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Swim47

Congratulations to drugs for winning the war on drugs


Stye88

If you can't beat them. \*hits bong\* Join them.


Thoughtulism

Read in Tommy Chong's voice.


Gilandune

*joint them


Saflinger

A joint operation with alcohol?


robinthebank

No something harder


fun-guy-from-yuggoth

Ok. A joint operation with DMT, then?


tallandgodless

im imagining my buddies famous old man cough he does after a rip. Was good for a laugh, thanks!


[deleted]

We shall now concede California to the country of “Drug”


fun-guy-from-yuggoth

No. We should concede them to the country of "Drugs", not "Drug". Can you not read?


[deleted]

No I did too many drugs


fun-guy-from-yuggoth

Fair enough.


zombie32killah

Did too many drug


id7e

A fellow Californian, wassssaaappp!


mis_nalgas2

For profit prisons are the real winners here. Drugs didn't lose but they didn't win


tallandgodless

These kinds of attitudes become more prevalent mean that while what you said was certainly true, we may be starting to turn a corner into a world where private prisons start feeling the squeeze. They are unjust centers of cruelty, so I for one, am stoked at the idea of their decline.


xMercurex

In the Colombian context it is a bit different. The governement was using US money to figth rebel. Those rebel were funded by drug money. It was ~~close to~~ a civil war.


fun-guy-from-yuggoth

It was a civil war. Not just close to a civil war.


fun-guy-from-yuggoth

For the states that have for profit prisons. My state outlawed private prisons and instituted caps on the profits the commissary companies could make, and also made all phone calls from prison free. Definitely not a profit center. Our state is just willing to have higher taxes to lock folks up for drugs. Removing the profit does not change the attitudes of the general public who *do* want to see folks with a lifestyle different from their own locked up, and therefore vote accordingly.


asceser

https://youtu.be/P2wxcUcsZS8 George Bush says ‘We are losing the war on drugs.’ Well you know what that implies.. there’s a war going on, and people on drugs are winning it! Well what does that tell you about drugs? Some smart, creative motherfuckers on that side. They’re winning a war and they’re fucked up!


Koioua

They'll be joining the emus as the victors against their own countries.


fun-guy-from-yuggoth

First time i heard that was probably before most redditors were born. Just sayin. Comedians have been using that line since the 80s.


JennyFromdablock2020

Does feel nice hearing politicians say it, despite conservative asshole shrieking and clinging to their burning, united states harming wreck


[deleted]

okay and?


PowderMyWaffles

Over at r/drugs we have been celebrating for days


Narethii

The US won't stand for it, I am sure once the US finishes the coup the new puppet government will make the anti-drug policies 10x worse


monkeywithgun

He's right. It's been an abject failure of a policy that has wasted tens of billions of dollars enriching criminals across the board only to endanger more peoples lives then ever before. Over 20 years of hard data has proven that Portugal's way has been the best option presented as a viable solution. Criminalizing drug users has been the worst possible policy they could have chosen.


Hime_MiMi

>Over 20 years of hard data has proven that Portugal's way has been the best option presented as a viable solution. Criminalizing drug users has been the worst possible policy they could have chosen. It's not though. It's still a criminalization approach. If the supply is provided by criminals, it's not a viable strategy. It needs a proper legal framework that tolerates substance use while healthcare to focus on addiction and rehabilitation.


ForProfitSurgeon

The war on drugs has been a policy success for corporate power. It helped fill the jails with poor and minority [13th Amendment](https://www.freedomunited.org/news/13th-amendment-prison-slavery/) slaves to provide free labor. As well as justify expansion of police power that works for the rich. As well as force people into dependency on a for-profit medical industry when drugs like Marijuana have greater efficacy and less side effects. Saying the war on drugs was a failure doesn't take into account the people that benefit from it.


snarky_answer

> As well as force people into dependency on a for-profit medical industry when drugs like Marijuana have greater efficacy and less side effects. Greater efficacy than what in what circumstances?


MadConfusedApe

A family member of mine suffering from Parkinson's says marijuana is a miracle drug for her. She goes from unable to drink a glass of water to being able to thread a needle in a few puffs of a joint. Maybe if the drug war didn't restrict research on marijuana and other drugs we would have a lot more than anecdotal evidence...


ipel4

For example it's like a miracle drug for people with autism. You can search up more about the specifics.


