6 ms·

Could be interesting? Selling Glyphosate and 'roundup-ready' GMO crops is their main line of business in the United States for a long time! Monsanto is already

Could be interesting? Selling Glyphosate and 'roundup-ready' GMO crops is their main line of business in the United States for a long time! Monsanto is already a evil evil organisation -- and now they have the inventors of Heroin at the helm.

pinaceae 10y ago
are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Heroin, basically a form of Morphine, has legit medical uses. Just like LSD and other fairly simple, potent molecules. Banning any R&D outright on them was a huge setback for medicine.
- allendoerfer 10y ago
  > are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin.
  - newman8r 10y ago
    speak for yourself, there are plenty of people who think full and unquestionable legalization is the best way to start addressing addiction in modern society rather than treating it like a literal war.
    - allendoerfer 10y ago
      I am living in a city whose drug strategy is a model for others [0]. You can both help the junkies and prosecute the dealers all without gang shootings on the streets. [0] http://www.dw.com/en/frankfurt-still-germanys-drug-capital-but-learning-to-cope/a-3474775 http://www.dw.com/en/frankfurt-still-germanys-drug-capital-b...
      - burkaman 10y ago
        There is often more than one reasonable approach to a problem.
  - pinaceae 10y ago
    Portugal did and is seeing benefits.
    - riffraff 10y ago
      it didn't, portugal _decriminalized_ possession of drugs, in an amounts reputed for "personal use". It's still illegal to sell drugs, and if you are caught with a joint you have to face social support, can get various licenses removed, get fined, lose welfare benefits etc. It's a much better policy than the war on drugs, but it's not legalisation.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - forgetsusername 10y ago
    >Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin. What cave do you live in where heroin and other opiate usage isn't already a massive issue, even though it's illegal? Are you going to start mainlining heroin just because it's legal? I'm not. The point of legalization is to stop throwing addicts in jail.
    - allendoerfer 10y ago
      > The point of legalization is to stop throwing addicts in jail. What cave do you live in where you have to legalize heroin to do that? Please visit the link I posted before your comment. You do not have to legalize heroin to supply clean needles, clean rooms and not prosecute junkies. You can do all that, still keep it illegal to sell and hunt down the dealers.
      - dx034 10y ago
        I think it's less about legalization but rather about decriminalizing it. Making these drugs legal could potentially be dangerous as it sends a message that they are safe to use. But if you get caught buying or possessing drugs for personal use, this shouldn't have any legal consequences. Portugal is one example, but many European countries do this at least for some drugs.
newman8r 10y ago
Jethro: "Your herbicide is too deadly, how can I drink my beer and aim the sprayer at the same time without getting this shit all over my crops and killin em?" Sales Rep: "Oh, you mean you'd use more if it didn't do that... well I mean, I suppose... we could genetically engineer new crops so you could spray as much as you wanted without harming them" Jethro: "We farmers are simple folk and we are environmentalist - so - I appreciate such a simple solution. We also need more gopher poison when you get a chance"
- M_Grey 10y ago
  I like the idea that "Jethro" is still running the farm. It's not usually true, but I guess it makes for a more amusing anecdote.
  - newman8r 10y ago
    The funny thing is there's basically a jethro in my family but I won't get into that here. In California there's still some specialty crops on expensive land that allow for family owned operations but even here it's probably going to be a thing of the past soon. I worked on an avocado ranch (insert unnamed corporate sponsor here) in undergrad and I met a lot of "jethros" - there's a fraternity called AGR, I think that's where they trained them. Even the guys with agribusiness degrees at cal poly were hicks, I used to drink beers on the job, etc. And I was in charge of killing the gophers, sometimes with horrible poison, sometimes with "rodex". The day I quit, I said something about the entire field of agriculture not being interesting enough and I switched majors the next quarter.
    - maxerickson 10y ago
      The typical US farm is a family owned business. http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/201431/eib24b_1_.pdf http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/201431/eib24b_1_.pdf A key para Ninety-eight percent of U.S. farms are family farms. The remaining 2 percent are nonfamily farms, which produce 15 percent of the value of agricultural output (fig. 4). Two features of family farms stand out. First, there are many small family farms (< $250,000 annual sales), making up 90 percent of all U.S. farms. Second, large-scale family farms account for 60 percent of all production. So large closely held farms produce 60% of US output and smaller farms produce another 25% of US output.
sctb 10y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12496398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12496398 and marked it off-topic.

