skafather84 wrote:
Sand wrote:
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
He's not familiar with alcohol prohibition here in the states and he's not familiar with what the reality is as far as how the legal status of drugs effects communities because he's sheltered from the real crime areas.
I'd like to see him living some of the neighborhoods I've been in and say that the legal state of drugs is helping things.
I am aware that the actions of the US authorities are not doing a great job in preventing or treating drug addiction in the US. What I object to is people using the US situation to formulate a general rule (“prohibition never works, drug abuse is inevitable, so the best thing to do it to legalize drugs”) that they assume holds for all societies at all times. I thought that was clear from my post, so there’s really no need to tell me about the neighbourhoods you’ve been in, unless you want to show me how streetwise you are.
I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen people repeat the same pro-legalization arguments almost word for word. It’s as if people think that repeating the same counter-intuitive arguments marks them out as belonging to some enlightened in-crowd.
There are plenty of countries with harsh drugs laws and with low levels of drug abuse. Saudi Arabia, with laws against drugs
and alcohol, has very low levels of both drug abuse
and alcoholism. (Remarkable!) And that’s not an endorsement of Sharia law, just evidence against the “prohibition never works” argument.
Or at least that’s how I see it. Perhaps by liberal logic that escapes mere mortals like me, Saudi Arabia’s drug and alcohol laws are actually a waste of time, and they would solve so many of their social problems by selling crack cocaine in pharmacies.
Well, here are some examples of how liberal drugs policies have worked elsewhere:
Quote:
From
http://www.sarnia.com/GROUPS/ANTIDRUG/a ... myths.htmlHistory provides evidence that legalization of drugs in foreign nations has not been successful. For example, opium was legalized in China earlier this century. That decision resulted in 90 million addicts and it took a half-century to repair the damage.
Egypt allowed unrestricted trade of cocaine and heroin in the 1920s. An epidemic of addiction resulted. Even in Iran and Thailand, countries where drugs are readily available, the prevalence of addiction continues to soar.
Modern-day Netherlands is often cited as a country which has successfully legalized drugs. Marijuana is sold over the counter and police seldom arrest cocaine and heroin users. But official tolerance has led to significant increases in addiction. Amsterdam's officials blame the significant rise in crime on the liberal drug policy. The city's 7,000 addicts are blamed for 80 percent of all property crime and Amsterdam's rate of burglary is now twice that of Newark, New Jersey. Drug problems have forced the city to increase the size of the police force and the city fathers are now rethinking the drug policy.
Dr. K. F. Gunning, president of the Dutch National Committee on Drug Prevention, cites some revealing statistics about drug abuse and crime. Cannabis use among students increased 250 percent from 1984 to 1992. During the same period, shootings rose 40 percent, car thefts increased 62 percent, and hold-ups rose 69 percent.
Sweden legalized doctor prescriptions of amphetamines in 1965. During the first year of legalization, the number of intravenous"speed" addicts rose 88.5 percent. A study of men arrested during the legalization period showed a high correlation between intravenous use and a variety of crimes.
Dr. Nils Bejorot, director of the Swedish Carnegie Institute and professor of social medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, believes the solution to the growing drug problem is consistent social and legal harassment of both users and dealers.
Great Britain experimented with controlled distribution of heroin between 1959 and 1968. According to the British Medical Journal, the number of heroin addicts doubled every sixteen months and the increase in addicts was accompanied by an increase in criminal activity as well. And British authorities found that heroin addicts have a very good chance of dying prematurely. On the crime front, Scotland Yard had to increase its narcotics squad 100 percent to combat the crime caused by the "legal" addicts.
The Swiss opened a "legalized drug" area in Zurich seven years ago and local addicts were given drugs, clean needles, and emergency medical care. Unfortunately, the liberal policy backfired and the number of addicts surged to 3,500; violence surged, too. "Needle Park," as it came to be known, was a place of open warfare among rival gangs, and even police faced gunfire. Their cars were attacked and overturned. In February 1995, officials ended the experiment, conceding that it had evolved into a grotesque spectacle.
In April 1994, the mayors of 21 major European cities formed a group called "European Cities Against Drugs," an acknowledgement that legalization had failed.
27 Aug 2009, 2:54 am
