So you only deal with ethical drug dealers? Isn’t that kind of like only fucking high-class whores?
My grandfather was a numbers runner for decades, and while I regard gambling for the most part as a harmless diversion, it didn’t change the fact that he was connected to some people who were dangerous criminals. Sometimes they’d hurt people, and sometimes other people turned up dead.
The fact that my grandfather himself never hurt anyone didn’t make him exactly an innocent party in this very organized crime. The same thing, incidentally, goes for the people who bet with him.
I came to terms with this years ago, and I think some others of you similarly need to come out of your little states of denial.
No. That’s far, far too facile, and I won’t let you get away with it.
Just because Prohibition was an unjust law didn’t mean that it shouldn’t have been followed. Nor did it mean that Al Capone was any less a brutal criminal.
Gambling is legal in Pennsylvania, though it is strictly regulated. My grandfather had no right to break those laws.
And a significant cause of this drug crime, PinkMarabou, is the criminals committing it. Their willing participation in it cannot be excused even if we detest the law in question.
Then we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that. I think (IMO) if some thngs were legalized they could be regulated and in turn safer. In Vancouver, they are providing safe-injection clinics to cut down on overdose, transmitted diseases, and are watched over by registered nurses, here.
The issue is, people are going to do it anyways, regardless to what laws are in place. Period. We need to find EFFECTIVE ways to combat the crime, disease, and addiction - rather than just outright punishment without help. I think prohibition is a dead-end road, but seems to be the fashionable one for those who sit high on their thrones and point fingers at others without looking at themselves, especially those who drink. That’s hypocritical at it’s height, IMO.
I’m open to some of that, PinkMarabou. But please consider that what my grandfather was doing was taking bets from people who would otherwise play the Pennsylvania lottery, and giving them slightly better odds. He was therefore engaged in a criminal enterprise on a product people can easily obtain legally.
The mob does the same thing when they illegally transport cigarettes and sell them without the required tax stamps.
Now, lotteries and cigarettes aren’t prohibited, yet criminals still exploit these pursuits and make millions of dollars from them.
Realizing that criminals will do so, and that they will need to be punished if they are caught, seems to be merely realistic. It doesn’t strike me as finger pointing or hypocritical in the slightest. And I’m certainly willing to disagree with you on this point, because my experience on this subject has demonstrated to me that my position more closely reflects reality.
I think you and I agree far more than what I realized.
I think where there is a legal outfit to a consumer, then by no means should a person pick the illegal route. But in some cases, there is no legal route for the consumer due to archaic laws.
I understand why people would not want ALL legalized, but I can’t understand SOME of them (i.e. MJ). I think though, that maybe a lot of the side effects from underground businesses would dissipate if laws were revisted. Although I know will never disappear, it never does - not even in legal practices. Some people will be criminals regardless. Unfortunately, this is my only offence, otherwise I’m a kind-hearted law-abiding citizen.
What denial? Look, all drugs are not the same, not just in terms of effects/dangers, but in terms of production and distribution. If you’re doing coke, yeah, it’s hard to argue that you’re not hurting anyone, because (as far as I know) pretty much all cocaine in the country can be traced back to South American drug lords, and those are a bunch of murderous thugs of the first water. On the other hand, if some ex-hippie has a couple of grow lamps set up in his closet for his own use and to share with friends, where’s the harm? Sure, it’s illegal, but who gives a shit? A lot of drugs are produced along this “cottage industry” model. Mushrooms and LSD, for example, are relatively easy to produce in small quantities for a limited circle of trusted customers.
I’m not going to argue if someone says you can’t use stuff like coke or heroin without ultimatly doing business with some seriously bad actors, and it’s not at all unreasonable to claim that anyone who does so is indirectly responsible for the harm those people inflict. But when some loud-mouthed idiot like Large Marge shows up and starts throwing around gross generalizations without making any allowances for the differences between smoking a bowl of home-grown and injecting a syringe of junk fresh of the boat from Afghanistan… well, that’s when I’m going to call bullshit.
I need an eye-batting smilie! IOW, thank you for clarifying all this, I agree 100%. There IS a difference is some cases and I wish people in high places knew this, maybe then change could happen and at least a good chunk of the violence surrounding this could come to an end.
::sigh:: Pipe dream, I know (no pun intended here).