4 ms·
People who think drugs should be descriminalized often have no experience with actual criminal justice, and are often recreational drug users themselves (i.e. t
by boringuser2 3y ago
People who think drugs should be descriminalized often have no experience with actual criminal justice, and are often recreational drug users themselves (i.e. too close to the issue).
It is a conspiracy theory to believe that drug criminalization has a strictly for-profit motive despite near universal adoption as a policy. That is to say, you believe a conspiracy theory casually.
- cwkoss 3y ago"Strictly" seems to be constructing a strawman - I would guess almost everyone who believes in decriminalization acknowledges other motives like puritanicalism, racism, classism, labor productivity, adherence to the societal norms, etc.
- boringuser2 3y agoRacism? Really? So, execution for drug use in Malaysia has a root cause of racism. This just goes to show you that these people have absolutely no intellectual rigor applied to any of their ideas. Their fake ideology is built strictly on a convoluted set of shibboleths that apply only loosely as semi-believable just so stories in a Western (specifically American) context.
- cwkoss 3y agoThe beginning of drug criminalization in America was directly and overly rooted in racism. This article is a good introduction to the history of US drug enforcement: https://timeline.com/harry-anslinger-racist-war-on-drugs-prison-industrial-complex-fb5cbc281189 https://timeline.com/harry-anslinger-racist-war-on-drugs-pri...
- boringuser2 3y agoQED, your post, etc. Racism theory is a Rorschach test. Suffice it to say, it's really tough to interrogate reality when you have nothing but contrapositive indications and your response is "yes, this only applies to this one instance though". This is why studying things systemically rather than through a collection of historical anecdotes you've picked up is a vastly superior system for modelling reality. This argumentum ad collection of ad hoc historical anecdotes that reify my pseudoscientific ideas is less interesting intellectually than Horoscopes. We don't need to discuss this further as it is highly incendiary and you're not allowed to have arguments about topics that make people upset, so any polemicist is basically unchecked.
- cwkoss 3y agolol yikes
- mcpackieh 3y agolike omg i just can't even
- boringuser2 3y agoIsn't a post like this in violation of Hackernews rules? Not very intellectually curious. Where's my friend?
- cwkoss 3y agoYou didn't engage with my reply, you went off on a weird monologue about why you are skeptical of racism generally..? "racism is one of the many motives for drug criminalization" is thoroughly documented and not debatable by serious people.
- standardUser 3y agoDecriminalization is a cowardly half-solution that only creates more problems, leaves violent gangs in charge and does nothing to improve the purity of drugs. A measured and thoughtful legalization program for the most popular drugs is the only solution if we want to curtail black market dominance and save human lives.
- boringuser2 3y agoYou can't save every human life.
- standardUser 3y agoOk, when it's your friend or relative that suffers an overdose you can revisit your opinion that it's better to force people to buy impure drugs than to forge a different path forward that places a higher value on human life.
- sacnoradhq 3y agoYou're incredibly misinformed on this issue. The prohibition War on Drugs is what keeps drug prices up, organized criminality and violence, and the over-incarceration of mostly poor people. Take away the difficulty of access and the ridiculous criminal penalties for nonviolent infractions, and street prices drop.
- creato 3y agoIn all cases I’m aware of, “decriminalization” refers to legalizing possession of small end user amounts. It doesn’t legalize production or sales, so the issues you described remain. If low drug prices is what you want, we should legalize the production and sales of drugs, but keep usage illegal.
- standardUser 3y agoYou are misinformed on the difference between decriminalization and legalization.
- wesselbindt 3y ago>and are often recreational drug users themselves (i.e. too close to the issue) I think this is an interesting thought. As a recreational drug user myself (I drink alcohol sometimes), I do indeed feel like drugs should be legalized, so as to enable regulation. But I don't feel like me dealing with the subject in my day to day life should have a bearing on whether I'm able to have an informed opinion on the matter. It's like saying rape victims are too close to rape and therefore their opinions on rape legislation are skewed.
- the-printer 3y ago> It's like saying rape victims are too close to rape and therefore their opinions on rape legislation are skewed. No...no.
- wesselbindt 3y agoExactly, I completely agree, it's a very silly thought! What makes drug use different from my example that people aren't able to have an informed opinion on it when they're involved?
- blitzar 3y agoIt's like saying rapists are too close to rape and therefore their opinions on rape legislation are skewed. Drug users are not the victims
- wesselbindt 3y agoOops you're absolutely right. It's like saying drivers have skewed opinions on driving legislation because they're to close to the subject matter.
- boringuser2 3y agoLiterally everyone opposes rape.