View Poll Results: Did they know they were going to be smuggling drugs?

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  • Of course they did.

    7 46.67%
  • Of course they did!

    7 46.67%
  • Probably not.

    0 0%
  • Don't know.

    1 6.67%
  • Don't care

    3 20.00%
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Thread: Drug smugglers

  1. #41
    Registered User Isis's Avatar
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by stewart38 View Post
    Sounds good to me I love you all and want to have your babies
    I've changed my mind - tighten up the drug laws IMMEDIATELY!

  2. #42
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Chef View Post
    I see the advantage in decriminalising drugs not as an answer to the problem, just a way of trying to limit the harm that they do.

    If the state provided the supply and controlled the circumstances under which they taken then the advantages would be

    to the public

    All the dealers, their lookouts, couriers and armed protectors would suddenly have no trade. These people are just a menace to the population.

    The police would not have to investigate all the dealers, smugglers, drug related violence and killings. The courts would not be needed to try and convict them a the prisons would not have to contain them and feed them and manage their release.

    Addicts would not have to steal to pay for their addiction so fewer people would be the victims of crimes committed by addicts. As above fewer police, court and prisons would be needed.

    To the addicts themselves.

    The drugs they would get would be of a known purity and concentration, not contaminated by all sorts of junk that is going to further destroy their bodies above and beyond the damage that the drugs themselves are doing.

    The needles they get to use would be clean and would be disposed of properly so the the equipment that they use would not be a danger to them or the public. The cost of providing herion to an addict for a year is about £19k but the cost of treating Hepatitis or HIV is much higher (and you would still have the addiction to feed).

    The addicts are vunerable violence when they are buying from a dealer. They are vunerable when they are intoxicated. If they don't have to interact with ruthless people they are safer. If they can get their drugs in a safe enviroment they are safer.

    No female addict would have to prostitute themselves just to feed an addiction. Pimps who get people addicted so that they can maintain control over them would lose that control.



    Just because there are advantages of decriminalistion of drugs it doesn't mean that if we go that way then all would be rosy. It could just mean that we get a huge rise in the number of addicts and the rest of the population would have to work to provide the resources to support them in their drug habit, food and shelter as they lay about intoxicated all day.

    There is a country (might be Yemen or a country near it) where chewing the leaves of a plant have hallucienogenic effects is so widespread that 25% of the countries GDP goes on growing and transporting the stuff. How would this country look if 25% of our GDP went on supporting our addict population? What would we have to give up? Health service? Schools? Roads?
    Great post Chef.

    Surely the government must know all this though.

    I reckon they're taking a juicy cut.

  3. #43
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Isis View Post
    I saw a documentary about a pilot scheme whereby instead of drug addicts being put on methadone, they were prescribed the actual drug by their GP in progressively lower doses while attending a therapist to deal with the addiction. The people were still able to work and function reasonably while dealing with their problem and didn't need to go near a drug dealer.
    In one sense, it is a pilot scheme.

    In another sense, it is a return to the UK drugs policy from the 70s, terminated by Col. Blimps in the conservative government who trumpeted about how ridiculous it was to treat addicts by prescribing the addictive drug.

    US drugs advisors warned that if we changed our policy to one like the US policy, we'd soon have a drugs problem like they did in the US.

    Guess what?!
    Last edited by Barry Shnikov; 23rd-November-2007 at 05:45 PM.

  4. #44
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Astro View Post
    Sorry, I have run out of rep.

    Very brave post Barry, considering it would cause a whole lot less work for you.

    ..........or is it because you know it's never going to happen?
    Don't do criminal work, don't like dealing with...um...with criminals.

    I have faith - oops, er, what was the word I meant to use? - er I have confidence that eventually, when it is clear to everyone that criminalisation and interdiction of drugs does not and never will work, people will finally realise that something else has to be given a try.

  5. #45
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Shnikov View Post
    Don't do criminal work, don't like dealing with...um...with criminals.

    I have faith - oops, er, what was the word I meant to use? - er I have confidence that eventually, when it is clear to everyone that criminalisation and interdiction of drugs does not and never will work, people will finally realise that something else has to be given a try.
    But all the criminal lawyers may try to muscle in on your patch.

  6. #46
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Double Trouble View Post
    Alcoholics are dangerous in other ways and we shouldn't be saying "We have drunks on street corners so why not drug addicts?". We should be saying "lets deal with both of these problems".
    Which is what I was suggesting. Are people who abuse alcohol really much better for society than drug users? You hear far more about social problems such as; drunk and disorderly behaviour, drunk drivers and abusive alcoholic husbands (and wives) . With drugs, many of the crimes are crimes to get money to do more drugs - surely legalisation is the way to go? The only people to suffer will be the drug lords.

  7. #47
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Growing drugs is more lucrative than growing coffee.

    This is where Fair trade comes in.

    But the farmers who refuse to grow the drugs are threatened into it at gunpoint.

    Plus more rainforest is cleared for logging, then turned over to grow drugs, contributing to global warming.

  8. #48
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Astro View Post
    Growing drugs is more lucrative than growing coffee.

    This is where Fair trade comes in.
    So you're saying we have a moral duty to stick to Fair Trade cannabis?

  9. #49
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by straycat264 View Post
    So you're saying we have a moral duty to stick to Fair Trade cannabis?
    No, if drugs were legal, not so much would need to be grown as not so much would be destroyed by the police and customs - well I hope they destroy it.

    So no new rainforest chopped down.

    Also if drugs were legal, there would be no drug barons to make slaves of the farmers.

    Hope this answers your question?

  10. #50
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Astro View Post
    But all the criminal lawyers may try to muscle in on your patch.
    Good point!

    Curses.

    Right, I'd like to announce a U-turn in my policy towards drugs...

  11. #51
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by Astro View Post
    well I hope they destroy it.
    I'm sure they do... one way or another....

    Overall, yes... I agree that legalisation could potentially solve a lot of problems. I don't think it's nearly enough though, and a lot more would be (is) needed along the lines of tackling route causes, helping drug addicts / alcoholics etc... but that's something we need regardless.

    I still think that if most people danced, there'd be less problems. Maybe I'm too much of an idealist .

  12. #52
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    Re: Drug smugglers

    Quote Originally Posted by straycat264 View Post
    I'm sure they do... one way or another....
    I know someone who was quite high up in Customs.

    He said the dockers could lift a crate of vodka on a crane and put it down on the dock in such a way that only one bottle would be broken.

    Of course, this meant the whole crate was void.

    The vodka would then go into their on site shop, where staff could buy it dirt cheap.

    I'm not sure if excess booze/fags taken off the travellers went into the shop, but I think so.

    Mezzo might know more.

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