New colonies and a war on drugs

Yes, but i would read threw it more if i were you, just so you don't repeat everything that's already been said thinking that you've made a point (happens to me... haha)

Btw Devil is right, this should be in the political section now. It warrants it with the current discussion. Moved.

Dutch member here. Here's my take on this (the drugs issue):

I don't think that the drugs themselves are the problem. Most of the problems associated with them are only there because they're illegal. The cartels in Mexico for example, only exist because they're in the drug trade, which is illegal. This basically means that there's nothing that regulates the drug business, so therefore they can do whatever they want. It's complete anarchy, it's the purest form of capitalism. The result is a lot of violence, bribery and so on. It makes sense from the cartel's point of view: they're already in an illegal business, so breaking a few more laws isn't a big deal. They don't have a reputation to defend, like a legitimate business does. A legitimate company can't go around committing crimes (blue-collar ones, anyway..) because they'll lose their prestige and go out of business.

I can only think of two ways to stop that. Either eliminate the demand (i.e. users), or regulate the trade. Attempts to remove either the demand or supply have failed every time, so it makes the most sense to regulate it instead. Your plan of punishing the user will only result in massively overcrowded prisons/rehab centres, which will be a huge drain on society. In fact, enforcing the law will be more of a problem than the drugs themselves. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand where you're coming from. I know drugs can destroy people's lives. However, history has proven that straight-up fighting it doesn't work. It won't decrease demand, it increases violence and it's a drain on society. It works in a political debate, though, which is why many politicians fall into this trap.




I find your neocolonialist ideas pretty interesting, I can't see I've heard that before. One of the reasons why Africa was colonised in the first place (not the only reason), was to improve the African's standard of living. They called it the White Man's Burden (look it up), and it meant that white people had the obligation to improve the lives of everyone outside of Europe and North America. Of course, it's all very racist and it didn't amount to much in practice. It was mostly used to justify colonialism. This is exactly why it wouldn't work. People now know, and assume, that colonialism isn't about helping the poor people of the world, but it's about simple dominance and exploitation. Public throughout the world is almost universally against it ever since the end of the Second World War.

Also, I want to point out that the West isn't as great as you might think it is. Straight-up colonising and ruling Africa would require more resources than we have. We here in Europe are bankrupting ourselves to save one country from bankruptcy, which is Greece. If the entire European Union can't save Greece, then how are we supposed to help out all of Africa?




Sorry about the wall of text, but honestly I could write much more about this if I wanted to. I'm gonna call it quits now though, considering its over 2 AM here already..

Amsterdam kinda sucks, but yeah I'd be down for it for sure.. I bet half this forum is underage though.

I got about here in this thread and instantly stopped giving a fuck.

/Retarded

Yeah i stopped caring because it's obvious that mosh is young and doesn't understand how things work, so there's no point in wasting time with this.

Why? What I was trying to say there was that if kids in my neighborhood, which is supposed to be "safe" and "drug free" this happens. Think about cities like Camden and New York!

Yeah, and you want to treat hard drug addicts as criminals? Not buyin it.

You don't have too. Its what I think, not what you think.

I know, and what you think is fucked up and dumb, and I am trying to convince you so. Somewhat.

I'mm not going to change what I think. I value Chelsea and Clayman's constructive arguments. I disagree with the two, but at least they are cohesive. All your doing is insulting me. You convince people by presenting facts, learn that and you will go far.

Really? I should try that sometime, I had no idea.

Then try it here. Although I wont be on again for the next 20 hours XD

I agree with you entirely. We should help develop the African nations and I agree with you on the war on drugs. Drugs are bad so we should get rid of them. I hope that the way a War on Drugs like your plan would be waged would actually scare more people to not do it rather than actually have to put them in prison, but they must suffer the consequences.

I'm sick, tired, and somewhat high. On top of that, Marijuana Legalization is what I was all about when I first joined here, I don't want to do that right now.
So I'll tell ya what, here's a website of an organization dedicated to Marijuana legalization. Full of facts.
And for any other drug I can tell you that the government shouldn't tell people what they can nd can not do when nobody else is harmed. Prohibition creates crime and an unregulated black market. I can tell you from experience that it is much easier for a minor to acquire marijuana than say, alcohol or even tobacco. Just today I bought a chunk of hash from some kid younger than me. And I know a guy that bought weed laced with pcp, and it fucked up his head so bad they had to send him to the hospital. Not cool at all.

It appears Mosh has a misguided supporter.

And he's a fascist no less.

Well thankfully these guys will never be able to implement their plans.

Drugs are bad, mmkay?

IMO, the blacks in this country have gotten way out of control. They were better off under the white man's heel where they were taken care of and kept out of trouble.

Now I see the genius of their arguments. What was I thinking.