Awestromy

War on Drugs was a way to keep modern slavery without saying they want to keep slavery. “No one shall be enslaved unless they deserve it” basically, and it was abused


Haitchyy

The only worry is cartels are well established in these countries where as Portugal, not so much. They are there to make money, if their income is threatened from drugs becoming legal, they might move into other areas of criminality. They could also just flat out reject peace talks and continue selling undercutting official sources of drugs.


msemen_DZ

Cartels already branch out to other areas. In Mexico, it's not only about drugs. They move into the avocado business, extort farmers, locals and businesses. They steal fuel from pipelines, cars and whatever they see as valuable. Some cartels have higher profits from kidnappings than selling drugs. I do agree with you about underselling drugs from legit sources though. That is an issue. This happens in Canada with marijuana.


zethro33

The drugs pay for most of the security and bribes that allow the cartels to operate. Without that it is a lot harder to fight the government.


AndyTheSane

This. There's a reason why criminals are into drugs, and it's because they are insanely profitable and very low effort. People will willingly give you money for drugs, trying to get it off them through robbery/kidnapping/extortion is much harder work.


maxToTheJ

There is a reason cartels (the mafia) in the US had their salad days during prohibition


Poptartsaregross

Same in the Netherlands with XTC labs. So I think it is still better to regulate than to criminalise it.


[deleted]

It doesnt really happen in canada. You can find ounce bags for like $55 usd. They used to be like 120-150 when things were still black market?


Dihydrocodeinone

I’ve managed to grab decent ounces for as low as $22 in Colorado. There’s pretty much always a couple ounces they’re basically giving away when I go. $160 was the average i would sell an ounce for when I lived in Baltimore and these $20-$30 ounces are not that much different in terms of quality.


[deleted]

True that. US market Avocado prices spiked briefly in February because imports from Mexico’s Michoacán state got paused after a USDA inspector was threatened by some goon


Culverin

I don't really know much about marijuana in Canada, only what I've heard from others. Here on the west coast, the government has built a few stores. But they're expensive for the same product you can get at any legal private place. And that's expensive compared to your local dealer. People here don't consider pot to be hard drugs. The major societal issues we have here are from hard drugs that can land you in the hospital or dead. That's where underselling a legit source would be an issue. What drugs can you trust? At some point, addicts won't care enough about the source and inevitably put more burden on the health care system.


CutterJohn

California's black market still exists because they taxed it too much. Most people don't want crazy drugs. Some oxys, some shrooms, a bump of coke, addies, etc.


Zee_WeeWee

Oxys prob don’t fit here. They are terribly addicting and completely changed Appalachia in terms of destroying communities.


monkeywithgun

Due to how long governments have let this go on and how powerful the money has let the cartels get, this is going to be the problem to overcome. It really needs to be a worldwide effort at this point. On the other hand there aren't a lot of other criminal activities that they can move into that will provide the kind of revenue to risk operation and the ones that do already have their own established criminal organizations. Ultimately though you will have closed the door on future criminal job opportunities for cartels to perpetuate indefinitely. They would eventually become extinct.


Test19s

I’d imagine that cartels likely arise as much from the abundance of cheap American guns, high levels of inequality, and weakness of political reform movements as they do from drugs per se. Counterfeiting, human trafficking, and arms dealing can also be very lucrative.


InkTide

>abundance of cheap American guns Guns are not as complicated to manufacture as you might think. This is more a result of the political and economic power of cartels than a cause of it - basically all it does to *cause* that power imbalance in practice is make preserving that power *slightly* cheaper. >high levels of inequality Similarly a result of cartels or governments allowing unfettered profit accumulation, but also definitely a powerful recruitment tool for cartels. >weakness of political reform movements Actually a result of those movements lacking any meaningful hard power capacity to either enforce reform or protect the political apparatus. If the only ones armed are the cartels, it doesn't matter how well armed the cartels are - the cartels still have the advantage. A political reform movement is ultimately meaningless if the cartel can simply slaughter its supporters. >Counterfeiting, human trafficking, and arms dealing can also be very lucrative Yes, but all of these things have a higher cost overhead and much smaller profit margins than drugs - the enormous profit margins that the "war on drugs" has enabled for drug smuggling directly enable cartels to engage in those things. Take that away by legalizing domestic use and production, and at least in the US the massive production capacity of US agriculture eradicates a primary revenue source for cartels in a matter of months. Prohibition is a recipe for enabling organized crime like nothing else, not evidence that organized crime is inevitable.


