Almost every day there is a report of people being killed or seriously injured in drug related crimes. Gangs having gun battles in the street using military grade weapons, innocent bystanders killed by stray bullets. Why can’t the powers that be do anything to smash the drug gangs? Is this yet another scenario where human rights defenders make effective intervention impossible.
Gus
Human rights defenders? If that’s the first reason that pops into your head then maybe time to step away from the right wing, populist news sources.
It’s money. Drugs are a massive, massive business and increasingly sophisticated at one end, and accessible at the other. . The sums of money involved are way outside the capability of the pubic sector to control.
Drug money fuels other sorts of organised crime, people trafficking, prostitution, pornography etc.
Of course, if people stopped taking drugs and men stopped going to prostitutes or buying pornography there would be no market.
I get my news from a wide range of sources. The drugs problem is huge. It is all down to supply and demand. I have one family member who died as a result of taking illegal drugs so know from personal experience the devastating effect that drug abuse has. Why cannot we stamp out the illegal drug trade. Is it due to a lack of means or an unwillingness to hit back?
Gus
I was rather taken aback by this tale related to me by my student (in English!).
Apparently, there is a very organised drug dealing organisation located in a part of Carpentras, 5 km from our village, that he had previously warned me not to visit.
As all 21 year olds pass news amongst each other, he learned of a fellow he knows (knew) who had been making quite good money to sit in his car all day being a lookout for police. Seems the drug dealer stands on the park corner; ‘protection’ chaps hang out nearby; the block is then covered by multiple lookouts.
One fellow, for hours sitting in his car, had another youth walk up alongside and swipe a knife across the lookout’s neck. Dragged from the car, he staggered a short way and expired.
The assailant then took his lucrative place as lookout for the gang.
Many western countries have devoted enormous resources into combatting drugs over a very long period, but with limited success. The ‘problem’ is that they are seen as cool, interesting, exciting, enhancing, mystical, fun etc and the typical target market ‘knows’ that they can handle it and will be OK. Legalising drugs and selling them through government managed and licensed outlets would go some way to eliminating the mystique while dropping prices and ensuring they were clean, but you know that a small portion of society would still crave the illegal versions because they’d believe they were better/more potent or whatever.
Basically ordinary people need to wise up, but of course they never do.
Supply and demand. Problem is that there is so much profit in illegal drugs and virtually no end of customers.
What we need to find is an elixir that blocks the effects of specific illegal substances, while removing the addictive chemical dependence.
Because prohibition has never worked and will never work - humans have always got high. The war on drugs has failed in every country where it has been tried, and France is no different.
Next question.
The “war” against drugs, declared by Tricky Dicky Nixon in 1971, isn’t winnable and is incredibly expensive, after fifty years it’s worse than ever. A smarter approach is required.
Portugal seems to have done quite well with it’s policy of decriminalisation, seemingly resulting in less drug-related crime and fewer drug-related deaths. I suspect that it would take a certain degree of political maturity, that many nations simply do not have, to work through the moral outrage of certain elements of society as they puff on their fags and throw back another bottle of plonk.
The article provides a general overview of drug use in France. It’s important to note that the information provided is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. If you have any concerns about drug use, it’s always best to consult with a healthcare professional or a legal expert.
The main problem with drugs is that in the last century and a half use and supply has been criminalised - which tends to attract bad people I am afraid.
Every human culture uses drugs, there is even evidence that quite a lot of animals will seek out alcohol if they can.
The bottom line is that you generally will not have much sucess trying to prevent what is actually normal behaviour, no matter how much you try.
Easily fixed. Every recreational narcotic is legally available from Government shops and genetically/chemically watermarked.
All employers retain the right to drug test their staff daily and fire on the spot for breach of their drug use policy.
Anyone found in possession of non-HMG supplied drugs is shipped to Ulan Bator for 5 years hard Labour. Anyone caught driving under the influence joins them.
Anyone caught distributing non-HMG supplied gets to mine uranium for the CCP until it kills them.
Have you seen Cocaine Bear? Based on true facts although embellished to make a horror film.
I’m all for decriminalisation and settling up a safe (and taxable c.f. alcohol) supply system. Nothing else has, or ever will, work and it would (should) release a massive amount of resources. Of course we’re talking mainstream drugs here - cocaine, heroin, cannabis, ecstasy. There will always be chemists cooking up something else and some substances are just too dangerous, eg fentanyl from China.
I appreciate that your post is tongue in cheek but presumably such policies would also apply to alcohol and tobacco?
Why tobacco? It doesn’t affect people’s judgement in anywhere near the same way as booze and dope.
Haven’t come across that one though the Wikipedia summary makes it sound as though the bear accidentally consumed the cocaine.
Elephants quite regularly get pi**ed on fermented fruit though.
As do deer, I have see a few stoating around 