Sad Dick has no authority in this matter, end of

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.

The whole thing is stupid. You can literally smell the grow houses too. Has to be decriminalised at the very least, in order to reflect the reality of the situation - whether people like it or not. It's here, millions smoke it, get some tax from it, get rid of the crooks and let police go after more serious offenders.

Red and Blue Army!

Then there is the Peter Hitchen's line that cracking down on drugs has never actually been tried.

There are also lots of implications once you officially accept and widen hallucinogens' cultural acceptance within society....because there are consequences society has to then explicitly own, policy changes that increase drug usage and hence dependency.....that's something China found out when we forced them to trade in opium....there's the increase in mental illness....it'll also widen the social productivity gap between people...plus the state will have to admit social responsibility...as it does implicitly does with alcohol and gambling that they are making profit from personal misery due to natural human flaws....which are majority genetic.

Personally I don't think this issue has any good answers.

Edited by Stirlingsays (16 May 2022 3.09pm)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

I also lived through this time. I knew what was going on and I wasn't even part of those scenes. If I knew then the fuzz certainly did...they never had a zero tolerance policy, they always chose their battles and when to draw a blind eye. So on that point we would differ I agree with Hitchens that this battle was never seriously taken on.

If we go with the Hitchen's line and have society go hardcore on drugs, then we both know that you are going to need major investment in prisons and all the rest of it. Because what you are essentially doing is looking to shift the culture. During that effort a lot of otherwise harmless people are going to get criminal records as they did in the past....but it would be far more and more severe. That's also damaging people.

But more than anything I think the cost was part of the reason the politicians only ever gave anti drug policies lip service. That and the fact that a significant percent of the middle class and as you say....the politicians themselves love their secretive drug habits and Turkeys don't vote for Xmas.

Saying all that doesn't mean I agree that we should go with Hitchen's hardcore anti drugs route....the truth is I don't think there is a 'good' answer. Whichever line you took there are good arguments to say you are worsening society. I laid some of them out, it's not as though the pro or anti position comes without a downside.....maybe that's why the 'fudge' position has been here for decades.

Edited by Stirlingsays (16 May 2022 3.42pm)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)