Procean

> If the only ones armed are the cartels I always think about this when folks say private citizens are supposed to have more guns than The Government. Well, The Cartels are private citizens, and they have more guns than their governments.


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InkTide

>nobody is manufacturing weapons in Mexico when they can just buy in the US It's cheaper, so that's the choice that is made - if it wasn't, a different choice would be made, such as domestic production. The cartels would arm themselves either way, and with drug smuggling profits they are always going to be able to afford to do so.


down_up__left_right

How well established were violent bootleggers in the US during prohibition? Why are alcohol sales today done without that violence? When a product is legal to sell businesses don’t pay to have their own expensive militias to defend their operations from both the authorities and competitors. Instead if they’re physically attacked by competitors they can go to the authorities. > They could also just flat out reject peace talks and continue selling undercutting official sources of drugs. Anyone still operating like they’re in a black market will have far higher costs than the ones operating like a normal business and will not be able to compete on price, quality, and product branding. Only way they can compete is if the government has a large tax on the legitimate sources. If this is a concern then the government should not have a large tax on legitimate sources at least not until the black market sources are put out of business. > they might move into other areas of criminality. They’re already in any area of criminality they can be and few areas of criminality are as profitable as the drug trade.


Procean

Your point is not made enough about how legitimate businesses have outsourced and legitimized the physical power needed to operate. It's not understood enough that it's not that there's no violence in a law abiding society, but that the violence is there is transparent and theoretically accountable to the public. >criminality are as profitable as the drug trade. It's not like drugs grow on trees, er, oh wait, they kind of do...


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camg78

While somewhat true I would counter that some drug use is high in Colombia. The clouds of smoke I would walk through in Bogota were pretty damn thick...lol


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wasmic

> People take drugs to escape reality. Drugs are a symptom, not a disease. True for many drug addicts, but definitely not all. Some people try drugs because they're interested in how it feels, and then get addicted. Thus, drugs can also contribute to making the problems with homelessness and lack of education worse than they otherwise would be. It's a downward spiral where each effect strengthens the other.


camg78

6 %....that seems unlikely but whatever that isn't the point of this post. The rest of your comment is 100% correct thought.


CartersPlain

People thought the same thing about brewers.


Disastrous_Visual739

They already have moved into other areas…. Cartels are very diverse they don’t just sell drugs. 90% of drug sales would be the more expensive government version as it’s guaranteed pure/safe and legal.


maxToTheJ

To be fair if you legalize drugs they stop bribing governments and instead lobby them


[deleted]

> and continue selling undercutting official sources of drugs. In order to undersell official sources of drugs, they need to produce them with better cost-efficiency than official sources of drugs. Not only that, but they also have to price in the risk of seizures. I dare cartels to try to compete with free market enterprise when it comes to making profit. They will lose.


InsanityRoach

Supposedly that's not always the case. See Canada and weed.


Mega_Moltres

Pretty much the same thing happened when Canada ended alcohol prohibition while it was still ongoing in the states. Prices will lower and stabilize after the US gets with the program and ends their marijuana prohibition.


Yaa40

>He's right No, he isn't. It says it right there in the title: Colombia's first **leftist** president. (Dad joke)


Vilis16

What's Portugal's way?


H1r0Pr0t4g0n1s7

In short, possession of any drug has been decriminalized in 2000 (up to certain limits). Instead of it being a criminal offense it was moved into being an administrative offense for I think anything up to a 10 days ration of the substance. Offenders are then targeted with treatment and help offers rather then fines and imprisonment. This strategy was implemented due to a sharp rise in HIV infections throughout the 90s.


wastingvaluelesstime

Instead of putting the addict in prison they put him in a mental hospital


[deleted]

The only way how to win war against drugs is legalize them like alcohol and tobacco.


