NEWS ARTICLE: A little drug problem [The Bulletin]

46,000 arrests in 12 months,
used by half of Australians aged 14-19,
1% of Australia's gross domestic product,
twice the size of Australia's wine industry...
A little drug problem
edit: fix url
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"I think pop music has done more for oral intercourse than anything else that has ever happened, and vice versa." - Frank Zappa
[This message has been edited by samadhi (edited 29 November 2001).]
[This message has been edited by samadhi (edited 29 November 2001).]

thankyou... a breath of fresh air. i could cut quotes all day

Part of the reasoning behind this policy is one of expediency: that by giving people access to controlled and taxed outlets, it will reduce the chances of exposure to a criminal underclass of street dealers trading in both soft and hard drugs. It will also concentrate police resources on fighting big-ticket items like corruption and organised crime

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but i shouldnt... cept for

French President Jacques Chirac went so far as to label the country a "narco-state", claiming Dutch drug policy was a greater threat to world peace than French nuclear testing.

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ROFLol
go ahead read it yerself...
can we find ways to support good journalism?
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i just love that heart icon.

Good article. Reminds of a similar one in the economist earlier this year. Plus if they tax drugs then maybe they could reduce my income tax?!?
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Dancing, the eternal quest to mash my ankles into dust.

A bit of a salary-sacrifice set-up hey Airwalk? Mmmm does sound good!
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Green by name
Green. By Nature.
Ask for it by name.

great article!
we can learn a lot from the dutch.

i find it offensive how the USA can impose its views on other countries like that.. its a shameful act and its holding the world back in terms of sensible and clearly beneficial reforms. it makes total sense to take these measures..

Earlier this year, US President George W. Bush said the only "humane and compassionate response to drug use" was a "moral refusal to accept it".

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yeah good one george..

But it is among Americans – the biggest consumers of drugs in the world – that the war on drugs has been felt most keenly. In the past decade there has been a 70% increase in the American prison population, the highest incarceration rate in the world. American jails are bursting at the seams with young black and Hispanic men, many of whom are there for non-violent drug offences.

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*sigh*
great article by the way!

Hey my first post </offtopic>
When drugs account for 1% of Australia's GDP how much money do drugs account for in the US economic system. When billions upon billions of dollars are changing hands its impossible not to believe that the top end of the food chain lies very close to top end of the business/politcal food chain. The US imposes it's views on the rest of the world because there's a lot of US dollars at stake if the current "black market" drug trade suddenly disappears.
It's funny how Afghanistan used to be one of the largest suppliers of opiates to the Western world. Taliban come in and destroy the poppy fields. Now look what the US is doing to the Taliban.

The article from the Economist that Airwalk was talking about.
Wazza dosen't know what he's talking about
[ 10 December 2001: Message edited by: cancle ]

This is the actual url but cancle added one too many [url=http://'s[/url]" target="_blank]http://'s[/url]

Excellent article samadhi, unfortunately I don't think Oz will follow suit, let's face it, we're an extremely conservative country *sighs*.
I like this ... "These trends clearly support the forbidden-fruit theory – that it is hard to rebel against permissiveness. It also tends to disprove the prohibitionists' argument that decriminalising cannabis provides a stepping stone to other harder drugs."
When will other governments learn?