Breaking taboos - it's time we recognised that illegal drugs are fun

hoptis

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Three cheers for my fellow columnist Lisa Pryor, who last week suggested we acknowledge the elephant in the room where public debate about drugs occurs. It's time to stand up and say illegal drug use is fun and - unless you get caught - harmless.

Yes, there are exceptions to this. But far fewer than if you tried to make the same claim about nicotine or alcohol or junk food. The criminalisation of recreational drugs will one day be looked back on with the incredulity we now reserve for Prohibition.

The criminalisation of fun drugs is based on claims about the harm they do, which fly in the face of the experience of a large proportion of the population. The six-week "drug holiday" for rugby league players announced this week is surely an acknowledgment of just how common and acceptable recreational drug-taking is among young people, including very fit and healthy young people.

The persistence of drug criminalisation reflects the self-interest of a loose coalition of politicians, moralists and law enforcement officials, in search of headlines, bigger budgets and more power. They've been winning the argument for a long time now, at least in terms of public policy. What might alter this situation?

The change will eventually come from a growing awareness of the terrible and accelerating damage the illicit drug economy is doing to peace and prosperity around the globe. That trade is booming today because of the trade liberalisation and globalisation we've experienced since the 1990s. These have created enormous wealth, thereby expanding the markets for fun drugs, and making it even easier for drug growers and manufacturers in other countries to reach those markets.

This is the theory of Moises Naim, editor of the magazine Foreign Policy. Recently Naim told me: "The United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime just released a report estimating the value of the international drug trade at $US660 billion ($800 billion) a year. It is great, it is growing, it is diversifying, both geographically and in terms of product lines. It's a vast industry that moves a lot of money and has huge requirements in terms of infrastructure, transportation and so on. All of that on a daily basis, on a systematic basis, would be impossible without the active complicity of governments around the world."

In many Third World countries (or "narcostates"), governments and their agencies are now corrupted by drug traders and their allies in politics and legitimate business activities. This makes much of the international war against drugs - estimated to cost $US100 million a year - an ineffectual farce.

The scale of the drug economy is only possible because First World countries have been unable to stop the immense craving for fun drugs among their own populations. As Naim puts it: "The markets are massive and they're created by state intervention [ie criminalisation]."

He believes the international drug trade is now so big and corrosive of national sovereignty that it, along with other cross-border crimes such as people smuggling and money laundering, "are reconfiguring and transforming the world's politics and economics today far more than terrorism".

Everywhere you look, the growing spread of drugs is trashing public morality and everyday life. Naim has written that the world is undergoing an unprecedented pandemic of crime. In 2003 the UN reported that crime rates were increasing almost everywhere. In cities such as Johannesburg and Milan there have been large protest marches complaining about rising crime. The World Bank says Latin America's economic growth could be 8 per cent higher if its crime rates dropped.

What drives up crime? Poverty doesn't seem to matter. Inequality and urbanisation play a part. But researchers agree a big contributor is the combination of a high proportion of young men, easy access to guns, and ample drugs.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders this weekend ought to be talking seriously about drugs. But of course they won't, because that would offend the United States, whose expensive and long-running war on drugs is possibly the greatest public policy failure of all time.

The latest issue of Foreign Policy has an article on this by Ethan Nadelmann, founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, which argues for decriminalisation. He notes that the number of Americans incarcerated for US drug-law violations has increased from 50,000 in 1980 to 500,000 today. The US, with five per cent of the world's population, has 25 per cent of its prisoners.

For a long time the US and its punitive-moral agenda has dominated the international agencies set up to deal with drugs. But Nadelmann says this hegemony is now under challenge for the first time. "The European Union is demanding rigorous assessment of drug-control strategies. Exhausted by decades of service to the US-led war on drugs, Latin Americans are far less inclined to collaborate closely with US drug enforcement efforts. Finally waking up to the threat of HIV/AIDS, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and even Malaysia are increasingly accepting of syringe-exchange and other harm reduction programs [which the US opposes]."

This is good news even if it is only a start. The truth is that the West's war on drugs can never be won, because too many people don't want it to be won. And while fun drugs do some damage, it is only a tiny fraction of the destruction caused around the globe by drug prohibition.

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Breaking taboos - it's time we recognised that illegal drugs are fun
Sydney Morning Herald
Michael Duffy
September 7, 2007

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/...1188783413121.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
 
Thank you!

This is my personal thank you notice to the rest of the world for being sensible in the face of the West's tyrannical policy and for beginning to stand up against such a thing, despite threats of possible "consequences."

Thank you! You will make a difference...
 