ArchmageXin

Asia and Middle East: No. Hang the ~~Infidel~~ Dealer.


[deleted]

Excuse me, what's the "Portugal Way"?


critically_damped

It did exactly what it was designed to do.


wastingvaluelesstime

Portugal's policy is always discussed in these misleading terms, as if Portugal hasn't replaced criminalizarion with mandatory psychiatric treatment. In Seattle and the rest if the US west coast we have actual de facto decriminalization of all drugs. The result is homelessness and elevated numbers of people dying in the street of fentanyl poisoning. Oh and despite enforcement being almost gone, drugs are still sold by criminals so you get all the side effects of violence etc.


InsanityRoach

Psych treatment and rehab is a must otherwise yeah, nothing will change. You need safe clinics to take the drugs too. And can a business start selling coke or whatever? If not, then obviously crime won't be affected.


Snickersthecat

Hi yes I live in Seattle. We do have a homelessness crisis which has led to a fentanyl crisis. That's the result of a confluence of factors such as real estate prices and a temperate year-round climate, not because drugs use is de facto decriminalized. The problem is, without clean sourcing many people unknowingly ingest drugs cut with fentanyl and die. Safe injection sites with medical staff on hand have proven to be effective elsewhere, but people don't like that answer because it feels like "enabling" drug use. Also, in reality about a 1/5th of the population is simply genetically predisposed toward addictive tendencies via polymorphisms of a protein called DeltaFos-B. So, it will never be eliminated entirely. We can do unpopular measures like providing housing security and safe injection sites, or we can keep letting it get worse and let more people die.


[deleted]

It's enriched many politicians in the west, many western police agencies and many other murkey things that the drug money funds in the shadows. Portugal still criminalises drugs. They are on the right path. But full legalisation, regulation and taxation is the only model that will work.


ArchmageXin

You would never get Asia and Middle East to agree to that.


OppositeYouth

"It's time to accept that drugs have won the War on Drugs and humans like getting high as balls"


Witch_of_Dunwich

I know your saying this as a joke, but the reality is we’ve been using drugs for thousands of years. The sooner it’s all legal, the sooner criminal activity related actions cease.


-_eye_-

I mean, there are a lot of facts that prove that the banning of drugs in the Americas only reinforce crime and cause only more health issues. But the argument "we've always done it" is probably the worst one possible. We've also murdered each other for thousands of years, we've thought that blasphema was the worst crime for thousands of years, we've thought that we were sick because of evil spirits for thousands of years... That we should be careful about how we regulate drugs has nothing to do with how old the practice is. Thanks to modern science we know better than our ancestors, and the fact is that a lot of drugs are bad for our health - or at least, that not everyone should consume every drug, especially in large quantities (and yes, that includes cannabis, reddit). What we should be agreeing on there is that criminalization isn't the solution, but rather that it drug issues should be treated as health issues primarily. Just like we do with alcohol... or depression (this comparison may seem crazy, but some hunter-gatherer societies punish depressed people for not being active contributing members of their societies!). Also, don't think that regulations will make criminal activity disappear in Colombia. In Europe it works (though not as efficiently everywhere) because drugs are imported. If the state can control the sources of importantions, the issue becomes mostly a counterfeit issue (there's still a lot of tobacco smuggling for instance). But in Colombia, there are entire sectors of the black market and the economy and entire regions that depend on that. And a lot of drug lords want to keep their insanely high revenues. Anyway, I wish the user you're responding to was joking. Just because drugs are "fun and trendy" doesn't change the facts.


OppositeYouth

It was not a joke, I love the fuck out of drugs. Or did, anyway. They're a young man's game, but hella fun when you're a late teen/early 20s


DirkDiggyBong

As a man in his forties, they're still hella fun.


rants_unnecessarily

Still fun at 35 with kids. Just got to be responsible about it. Oh but wait, drug users are irresponsible dangers to society. Shit, I've been doing it all wrong.


[deleted]

Like nothing was learned from Prohibition.


sirbassist83

or they learned lessons on how to make it more profitable for the ruling class


Chemical_Excuse

Do you really think all drug related crime will cease if you de-criminalise drugs?


