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They look at the West with its respect for the human rights of drug dealers and notice that it seems to suffer from tens of thousands of drug overdoses every ye

They look at the West with its respect for the human rights of drug dealers and notice that it seems to suffer from tens of thousands of drug overdoses every year as well as creating tens of millions of addicts inflicting crime and squalor on their communities. They notice that the streets of Singapore aren’t littered with needles like they are in San Francisco. They think you’re the moral idiot for tolerating this societal catastrophe in the name of human rights. Singapore’s leaders believe that their severity is a small price to pay for keeping at bay the vices of the outside world. What would you say to them to convince them that they’re wrong?

mmarq 5y ago
> What would you say to them to convince them that they’re wrong? That the West is not littered with needles, so their severity is a massive price to pay for a minuscule gain.
- voakbasda 5y ago
  Been to a public park in a big city lately? I have some sad news for you…
  - mmarq 5y ago
    Rome, London, Berlin, Paris and Milan in the past 2 months. I haven’t seen a used needle in decades (I saw a needle only once when I was a child)
    - pvaldes 5y ago
      We really want to reduce this to a littering problem? After the NYTimes, about 159000 people were killed by drugs between 2015 and 2017 just in US. 591000 Americans had problems related with Heroine abuse in 2015, how many of this people are dead now, or will end dying under a bridge? Their predators will not stop just by asking nicely. I don't agree with the punishment, but something must be done and either you send a very clear message of non tolerance with traffic or you allow the drug lords to take all, infiltrate in the government and corrupt everything in a few years. The best solution would be to legalize, tax and regulate what could be regulated but in the meanwhile I don't have a lot of sympathy for this people. Better to save it for the real victims.
      - mmarq 5y ago
        > We really want to reduce this to a littering problem? We really are pretending that if there’s an opiates epidemic in some areas of the USA, then the whole West has a severe drug problem? The person I replied to claimed western cities are littered with needles, then another one came and told me that he had bad news re: public parks in big cities.
DennisP 5y ago
That the US still criminalizes drug use. Portugal decriminalized in 2001 and "has seen dramatic drops in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime." https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...

mmarq 5y ago

> What would you say to them to convince them that they’re wrong? That the West is not littered with needles, so their severity is a massive price to pay for a minuscule gain.

voakbasda 5y ago
Been to a public park in a big city lately? I have some sad news for you…
- mmarq 5y ago
  Rome, London, Berlin, Paris and Milan in the past 2 months. I haven’t seen a used needle in decades (I saw a needle only once when I was a child)
  - pvaldes 5y ago
    We really want to reduce this to a littering problem? After the NYTimes, about 159000 people were killed by drugs between 2015 and 2017 just in US. 591000 Americans had problems related with Heroine abuse in 2015, how many of this people are dead now, or will end dying under a bridge? Their predators will not stop just by asking nicely. I don't agree with the punishment, but something must be done and either you send a very clear message of non tolerance with traffic or you allow the drug lords to take all, infiltrate in the government and corrupt everything in a few years. The best solution would be to legalize, tax and regulate what could be regulated but in the meanwhile I don't have a lot of sympathy for this people. Better to save it for the real victims.
    - mmarq 5y ago
      > We really want to reduce this to a littering problem? We really are pretending that if there’s an opiates epidemic in some areas of the USA, then the whole West has a severe drug problem? The person I replied to claimed western cities are littered with needles, then another one came and told me that he had bad news re: public parks in big cities.

DennisP 5y ago

That the US still criminalizes drug use. Portugal decriminalized in 2001 and "has seen dramatic drops in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime." https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...