Mexico set to decriminalize pot and cocaine!

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Who cares? Bush is gone in a year and a half anyways, and the Republicans are so ****ed it's not even funny.

Repubs are no where near in trouble, but I like you youthful enthusiasm.

You would think a government such as the one we have seen would be in trouble, but just watch them roll out the 'platform issues' 18 months leading up to the elections. And they actually have some decent possible candidates. More savory than Dubya anyway.

The fact is the U.S. along with most of the world that's losing it's mind is going fundamentalist again. That plays right into the Republicans playbook. Abortion will be an issue to inflame, gay rights will be an issue to inflame, and everything we've heard off and on for the last 6 1/2 years will raise it's ugly head. They'll use fear of the outsider and 'home gorwn values' as ploys for their real agenda. Who has prospered under this last regime? Well it's obvious Bush's inner circle has.

To win the Democrats need someone with charisma and someone who can make the Democrat party MEAN something. They need a platform where they actually come out and say something other than 'we are the better choice'. They need a leader who might stand up and say. Hey! I don't like abortion, but I can't take away the freedom of a gender and a people. something more definitive anyway than what we've been hearing. The Repubs may be wrong, and confuse politics with their version of morality. Send grown people off to die, create more enemies and instablility in the world, but make a big issue of families and homosexuality. But at least they have a stance.

So what was the thread again? Oh yeah, this will be bad news for the government, but they'll flex their power.

I pesonaly believe personal drug use is up to the person. Selling and that, yes illegal, but it's far been proven that jail doesn't help you reform, therepy, groups, HELP helps you reform. Drugs have been here since the beginning of humananity and aren't going away. The two most dangerous drugs are already legal. (And you don't think the government has a part of that?) The 'war on drugs' is less socialy motivated and more money, control and power motiavted. The U.S. would be wisely adviced to loosen their stance, as the rest of the world is growing around them.

[Vulcan]

If they or us actually legalized heroin and cocaine and provided the drug at a reasonable cost. It would cut down on crime performed by the addicts and some could actually return to work as they wouldn't have to spend all their energy raising money and trying to score.
It would make our lives easier too, as there would be a lot less B&E's, home invasions and car thefts. Lots of these people would rather not be living a crappy life of crime but they have stepped over the legal line just by possesing these drugs.

As others have said it would also cut down on organized crime profits.

[Tron_fdc]

I'm in Costa Rica right now drinking cervezas anf typing away on the laptop, and the first day I rolled into Tamarindo it took me about 30 minutes before someone tried to sell me blow. Some skinny cracked out local that had a runny nose asked me if I wanted weed or yao. This was in front of a narcoticos anonimoso right beside the local nightclub.

It's pretty much legal down here, and the dealers stand on the street snorting and selling. The cops don't care, as this is apparently part of the reason all us gringos come down here. Tourist dollars rule around these parts.....and cracking down on drugs might drive away Tara Reid when she does Wild on.

Pretty sad to see what it can do to the locals who get hooked on it though. Skinny little dudes wandering around asking for change and smokes.

[Patek23]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Sounds like a great way to stimulate an already lagging economy.

Isn't the idea to get MORE productivity out of the employees, not LESS? I didn't think Mexico could lag even farther behind. Guess I'm wrong.

I don't know about you, but having experienced coke (not proud of it). The workers would be working like nobodies business as well as willing to work overtime and take a pay cut if needed. The thing about coke is that it makes you feel like doing stuff just to avoid not moving as well as it gives you a feeling that you need to help others. Now workers on weed is another thing...........................

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Flaming Homer

Now workers on weed is another thing...........................

Better than being drunk at work. What a miserable experience that was.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Hmm. If this happens, it's kind of a strange rule change. The only rational reason for it is if recreational use of these drugs has become so widespread that enforcement of the prior laws is impractical, and they've chosen to focus on dealers.

For me, legalizing pot makes sense. It's no more addictive or harmful than a million other substances that are legal. But there's a reason Coke and Heroin are illegal. Those substances will ruin people's lives whether or not they're breaking the law at the same time. I think legalizing hard drugs like that is very strange indeed.

[nfotiu]

Good for Mexico.

Laws that punish people for doing things to their own body are ridiculous and promote a general disrespect for the law.

They are only ruining their lives if you consider hanging out in a Cabana sharing your coke with playmates in bikinis ruined. Or, I guess, more likely, hanging out in some dirty house with a bunch of dirty guys playing playstation until 8am every day. But who are we to judge. Honestly though, people who "throw their lives away to drugs" were probably not so happy in that life anyway.

And if they are looking for the easy way to score some easy cash to get a quick high, they're probably the same type of person who'd satisfy their needs in some other detrimental to society way anyway if drugs were not available.

Take all that money used to catch and incarcerate the druggies, and use it to catch and punish the thieves. It is too tough, and too totalitarian to try to stop people from wanting/needing to steel from society. Just increase the risk part of the risk/benefit equation for the potential thieves.

[Cheese]

I wonder how long itll be before the books "Teachings of Don Juan" or "A Separate Reality" by Carlos Casteneda become hot sellers again.
Very interesting books.

Carlos Castaneda, an anthropology student at UCLA, had an incredible story to tell about his peyote-fueled adventures with an old Indian sorcerer he met at a bus depot on the Mexican border.

Castaneda claimed to have met a Yaqui shaman named Don Juan Matus in 1960. Castaneda's experiences with Don Juan allegedly inspired the works for which he is known. He claimed to have inherited from don Juan the position of nagual, or leader of a party of seers. He also used the term "nagual" to signify that which is unknowable, neither known nor knowable; implying that, for his party of seers, don Juan was a connection in some way to that unknowable. The term has been used by anthropologists to mean a shaman or sorcerer who is capable of shapeshifting, or changing to an animal form, and also to mean the form to which such a person might shift.
Castaneda's works contain descriptions of paranormal or magical experiences, several psychological techniques, Toltec magic rituals, shamanism and experiences with psychoactive drugs (e.g. peyote). Carlos Castaneda's works have sold more than 8 million copies in 17 languages.