Maria Full of Grace

[natedogg]

I watched this movie tonight and I thought it was a nice subtle, yet comprehensive critique of the USA's obscene drug war. If you're not furious about the drug war yet, you're just uninformed.

Overall it was a good film. It was a little slow and needed some editing, but enjoyable and succeeded in excoriating an American policy without turning into sheer whiny vitriol against America in general. That's hard to do, and lots of critics fail to avoid that trap, but this film did it well.

Also, Columbia appears to be some kind of hell hole, and the blame obviously lies squarely with us, the americans. It makes me sick. I feel better about invading Iraq than I do about what we've done to Columbia.


I will never, ever, as long as I live, vote for any candidate who doesn't fully endorse abandoning the insane drug war.

natedogg

[ QUOTE ]
I watched this movie tonight and I thought it was a nice subtle, yet comprehensive critique of the USA's obscene drug war. If you're not furious about the drug war yet, you're just uninformed.

Overall it was a good film. It was a little slow and needed some editing, but enjoyable and succeeded in excoriating an American policy without turning into sheer whiny vitriol against America in general. That's hard to do, and lots of critics fail to avoid that trap, but this film did it well.

Also, Columbia appears to be some kind of hell hole, and the blame obviously lies squarely with us, the americans. It makes me sick. I feel better about invading Iraq than I do about what we've done to Columbia.


I will never, ever, as long as I live, vote for any candidate who doesn't fully endorse abandoning the insane drug war.

natedogg

[/ QUOTE ]

I took this stand, and then I realized that I would like to see a voting booth once in my life.

[gamblore99]

I haven't seen this movie. But I know nothing on the drug war. Anyone care to share some knowledge or a link here?

[IronDragon1]

I have not the slightest idea as to whether or not this is sarcasm but here you go

[raisins]

If I could change any aspect of policy in the U.S., ending the drug war would far and away be my choice. Charles Bowden has written some great books on the subject. This quote is from _Down by the River_:

"Drugs are a business, one of the largest on the face of the earth, and this business exists for two reasons: the products are so very, very good and the profits are so very, very high. Nothing that creates hundreds of billions of dollars of income annually and is desired by millions of people will be stopped by any nation on this earth. A Mexican study by the nation's internal security agency, CISEN (Centro de Investigacion y Seguridad Nacional), that has been leaked to the press speculates that if the drug business vanished, the U.S. economy would shrink 19 to 22 percent, the Mexican 63 percent.(1) I stare at these numbers and have no idea if they are sound or accurate. No one can really grapple with the numbers because illegal enterprises can be glimpsed but not measured. In 1995 one Mexican drug-trafficking expert guessed that half the hotel room revenues in his country were frauds, meaning empty rooms counted as sold in order to launder drug money.(2)

page 3

Citations

(1) "The Importance of the Drug Trade in the Mexican Economy," El Diario de Juarez, June 25, 2001.

(2) Todd Robberson and Douglas Farah, "Mexican Cartels Expanding Role in Trafficking," Washington Post, March 12, 1995.

I will leave such aspects of the drug war as larger federal bureaucracies, militarized police forces, mandatory minimums, civil forfeiture, and the effect on other countries, particularly Mexico, Columbia and Peru, to your research.

I think the chance of any change in our drug policy to be slight. Despite the criticism over Iraq I don't see the neoconservatives as having been weakened all that badly. Their position can be summed up as strong government, socially conservative, and a foreign policy that favors engagement in the affairs of other countries. Ending the drug war is not in alignment with any of these.

regards,

raisins

[hmkpoker]

You don't even need links. Do this:

1) Hang with your friends on the weekends and smoke a few joints.

2) Note that your health isn't impaired, you're not getting hooked on "harder" drugs, you're not getting slipped PCP, and you're not shooting people or running children over in the drive-thru. You're just chilling out and enjoying music and cookies.

3) Realize that the only reason that it costs so much is because it is illegal, and realize that the penalties for possession are severe, despite the fact that there are no victims, and it's not dangerous.

4) Realize that any government willing to impose brutal punishment on people for doing something with no negative social reprocussions, aside from those related to its legality, and spend a LOT of your tax dollars doing it, does NOT have the people's best interests in mind.

a big reason why its in the govt interest to keep the current drug policy is there is not way for business to profit from it and tax it.

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
a big reason why its in the govt interest to keep the current drug policy is there is not way for business to profit from it and tax it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Uh...yeah, cuz right now it's illegal. Take that away and you think there won't be businesses lined up to take advantage? What do you think happens with cigs and booze?

[hmkpoker]

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a big reason why its in the govt interest to keep the current drug policy is there is not way for business to profit from it and tax it.

[/ QUOTE ]

How do you figure?

Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana products. The government gets extra tax dollars and saves the money used to prosecute people for it. The economy benefits because of the ENORMOUS savings people have to spend on other things. The citizens enjoy cheaper, better quality weed and aren't worried about getting busted.

[theweatherman]

[ QUOTE ]
a big reason why its in the govt interest to keep the current drug policy is there is not way for business to profit from it and tax it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It isnt in the government's interest to keep the drug laws at all. It only costs them huge amounts of money. It is in the interest of politicians to keep the current drug laws since they are used as away to seem tough on crime without actually doing anything. Plus the laws put people in jail that society doesnt want anyways, so the constituents like it.