4 ms·

At least around where I am, the police tend to threaten these people with extreme penalties when arrested in order to get them to give up their supplier in exch

by jrs95 9y ago

At least around where I am, the police tend to threaten these people with extreme penalties when arrested in order to get them to give up their supplier in exchange for a much lighter sentence. So decriminalizing small time dealing will make it more difficult to prosecute the people who really are the gangster types.

LeoNatan25 9y ago
If drugs are legalized—truly legalized—the need for “gangster types” diminishes and all that is left is supply and demand.
- jrs95 9y ago
  This is true, and I think there are a lot of ways in which that would improve things. Has anyone really taken it this far though?
  - eru 9y ago
    The US has: there were lots of criminal types in the alcohol business in the 1930s. Now there are virtually gone.
    - megaman22 9y ago
      Seriously, without prohibition in the first place, so much of the police/industrial complex never would have come into existence.
      - eecc 9y ago
        You’re conflating. It’s “military/industrial complex” as Eisenhower called it. You’re probably referring to the “prison industrial complex”, the influential lobby of private prisons.
    - jrs95 9y ago
      While this is true, it's not good enough to just assume that drugs are the same as alcohol because alcohol is a drug.
      - eru 9y ago
        That's true. Eg alcohol inebriation tends to make a sizeable part of the population violent; pot eg just makes people hungry and lethargic. And from what I heard cocaine is basically sociopathy as a powder. Etc. The problem of organised crime has more to do with legal prohibition of a good that enjoys widespread demand, than with that good being a drug. See gambling or prostitution or corruption in construction. I remember some article about 'sand mining mafias' in India. Sand!
ajmurmann 9y ago
I am very concerned about stronger penalties that are there to coerce someone to do something rather than be proportional as a deterrent or whatever else the legal system is supposed to do in a given country. It puts you too much at the mercy of the police. This reminds me of the strategy prosecutors are using in the US where they are piling insane amounts of charges on to force the supposed criminal to take a plea bargain instead of going to court. To me that's a quick path to where legal systems go to die.
- eecc 9y ago
  Remember Aaron Swartz. Prosecutor Carmen Ortiz threw so much preposterous book at him that he cracked and killed himself. An indelible shame and loss for all
eru 9y ago
To add a different perspective: the only reason gangster types are in this business is exactly because it is criminalized. Gangsters aren't particularly good at doing business, and will be out-competed by professional outfits when the law allows.

by jrs95 9y ago

LeoNatan25 9y ago

If drugs are legalized—truly legalized—the need for “gangster types” diminishes and all that is left is supply and demand.

jrs95 9y ago
This is true, and I think there are a lot of ways in which that would improve things. Has anyone really taken it this far though?
- eru 9y ago
  The US has: there were lots of criminal types in the alcohol business in the 1930s. Now there are virtually gone.
  - megaman22 9y ago
    Seriously, without prohibition in the first place, so much of the police/industrial complex never would have come into existence.
    - eecc 9y ago
      You’re conflating. It’s “military/industrial complex” as Eisenhower called it. You’re probably referring to the “prison industrial complex”, the influential lobby of private prisons.
  - jrs95 9y ago
    While this is true, it's not good enough to just assume that drugs are the same as alcohol because alcohol is a drug.
    - eru 9y ago
      That's true. Eg alcohol inebriation tends to make a sizeable part of the population violent; pot eg just makes people hungry and lethargic. And from what I heard cocaine is basically sociopathy as a powder. Etc. The problem of organised crime has more to do with legal prohibition of a good that enjoys widespread demand, than with that good being a drug. See gambling or prostitution or corruption in construction. I remember some article about 'sand mining mafias' in India. Sand!

ajmurmann 9y ago

I am very concerned about stronger penalties that are there to coerce someone to do something rather than be proportional as a deterrent or whatever else the legal system is supposed to do in a given country. It puts you too much at the mercy of the police. This reminds me of the strategy prosecutors are using in the US where they are piling insane amounts of charges on to force the supposed criminal to take a plea bargain instead of going to court. To me that's a quick path to where legal systems go to die.

eecc 9y ago
Remember Aaron Swartz. Prosecutor Carmen Ortiz threw so much preposterous book at him that he cracked and killed himself. An indelible shame and loss for all

eru 9y ago

To add a different perspective: the only reason gangster types are in this business is exactly because it is criminalized. Gangsters aren't particularly good at doing business, and will be out-competed by professional outfits when the law allows.