That was a poor article...it didn't actually talk about why the acceptance of drugs as "fun" in society instead of "scary, disabling, etc" would be so drastic, he just suggested a flimsy name and then spew out typical "drug-legalization" bullshit.

or maybe i'm a bit too cynical.
 
acormon said:
That was a poor article...it didn't actually talk about why the acceptance of drugs as "fun" in society instead of "scary, disabling, etc" would be so drastic, he just suggested a flimsy name and then spew out typical "drug-legalization" bullshit.

or maybe i'm a bit too cynical.


What?

An article talking about how "fun" drugs are would do NOTHING in helping the decriminalization of drugs. Of course they're fun and make you feel good, that's why people do them, duh. Thank you for pointing out the obvious.

The only way to get anti-drug people to understand and realize the damage the drug war is doing is to point out what this article is pointing out.

Good article.

because that would offend the United States, whose expensive and long-running war on drugs is possibly the greatest public policy failure of all time.

A-fucking-men.
 
article said:
As Naim puts it: "The markets are massive and they're created by state intervention [ie criminalisation]."
uhh, no they aren't. The drug markets will be here regardless of whether or not the gov intervenes.... am I just misinterpreting what he's saying? The markets aren't caused by the state, they're caused by large groups of people who want to use drugs.


Good article though, the taboo needs to be broken if there's ever gonna be an end to prohibition.
 
bingalpaws said:
uhh, no they aren't. The drug markets will be here regardless of whether or not the gov intervenes.... am I just misinterpreting what he's saying? The markets aren't caused by the state, they're caused by large groups of people who want to use drugs.


Good article though, the taboo needs to be broken if there's ever gonna be an end to prohibition.


I think they mean huge markets for the drug cartels

Markets which would otherwise be denied to them if drugs were legal

(or force them to spend the billions they have on becoming legit ;) )
 
^^^it'll be a long time before it's no longer taboo. I think a lot of it depends on what happens to the 18-25 year old drug users and what we do 10+ years from now.

but the article is right. illegal drugs are fun. IMO way more fun than alcohol and tobacco. I dunno about the rest of it. I overhear and see lots of anti-drug propaganda or mis-information around the university i go to. People still think ecstasy puts holes in your head (even though my biology professor told the entire class in a round about way that responsible use of MDMA is pretty much harmless) . And many of my peers are too afraid of mind opening capabilities of LSD and the permanent 'bad trip' that one hit will do.
So as long as people believe the misinformation out there, the drugs will stay illegal. it would be nice if more of my age group wasn't so stupid about drugs. Some of my peers would drink over a dozen drinks a night a couple nights in a row, week after week and thats ok, actually it's almost expected of you to abuse alcohol. But "dude isn't that like the date rape drug" or the ever popular "it's made with battery acid" or "it'll put holes in your brain".
How about knowing more harm reduction and less "just say no"?
 
Fuck that I'd rather they stay illegal. Living in Australia if "fun" drugs became legal , they wouldn't be fun anymore because they would cost so much , the same as prescribed drugs cost too much now. Its bad enough paying $AU12 for a pack of smokes and $AU40 for a carton of beer or whatever stupid amount of money a working person has to pay for medicine these days.

I'd rather give my money to Joe Blow down the road than John Howard or Phizer.
 
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dankstersauce said:
^^^it'll be a long time before it's no longer taboo. I think a lot of it depends on what happens to the 18-25 year old drug users and what we do 10+ years from now.
This is to be taken with a grain of salt, as I'm kinda drunk and can't remember my sources on this. *BUT*, if I recall correctly, the 18-25 age group is a key libertarian demographic, so that definitely boosts chances of our goal being reached.
dankstersauce said:
but the article is right. illegal drugs are fun. IMO way more fun than alcohol and tobacco.
It all depends, I prefer booze to many of the illegal drugs. Drugs span the entire spectrum of human consciousness-alterations, I find booze to be better than shitty illegal drugs. But either way, the bottom line is that I can legally buy a handle of cheap vodka for $8us, go home, and drink til I puke. And I'm not breaking a single law. But if I buy 1g of pot, take it home, and get a little high, I'm a criminal. It just doesn't make any logical sense!!!!

dankstersauce said:
I dunno about the rest of it. I overhear and see lots of anti-drug propaganda or mis-information around the university i go to. People still think ecstasy puts holes in your head (even though my biology professor told the entire class in a round about way that responsible use of MDMA is pretty much harmless) .
If you wanna sound real smart and up to date on the topic, go in there and explain how the 'ecstasy puts holes in your brain' theory was done by george ricuarte, and his study has since been *completely* shredded. The dude even used meth instead of mdma in some of his trials, then blamed the supplier. But, he did the research that was needed to 'prove' ecstasy was bad, and it's been repeated ever since.

