Every cop in town quits after Mexico attack

[onodera]

I think the ill effects of a coke-addicted populace would be greater than any advantages of being able to tax cocaine. Even with the reduced crime.

Most people won't take drugs even if they're legal, unless these drugs are heavily advertised, like ethanol, caffeine and nicotine.

[DaShi]

Which, of course, is the first thing Crack Inc. is going to do.

[rah]

Nicotine hasn't been advertised for a long time in the US and that hasn't stopped quite a few teens from joining in.

[Dinner]

Produce and tax the drug in the market, ie. The US. Thus bypassing gangs and providing money, jobs for American farmers and retailers.

Prop 19 for the WIN!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_19_%282010%29

Honestly, it isn't to far fetched to think that one day California grown marijuana might be as big as California grown wine. That's a lot of new taxable economic activity plus it will mean we stop wasting billions on policing costs and prison costs which is money we badly need for more important things.

[Cort Haus]

War on drugs is unwinnable. Legalize and tax. It's the only way.

[Hauldren Collider]

You make it sound like everyone would start using coke if it was legalized.

Certainly more people would.

[Jon Miller]

MJ should be taxed. Maybe some others.

Not sure about all, I change my mind sometimes.

One problem is that currently in CA and others places the legal weed is more expensive than the illegal weed. This puts limits on the amount of taxation that can be done (although I think that a lot would switch to legal due to it being safer and being 'legal').

JM

[Elok]

It's hard to say with any degree of certainty how many would, however. I suspect legal penalties have only a small impact on what recreational drugs are used by the public; pot gets more use than cocaine not because the penalties on cocaine are higher, but because pot is pretty well-known to have fewer negative effects than cocaine, to be less addictive. Possibly a lot of people just find "mellow, giggly and stupid" more appealing than "hyperactive and aggressive." But all this is just my vague impression. Who knows, really?

Xpost

[Felch]

HC, plenty of successful people do cocaine. It's not nearly as damaging to allow it to be legal as it is to force it underground. After all, it used to be legal, and society survived the original formula for Coca-Cola.

[C0ckney]

but would they though, where's the evidence?

i mentioned it on here before but portugal's decriminalisation of drugs suggests that addiction rates (which is the thing that matters rather than usage) won't increase, but with the right management actually fall.

[C0ckney]

damn that was one heck of an xpost - my post was to HC.

[OzzyKP]

War on drugs is unwinnable. Legalize and tax. It's the only way.

[SlowwHand]

MJ should be taxed. Maybe some others.

Not sure about all, I change my mind sometimes.

One problem is that currently in CA and others places the legal weed is more expensive than the illegal weed. This puts limits on the amount of taxation that can be done (although I think that a lot would switch to legal due to it being safer and being 'legal').

JM

The part that I've made bold is very important. People can see the benefits of revenue from taxation, but this point gets overlooked.

[MOBIUS]

Legalise it is the only way - the amount the US has wasted in its futile attempt to stem the flow of drugs into its borders with its 'War on Drugs' is in the trillions...

All it does is inflate the price and make it more lucrative for the drug lords - not to mention greatly increasing crime as people steal and rob to be able to afford the added cost of their fix.

Also, drugs like cocaine and heroin are relatively harmless in their pure forms - it's the **** that gets cut with them that is the real danger!

Only a total moron would blindly support such a useless and futile operation - or people with vested interests...

All the people that are susceptible to taking drugs are already taking them, whether they're illegal or not - what a total waste of time that is, incidentally, getting US and British troops killed in Afghanistan...

[SlowwHand]

I don't understand Mexico at all. I don't see the point in this, unless the car wash was laundering money for a rival gang.

15 people killed in Mexican car wash massacre

Associated Press

Posted on October 27, 2010 at 3:54 PM



MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash today in a Mexican Pacific coast state where drug-gang violence has risen this year.

Officials say the gunmen in three vehicles drove up to the car wash in the city of Tepic and opened fire without provocation. Fifteen men were killed and three people were injured.

The motive was not immediately clear but investigators suspect it was the work of organized crime.

In Ciudad Juarez, authorities say gunmen killed three undercover Mexican federal police officers as they waited for a person to cross a bridge from El Paso, Texas.

The Chihuahua state attorney general's office gave no further details of yesterday's shooting, but motorists crossing the Cordova Americas International Bridge were told by officials that there was a delay because of a shooting.

In an unrelated attack, a Chihuahua state police officer was killed today in his Ciudad Juarez home.