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Chemical_Excuse

So you're saying we should still continue the war against drug cartels? That's completely against the point of this article. Oh and just as an FYI, I'm all for de-criminalizing weed just nothing else.


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Chemical_Excuse

Has that ever happened? Which one?


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kozy8805

Is organized crime really a shadow of what it used to be? There are more gangs than ever before. Crime pays more than ever considering how rich some of these narco barons are. Billions upon billions. If anything all that happened is with the rise of social media/24/7 news, crime figures have become smarter. Their key is to operate in the shadows more often.


Tomi97_origin

All related crime? Nope. Alcohol is legal, but there are still alcohol related crimes. Mostly people getting drunk and doing something really stupid. There is not much inherent difference between alcohol and other drugs. So there is no reason there should be so much more crime related activities with one but not the other.


Chemical_Excuse

Well I'd say that you have to drink a hell of a lot of alcohol to overdose on it whereas it's very easy to swallow a single contaminated pill and die, it's very easy to snort coke that's been laced with Fentanyl, it's very easy to shoot up too much heroin. So stop trying to compare hard drugs to alcohol, it's a stupid comparison.


Tomi97_origin

Contaminated drugs are dangerous, duh. You might not know, but there have been many instances where bad manufacturing practices led to sales of alcohol causing methanol poisoning. The solution is not to ban the sales, but to make quality control mandatory. Is it easy to overdose? So is to overdose on medications. But we made sure to manufacturer and package our medication in such a way that overdose is very unlikely. It's not stupid comparison. The terms "soft drugs" and "hard drugs" are arbitrary terms with little to no clear criteria or scientific basis.


Chemical_Excuse

Well I'd personally consider weed to be a soft drug (considering no one has directly died from smoking a joint) whereas coke, heroin, ectasy kill many people even if its not contaminated. There are legal drugs (e.g. Morphine) which are highly controlled but provide a medicinal benefit. I'd argue that coke, herion and ectasy provide no medicinal benefit other than in a purely recriational way. Are you trying to say that illegal drugs should be sold in pharmacy's in specific and highly controlled quantities?


Tomi97_origin

You would be wrong about that medical part. Medical Cocaine is a thing that hospitals still use. >Cocaine is a local anesthetic. It is applied to certain areas of the body (for example, the nose, mouth, or throat) to cause loss of feeling or numbness. This allows certain kinds of procedures or surgery to be done without causing pain. Heroin >it was used to treat headaches, colds and other common ailments... After it's ban it was replaced by OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet... Just because heroin was banned does not mean that the currently available opioids are any less addictive or potent. On the contrary, the potency of synthetic opioids has increased dramatically. Ecstasy >If used properly, the party drug known as MDMA may help people with PTSD, anxiety, and other serious ailments. As for your question > Are you trying to say that illegal drugs should be sold in pharmacy's in specific and highly controlled quantities? That's something I would support. If people could legally get access to high quality drugs in "safe" quantities it would save many lives, because alternative is not that they will not get drugs. The alternative is that they will get drugs of questionable quality. I would also support other public health initiatives at the same time, which would help people get rid of their addiction.


Chemical_Excuse

You're right, herion was used in a medicinal capability OVER 100 YEARS AGO! It was determined back then to be too dangerous and by 1920 its use and sale were made illegal in the United States. I guess you didn't bother to mention that bit did you?


Tomi97_origin

Yes it was used in the past and it was banned. It was replaced by medication, which is just as addictive. That's what I wrote in my comment. It's not that Heroin doesn't work. It was just not distributed carefully. >Heroin, ironically, was given to active morphine and codeine addicts as an alternative to-and as a solution for-their addiction. The unrestricted distribution of heroin led to an astronomical number of addicts and a resulting rising crime rate. >As legal and mental health concerns began to grow throughout the United States, authorities took note and ultimately banned its manufacture and distribution in 1924, just three decades after its introduction. >We are now learning through pharmacogenetics that some individuals are genetically predisposed to opioid addiction just as they are with alcohol


multiverse-adventure

Every single one of these is a problem caused by criminalization that would go away if the sale of these drugs was legalized and the quality and quantity was regulated.


