Germany just legalised cannabis. Why ? This is because they expect it will reduce criminality. If criminals cannot sell cannabis, they'll get a real job and we'll all be better for it. It has not worked in the NL, it has not worked in Switzerland, it has not worked in the US, but in Germany, wait for it, in Germany it is going to work. The truth about cannabis legalisation is that it opposes people who are against cannabis consumption to people who see no harm in cannabis consumption, for the latter the harm is only in the criminality that cannabis brings from being illegal. This nis like saying that drug dealers only deal in cannabis and assume that they'll get a job once it has been legalised.
Firstly, cannabis is not something. Cannabis is a group of plants and plant mixes. Some cannabis has moderate effect while others, because it is a more effective plant or because it has been boosted, has tremendous effects. It is clear tht no government will allow the boosted cannabis, but in fact governments also regulate the effectiveness of cannabis to bring it down to low. This means that when cannabis is legal, the young get hooked on the basic legal plant and then look for more effective plants or even a boosted product. That then is provided by drug dealers.
Secondly, the economics of illegal cannabis cannot be beaten. Think about it, illegal cannabis is the mass production of cannabis distributed by well organised massive organisations, no tax is paid anywhere and at any level, manufacturing is well amortised. No new entity can beat this production and distribution outfit. It has reached category killer status.
Thirdly, the main reason for legalising cannabis is in fact not based on logics or experience but on ideology. If you believe that a young who smokes a joint is a lost soul, you will always oppose the legalisation of cannabis regardless of the criminality that comes with it. If you believe that there is no harm in smoking pot, you only see criminality as an issue. Also, the core question on cannabis is not the doubtful technical question of its legalisation but the question of what it says about our society and people. Is cannabis smoking the sign of an evolved society or the sign of a decadent society ?
Fourthly, how would you feel if you came home during the say to find your kid skkipping school to smoke pot with friends in your living room ? Research shows that regular smokers are social and economic underachievers. They are less driven to succeed or to do something with their life since they can smoke pot to feel better about themselves instead. Is that the best your kid can do ? Is it what you expect ?
Criminality is not a product of the "war" on drugs as much as it is the result of competing forces in the drug industry. Also, a large part of the criminality is drug firms fighting each other with guns. The issue is the availability of guns themselves. The other nuisance which is a much bigger one and the source of most complains are the drug city corners where the sale of drugs is taking place. The people who defend legalisation argue that nice stores selling the drug look better. But do they really ? No they do not, drug addicts hang around stores that sell drugs legally. They often will gather in parks nearby. The same parks where your kids play. And when this is legal, what will you do ?
The truth is that we are not fighting drugs with enough energy because it is now generally accepted that drug networks rarely create disorder, drug addicts are only hurting themselves if at all, and it is too costly to go after these people when there is no more space in jail. Additionally, the drug addict is not a bad person but a person with an illness. Everyone has become a victim and a sick person in our world today. Killers are not responsible. Criminals are not responsible. Drug addicts are not responsible. Responsibility has been retired. We are now making irresponsible people.
How is it possible that drugs mostly grown in countries far away enter our country freely when it is illegal ? How is it that guns do as well ? How is it that illegal immigrants set foot here ?All of these issues are based on a single issue: we do not control our borders because of an ideology that assumes it is not a good thing. Think Trump wall with Mexico, how a simple wall raised so much hatred from the left. Think migrants who die while trying to cross the sea, and how they have become our responsibility and it is our fault if they die at sea. The lack of control of our borders is the results of this new thinking.
The solution to the drug epidemic is to create treatment prisons and hermetically shut off isolation prisons for drug firms. A year without seeing anyone in a tiny cell nor talking to anyone would test the resolve of drug sellers. A year of compulsory treatment in a work prison would go a long way to help drug addicts. These cannot work if we do not control our borders. We should triple the number of border agents, build new infrastructure and invest enormously in the relevant technologies. A drug free country is far better than a legalised drug paradise.
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