pinaceae 10y ago

are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Heroin, basically a form of Morphine, has legit medical uses. Just like LSD and other fairly simple, potent molecules. Banning any R&D outright on them was a huge setback for medicine.

allendoerfer 10y ago
> are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin.
- newman8r 10y ago
  speak for yourself, there are plenty of people who think full and unquestionable legalization is the best way to start addressing addiction in modern society rather than treating it like a literal war.
  - allendoerfer 10y ago
    I am living in a city whose drug strategy is a model for others [0]. You can both help the junkies and prosecute the dealers all without gang shootings on the streets. [0] http://www.dw.com/en/frankfurt-still-germanys-drug-capital-but-learning-to-cope/a-3474775 http://www.dw.com/en/frankfurt-still-germanys-drug-capital-b...
    - burkaman 10y ago
      There is often more than one reasonable approach to a problem.
- pinaceae 10y ago
  Portugal did and is seeing benefits.
  - riffraff 10y ago
    it didn't, portugal _decriminalized_ possession of drugs, in an amounts reputed for "personal use". It's still illegal to sell drugs, and if you are caught with a joint you have to face social support, can get various licenses removed, get fined, lose welfare benefits etc. It's a much better policy than the war on drugs, but it's not legalisation.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- forgetsusername 10y ago
  >Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin. What cave do you live in where heroin and other opiate usage isn't already a massive issue, even though it's illegal? Are you going to start mainlining heroin just because it's legal? I'm not. The point of legalization is to stop throwing addicts in jail.
  - allendoerfer 10y ago
    > The point of legalization is to stop throwing addicts in jail. What cave do you live in where you have to legalize heroin to do that? Please visit the link I posted before your comment. You do not have to legalize heroin to supply clean needles, clean rooms and not prosecute junkies. You can do all that, still keep it illegal to sell and hunt down the dealers.
    - dx034 10y ago
      I think it's less about legalization but rather about decriminalizing it. Making these drugs legal could potentially be dangerous as it sends a message that they are safe to use. But if you get caught buying or possessing drugs for personal use, this shouldn't have any legal consequences. Portugal is one example, but many European countries do this at least for some drugs.

newman8r 10y ago

Jethro: "Your herbicide is too deadly, how can I drink my beer and aim the sprayer at the same time without getting this shit all over my crops and killin em?" Sales Rep: "Oh, you mean you'd use more if it didn't do that... well I mean, I suppose... we could genetically engineer new crops so you could spray as much as you wanted without harming them" Jethro: "We farmers are simple folk and we are environmentalist - so - I appreciate such a simple solution. We also need more gopher poison when you get a chance"

M_Grey 10y ago
I like the idea that "Jethro" is still running the farm. It's not usually true, but I guess it makes for a more amusing anecdote.
- newman8r 10y ago
  The funny thing is there's basically a jethro in my family but I won't get into that here. In California there's still some specialty crops on expensive land that allow for family owned operations but even here it's probably going to be a thing of the past soon. I worked on an avocado ranch (insert unnamed corporate sponsor here) in undergrad and I met a lot of "jethros" - there's a fraternity called AGR, I think that's where they trained them. Even the guys with agribusiness degrees at cal poly were hicks, I used to drink beers on the job, etc. And I was in charge of killing the gophers, sometimes with horrible poison, sometimes with "rodex". The day I quit, I said something about the entire field of agriculture not being interesting enough and I switched majors the next quarter.
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    The typical US farm is a family owned business. http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/201431/eib24b_1_.pdf http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/201431/eib24b_1_.pdf A key para Ninety-eight percent of U.S. farms are family farms. The remaining 2 percent are nonfamily farms, which produce 15 percent of the value of agricultural output (fig. 4). Two features of family farms stand out. First, there are many small family farms (< $250,000 annual sales), making up 90 percent of all U.S. farms. Second, large-scale family farms account for 60 percent of all production. So large closely held farms produce 60% of US output and smaller farms produce another 25% of US output.

sctb 10y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12496398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12496398 and marked it off-topic.