another alternative, Prosper states which are the target of drug Smuggling, can supply alternative and profitable seeds and purchase their harvest at the end since it would reduce the cost of fight against narco-economy, and this would create some reason to stay legal for such poor ppl...
But lets be honest, Such large organizations couldn't be possible if major states (or deep states) wouldn't involve this business.. it is the financial source of all covered operations...

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That sounds like planned economy in my ears. Don't think it would work too good. But perhaps worth a thought.

You just have to be cautious, not that you make other nations drug growers, just to get into the cheap seeds program...

I dont think we should lower the price of cigarettes. Smokers choose to ruin their health, they should bring in their share to finance the consequences. We are talking here about more than a few thousand junkies.
The smuggling might be even with lower prices an issue, of course however a far smaller one. As long as there are any taxes on it.

Legalizing hard drugs is very problematic. You do not less than allow to sell death. Thats not right in my eyes. We have already now effective programs for addicts to hard drugs. Its not a too large business. The soft drugs are a far larger one. (Not only because you do not kill your own customers.) I am totally for even improving the addict programs further. Perhaps even in the future prescribing hard drugs for addicts, but no way legalizing dealing them on the streets.

How large is the problem with hard drugs anyway, that we should sell our soul on it?

If opium wasnt outlawed, opium big business would emerge and put the cartels out of business.

Damn, I thought the name of this thread was how to beat an opium addiction. Got my hopes up.

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Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars. ... I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask no one to live for me, nor do I live for others. I covet no mans soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

Ayn Rand, Anthem.

According to the German government there are about 120,000 to 150,000 opiate addicts in Germany alone. So I don’t think the problem is really so negligible. And look what it does to contries like Colombia and Afghanistan. Heroin has been used as medicin. From 1898 through to 1910 it was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children. In Germany, it was legal up to 1971!



It obviousliy has some nasty side effects, but drug addicts usually don’t die from Heroin. An overdose is the most likely way to cause death (often caused by changing quality of illegal heroin) and for intravenous users of heroin, the use of non-sterile needles and other related equipment leads to the risk of contracting blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and lots of other dangerous diseases. Another risk is potential poisoning from contaminants added to "cut" or dilute heroin (or other drugs). That is causing the way more than thousand drug related casualties every year in Germany alone. And a lot of those deadly effects is just caused by the criminalization and could be avoided by a controlled legalization. For example morphine is still a perfectly legal substance, a controlled substance though. It's also an addictive drug but does everybody take morphine just because it's legal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin

Morphine is highly restricted as far as I know. You need a good reason if you want to get it. Its the last resort pain killer, isnt it? So for the average joe it might be as legal to take morphine as to take herion.


Mal, what I could imagine perhaps would be heroine on prescription, probably under the observation of treatment by a doctor, therapist or such.

Dealing Heroine should remain illegal. Why should one make it legal, you could even create a basis for addicts to get the dope legal at prescription while persecuting everyone who is dealing with it.

You are not allowed to deal with Morphine either, are you?

That's what I say. I don't want Heroin free to buy in a supermarket. But it must be available for drug addicts for a low price and absolutely legal. Let special doctors or pharmacies distribute the stuff. If that happens, there will be no illegal market for Heroin (or other hard drugs). This would be very beneficial for our society as most of the negative effects could be avoided. And it would be even more beneficial for countries like Afghanistan ... at least in the long run ... the war lords won't disappear from one day to the other ... but in the long run the business can be run by legal institutions and corporations. The syndicates will lose their financial ground.

The "war on drugs" that we know today is absolutely bullshit. It costs a ridiculous amount of money and it has never worked, it doesn't work nowhere and it will never work, unless the gains that can be made on the illegal market are still incredibly high. Prohibition and restriction creates more and far worse problems than it solves. The only laws that can destroy the drug problem are the laws of supply and demand. The only way of fighting an illegal market is to offer a more efficient legal market.

I have an idea (this has probably been said here already). Let people grow poppies if they want. We already pay the middle east a lot of $$ for oil, why add opium to the list ?

We're just funding groups of people that want to destroy us.