(I'd be lying tho if I said it's kinda weird a biology professor says responsible use of mdma is pretty much harmless. Don't get me wrong, I've prolly rolled waaaaaaay more times than most on these boards, but calling it 'pretty much harmless' seems to be a stretch to me.)



dankstersauce said:
And many of my peers are too afraid of mind opening capabilities of LSD and the permanent 'bad trip' that one hit will do.
the odds of having a bad trip that stays with you are much slimmer than people think. I've had sooo many bad trips, and only a single one stayed wth me for more than a week (it actually stayed with me for easily a year, but it was a *real* bad trip, I won't embarrass myself posting the details but I basically went bat-shit crazy on a high dose of mushrooms, leading me to running through an affluent neighborhood in my underwear (no shoes!) at like 3pm, acting so crazy it wasn't even funny. I take that back, it was funny!!!! Just not at the time lol!)


dankstersauce said:
So as long as people believe the misinformation out there, the drugs will stay illegal. it would be nice if more of my age group wasn't so stupid about drugs.
that's the beauty of the situation. People our age will be the policy makers when we grow up, and will likely be much more drug friendly. I don't see the 'scared of drugs' mentality in many people my age, just in adults.


dankstersauce said:
Some of my peers would drink over a dozen drinks a night a couple nights in a row, week after week and thats ok, actually it's almost expected of you to abuse alcohol.
which just shows how ridiculous it is. If I'm an adult, and want to get high, I'm faced with a serious dilemma. I can get completely trashed w/o breaking any laws, but I can't get high on any substance (psychedelics, speeds, benzos, opiates, etc) that isn't approved as legal. I could get sooo fuct up off of mixing the legal speeds (caffeine, yohimbine) with alcohol, and be totally ok to walk right up to a cop and be fuct up at the same time. However, if I took a 5mg percocet, I just broke the law and am subject to arrest for my behavior. Fuck I"m gonna stop writing because it's getting me pretty pissed just thinking that a 5mg percocet will get me put in jail, while I could pound a liter of cheap vodka, smoke cigarettes, and eat all kinds of legal/strong stimulants, and not be nearly as fuct as I would've been on that 5mg percocet, but doing it their way would be legal, doing it my way would be illegal. Just doesn't make any sense!!!
 
The Sydney Morning Herald is one of the two major daily newspapers in Sydney, it is by no means an "underground" publication.

Recently a very well known Australian rugby player was caught with an ecstasy pill by police in the UK, he later admitted he had been using recreational drugs through his long playing career. In light of this, the use of recreational drugs by well-known and accomplished sportsmen and the use of these drugs by Australians in general is under the spotlight a little.

The following was also recently published in a large Australian news magazine:

Australian Bulletin -- High time to face facts -- September 6, 2007
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=340139
 
Those crazy cats down under, in the USA we know that the only people that take pleasure in drugs are degenerates ;)
 
To the poster that called BS on the assertion that poverty does not cause crime-

I tend to agree with the author that it is inequality not poverty that causes crime. Thats why you don't see much crime amongst the Amazon tribes of S. America, or the tribes of new Guinea. These people barely know what electricity is, but they don't go around robbing their neighbor.
 
Don't forget that the rich and corrupt who control the American government make money on all that crime, and our prisons here in the states are big business, many are even run by corporations traded on Wall St, and there are powerful lobbyists from that industry, as well as the pharmaceutical, tobacco, and beer and liquor production industries that all lobby to keep the status quo. Big Religion makes big money too on all those people quietly coerced into converting while incarcerated or in rehab and 12 step programs. Not to mention all those stacks of cartel c-notes that make their way into our politicians' pockets.
 
I really wonder how much actual bribery there is directly between cartels and US politicians - my guess is it's lower than we'd think. I think there may be *some* going on over here, but that the majority of it is DEA agents abroad who turn crooked.

But that stuff you said about the big business of prisons, that's crazy the more you know about it. Prisons and juvenile detention centers are becoming huuuuge businesses now. Just gotta have enough cash to setup a center and the right friends to stock it!
 
the reason why prohibition of drugs is a problem:

It raises the price of said drugs immensely
it is more difficult to obtain drugs

and thus, more crime erupts because of desire to have said drugs w/o the resources needed to get drugs (money, connections, etc)

If we capitalized on making drugs legal, there'd be less violent crimes and more revenue the U.S. could bring in, and then they wouldn't have to waste billions of dollars trying to prevent drug traffiking.

Drugs didn't cause corruption. Corruption was caused by drugs becoming criminalized. I never heard of anyone trying to kill anyone else over a coca-cola back when it contained cocaine, or bayer, which used to contain heroin, for that matter.

So, why did we make them illegal in the first place? We have overcrowded prisons now, wasted taxpayer dollars, and more crime than ever before. I think it's time we roll back to the good ol' days.
 
bingalpaws said:
I really wonder how much actual bribery there is directly between cartels and US politicians - my guess is it's lower than we'd think. I think there may be *some* going on over here, but that the majority of it is DEA agents abroad who turn crooked.

Don't be so sure. Look here: The CIA, Drugs, and Wall St.
 
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