http://www.ips-dc.org/...ca_deadliest_non-war_zone

The drug war is such a disaster; if they legalized and taxed thing like marijuana, they'd take a lot of the steam out of the drug trade....

I don't get the impression that its marijuana fueling Mexico the most from what I have heard...

marijauna is hardly the focus of the drug war. i would say cocaine/heroin is the #1 focus.

I really like the speaker Sanho Tree. He avoids over-stepping his own knowledge and focuses the conversation on what is known and why it is failing.

I think a lot of drugs need to be legalized for better of for worse. At least for people over a certain age. Your odds of getting addicted to something (after trying it) diminish exponentially with age once you are over 23 or something btw.
Treat it like cigarettes.

It's not necessarily for the best (for things like cocaine), but it's probably better than anything else we can do. Besides, over the counter stuff can be pretty nasty too. You can duplicate a lot of drug effects with those based on a little research (not going to post how here obviously)

get rid of all the laws because there ain't enough people who can obey all of them. :-P
let alone remember them...

most of the people in south america agree on something, instead of driving these people to a corner and getting innocents killed in the cross fire, why not attack the distribution centers inside the US? whit your resources and technology it should be a piece of cake, after all almost everyone in the US is registered into some kind of database, so tracking and cracking these organizations shouldn't be THAT hard... what is too much of a hasle and would let to lots of violence? go figure....

yeah, because going after the middle man has always worked in the past.


oh wait, going to the SOURCE is the most effective, that would be central america.

Actually the source is hardly the problem... If there was no damand for coke then the coke growers would plant something else. They are doing nothing but provoding the product that is demsnded by the market place!

What gets me is we just installed the Drug grower back into power in Afganistan. Pre-80's it grew more then 1/2 the worlds market for poppy (think actually close to 80%). then it dropped to almost a non producer, yes with the Taliban (and no I'm no fan of them they all can be killed for all I care), but who did we stick back in power oh yes the POPPY KINGS... oh they are back at full production with over 1/2 the worlds poppy production again.

Marijauna, coca, Poppy, Peyote.. are all naturally grown, yes like any marketable pant we have in recent years used our knownledge to perfect to crop to bring better yields, and more of the trait we want from them.... but basically they come from nature.
I always like the the "Religious Right" are usually the leaders in the Drug war. As they Know it was Gods Mistake.

Genesis I:
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good

Regulating supply in a lawful way is the only way to disband the black market (an unregulated market). Drugs should be legalized and controlled.

ah but you see the SOURCE of the problem is the US consumers, people produce it because you will consume it.

You have your stars, your rich people, everyone with the label of success appearing in movies and the news as drug users, so your children get the worse examples they can get, on the other hand when our children ask us what is wrong with that homeless dude, we clearly tell them that they do drugs and lost everything even their family support because if it, our examples of drug users all land on the negative and as such a good amount of our children (the ones properly raised) see drugs as nothing more than what it truly is, something that if abused will destroy their life.

As long as there is demand someone will raise to supply it, as such the SOURCE as you call it, IS IN YOUR COUNTRY, the ball is in your court, it has always been, you have PLENTY of ways of fixing this.

Yeah, If by some miracle the US stops being a nation of drug addicts and junkies then the drug lords will go elsewhere in search of profit, probably even my own country, but that will be our problem to deal with, and if we raise to the occasion and defeat the drug lords where it really matters (not being a market for them) then this fluff will stop.

where did i say the SOURCE was the main problem? please read my post again. i said the easiest target is the source.

in addition, the consumer may be the source of the problem in your opinion, but that is a subjective matter. it is kind of a FACT that the source of the drugs is central america.

i refuse to read your 73 page response when your first line is a clear misread of my point. please try again.

Well it's kind of funny because the US has supported known cartel and drug dealers in South America in the past in the name of "stopping the spread of communism" or whatever.

Drugs are prevalent all over the world, it's not just a US thing imo.

The only judeo-christian religious argument against drugs is that human life is sacred and you shouldn't do anything deliberately to harm yourself. I've been told that this is why religious Jews at least do not smoke (I don't think hard core catholics smoke either, but I'm even less sure on that). However, many drugs do not harm you if taken in manageable amounts and as long as you don't do irresponsible things while taking them (alcohol and lsd for example)

"The religious right" argument stems from the puritan movement (also the folks behind prohibition) where basically you shouldn't do anything that gives you earthly pleasure. I understand where they came from in a historical context but it that line of thinking doesn't seem really logical to me. On the other hand Budhism is similar and in some cases more extreme in that respect.

imo the people supporting the drug war are either
1) completely in denial about reality
2) have a vested financial interest in continuing the war (prisons/police/ect is a huge industry)
3) are using it for political gain