied by the government. For political reasons, the feds will not approve a study that would likely find uses for weed, and supports those that emphasize it’s harmfulness. Also, since the government supplies only one variety, there is no legal way to compare the effects of the many varied strains. In other words, this is not science, it’s propaganda!