5 ms·
What benefits?
by joesmo 10y ago
What benefits?
- murbard2 10y agoIt creates administrative jobs that politicians can use to reward political allies.
- wtf_is_frp 10y agoIt can't be all there is to it. In Afghanistan, puppies have been cultivated in open fields for decades and the US hasn't done shit - besides patrolling. I remember reading somewhere that the US banks benefited from the liquid cash of these kind of activities during the financial crisis in 2008.
- murbard2 10y agoPuppies growing in open fields sounds adorable. But in all seriousness, no those activities do not generate "liquid cash" (if anything they're more likely to use physical cash as storage and withdraw it from circulation) and even if there was a plausible mechanism by which it could help US banks, the size of it is very small potatoes compared to the woes encountered in 2008.
- wtf_is_frp 10y agoSince I am not an economist, I can't argue its validity: http://www.reuters.com/article/financial-un-drugs-idUSLP65079620090125 http://www.reuters.com/article/financial-un-drugs-idUSLP6507...
- gozur88 10y agoI know the War on Drugs is unpopular in HN, and it should be clear from my comment I'm against it myself. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who wouldn't drive to a seedy neighborhood and risk arrest to secure drugs, but who would take drugs if buying them were cheap and safe. Some number of those people will end up hooked, and some number of those people will be breaking into houses (or worse) looking for stuff to sell so they can get their next hit. Like I said, I don't think the putting a stop to that is worth what we're paying in terms of money and lost freedoms, but let's not pretend these substances were made illegal out of groundless malice. If and when we end the drug war there will be more junkies, more crack whores, more people who sit around staring at the wall instead of working and raising families, more people in the ERs from overdoses and drug-fueled mental breakdowns. It's a price I think we should pay, but it still a price.
- chillingeffect 10y agolike much of the Drug War storytelling, this perspective is based on fantasy. In this episode, drugs only exist in seedy neighborhoods. No charming, friendly people ever import them, make them available over craigslist, on college campuses, in white-collar workplaces. As for groundless malice...you're half-right. It wasn't groundless, it was and still is racist in origin.
- gozur88 10y agoReally? Then why are drugs illegal in, say, Norway? Or Japan? Racism?
- loqi 10y agoEarly 1800s: "Then why is slavery still legal in England et al?" Right now: "Then why is gay marriage illegal in Japan et al?" Etc. Your point has nothing to do with the drug war itself, it's broad enough to apply to any early-stage progressive proposal.
- gozur88 10y agoYou didn't understand the point, apparently. Countries that were nearly 100% racially homogeneous when they banned drugs couldn't have been doing it because of racism.
- chillingeffect 10y agoThat's actually a great question. I don't know about Norway, but in Japan, a good deal of it is due to US influence. We have exported our War on Drugs. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_United_States#War_on_Drugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_United_S...
- wmeredith 10y ago> If and when we end the drug war there will be more junkies, more crack whores, more people who sit around staring at the wall instead of working and raising families, more people in the ERs from overdoses and drug-fueled mental breakdowns. You're dead wrong. And unless you intend malice you need to stop spreading this BS. Portugal legalized ALL drugs and a decade later they saw abuse fall by 50%. Source: http://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/drug-decriminalization-portugal-lessons-creating-fair-successful-drug-policies http://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/drug-decriminal...