The Wire's War on the Drug War

[Crocodiles_And_Boulevards]

If the jury-member-prospect is truly against the WoD, surely the prosecution could pick up on the fact that this person was also an activist against WoD legislation?

Because, obviously, a person who is set enough against WoD to subvert the judicial system is passionate enough about the cause to lobby the legislature, right?

(on a side note: I fail to see how refusing to convict in your own, small fry court affects society as a whole in any way. That’s not judicial activism, because your decision there doesn’t really affect any other parts of the system.)

[Maastricht]

@Ellis Dee

…so I’m interested in a debate on the merits of their idea.

The Netherlands have tested this idea for about three decades now. Here’s Wikipedia’s nuanced take on the results of that social experiment.

In the Netherlands 9.7% of young boys consume soft drugs once a month, comparable to the level in Italy (10.9%) and Germany (9.9%) and less than in the UK (15.8%) and Spain (16.4%) [9], but much higher than in, for example, Sweden (3%), Finland or Greece.
Dutch rates of drug use are lower than U.S. rates in every category. The monthly prevalence of drugs other than cannabis among young people (15-24) was 4% in 2004, that was above the average(3 %) of 15 compared countries in EU.
The reported number of deaths linked to the use of drugs in the Netherlands, as a proportion of the entire population, is lower than the EU average. But the relevance of this is unclear since the methods for registration differ from country to country. (and, if I may ad, may be even more reduced by our strict anti-gun laws). The Dutch government is able to support approximately 90% of help seeking addicts with detoxification programs. Treatment demand is rising. Another effect is a problem with an extensive drug tourism from other countries. Drug tourists are in many cases excluded from the drug related statistics from Netherlands.[citation needed]
Criminal investigations into more serious forms of organized crime mainly involve drugs (72%). Most of these are investigations of hard drug crime (specifically cocaine and synthetic drugs) although the number of soft drug cases is rising and currently accounts for 41% of criminal investigations.

[slaphead]

@Gozu

I just want to say that if your examples were meant to alienate me, they failed miserably. I completely side with the criminals in each case

Fascinating. So you are in favour of depriving your neighbours of sleep and kicking people to death in random drunken attacks.

From the last link I posted up:

Sophie Lancaster, 20, and her boyfriend Robert Maltby, 21, had been meandering home through a skate park late on a Friday night when they were set upon by a gang of teenagers in a savage and unprovoked attack, the jury heard.

The five-strong gang acted “like a pack of wild animals”, first targeting their violence on Mr Maltby, an arts student also dressed in the style of a Goth or mosher, raining punches and kicks on his head as Miss Lancaster pleaded with them to stop, it was alleged. It was as Miss Lancaster was kneeling down cradling her boyfriend’s head that the accused, along with another teenager who has already pleaded guilty to murder, are said to have turned their attention to her.

The two teenagers kicked and stamped on her head, the jury at Preston Crown Court was told.

One young witness, who tried to stop the violence, told police later: “It looked like they were running over and just kicking her in the head, jumping up and down on their head or summat . . . they were kicking her all over her head.”

Ambulance staff, who could not distinguish Miss Lancaster’s sex such were her injuries, took the couple to hospital where she died two weeks later without regaining consciousness. Her boyfriend, who has no memory of the night, survived but still suffers poor health

And you and a few other like-minded people on the jury would have resulted in a not-guilty verdict. I hope you’ll forgive me if I apply the DNFTT rule and bow out of this discussion.

[MEBuckner]

@slaphead

Fascinating. So you are in favour of depriving your neighbours of sleep and kicking people to death in random drunken attacks.

From the last link I posted up:

And you and a few other like-minded people on the jury would have resulted in a not-guilty verdict. I hope you’ll forgive me if I apply the DNFTT rule and bow out of this discussion.

Moderator’s Warning: Bow out of the discussion if you wish, but accusations of trolling do not belong in this forum.

[Gozu]

@slaphead

Fascinating. So you are in favour of depriving your neighbours of sleep and kicking people to death in random drunken attacks.

Well, no, I only agreed that people with piercings deserved a kicking (your words), not being kicked to death, mind you. Just a couple friendly kicks, not even hard enough to leave bruises*.

And anyone who can stay up for 72 hours listening to loud techno deserves respect. I’ve never been able to listen to more than 30-40 minutes. That said, he should sound-proof his house.

My more subtle point is that when you amalgamate someone playing loud techno and using drugs to someone who viciously murders without provocation, you’re alienating people because of your scary radicalism and extreme puritan goals.

*but hard enough to hurt for a few seconds. It’s for their own good.