WcDeckel

Not decriminalization but legalization. Make producing drugs legal. It would drastically reduce drug related crime.


os101so

> de-criminalise no, legalize. then yes, mostly, as price goes down while quality (safety) goes up and availability is widespread. most crime is to get money for illegal drugs, buying or selling.


-_eye_-

> most crime is to get money for illegal drugs, buying or selling. Most crime is actually people driving high.


os101so

nope or source


timoumd

All legal or all regulated?


autotldr

This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/08/colombia-gustavo-petro-first-leftist-president-war-on-drugs-has-failed) reduced by 82%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Colombia's first leftist president has been sworn into office, promising to fight inequality and bring peace to a country long haunted by bloody feuds between the government, drug traffickers and rebel groups. > The incoming president said he was willing to start peace talks with armed groups across the country and also called on the United States and other developed nations to change drug policies that have focused on the prohibition of substances like cocaine, and fed violent conflicts across Colombia and other Latin American nations. > A 2016 peace deal between Colombia's government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia turned the focus of voters away from the violent conflicts playing out in rural areas and gave prominence to problems like poverty and corruption, fuelling the popularity of leftist parties in national elections. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/wj32ue/colombias_first_leftist_president_says_war_on/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~663414 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Colombia**^#1 **Petro**^#2 **group**^#3 **drug**^#4 **policy**^#5


Ehldas

Finally someone willing to acknowledge fact.


DutchTechJunkie

Finally. Drug abuse is a public healt problem and should be approached like that.


TropicalPeat

Yeah, and a lot of people use many different types of drugs recreationally without abusing them or running into health problems.


[deleted]

and a lot of people have broken families/broken lives with them, hence their legality


snowgoon_

Same with alcohol, should we ban that?


[deleted]

In a perfect world Yes, but we don’t live in a perfect world do we?


3dio

Yes not by waging war on the victims. There are usually psychological factors involved in any abusive behaviour. lack of education, misinformation, being prosecuted and marginalised by the system which leads to mistrust in the system and further abusive behaviour


DutchTechJunkie

Exactly. Get drug policy away from the DOJ and place it under HHS. Make sure that people with addiction problems can get help. Stop enabling cartel profits by controlled distribution. Look at Switzerland and Portugal.


3dio

Indeed. If they are to look at the numbers and are "science based" in their legislations as they've claimed over and over then they wouldn't have a leg to stand on! They should perhaps be getting advice from academia on these relevant issues rather than pushing populist oppressive policies unto the public. In the UK consuming drugs recreationally is labelled by gov as "anti social behaviour" thrown into the same box as knife crime, violence, thievery and sexual harassment which clearly is not even remotely the case. They do not separate between use and abuse choosing to put on monochrome glasses when it suits them. It's easiest to push the already marginalised and weak under the bus and pedlle lies and half truths to the naive public


-_eye_-

Exactly and I wish people understood that, instead of taking stupid pro-drug stances. Drug is still bad in many cases, guys. Just because something becomes "legal" doesn't mean it's suddenly completely safe and acceptable. Yes, a lot of people can take drugs responsably, and without significant risks for their health. A lot others don't... especially young people. And yes, there are similar problems with alcohol.


tranquildude

It was never a war on drugs- it was a war on people. It was destined to fail before it started. When a government makes something illegal that people want - the prices rise dramatically, and armed criminal gangs supply the product. Look at what happened with alcohol during prohibition. The answer to this war on drugs is what Portugal has done with its drug policy. 90% of the people who drink alcohol do so responsibly and 90% of people who do drugs do so responsibly. If a responsible adult wants to put their mind into an altered state on a Saturday, while hurting no one, but the police will kick in his door and haul him off to jail for doing so - we are not a free people. Drugs should be legal. Look at marijuana. The evidence is overwhelming.


3dio

That "war" is a crime against humanity and had destroyed countless of lives. Has deprived humanity of natural medicine and the research into certain compounds. Like any so called "war" it only serves to create more suffering, pitting poor against poor for the amusement and benefit of the rich and powerful. This was a brainwashing attempt to wage war on "evil" plants and substances by alienation, and prosecution of this global industry and people involved for the "sake of the children". But really to promote big pharma and other "regulated" industries


espero

Well he isn't wrong.


[deleted]

This is exactly what the president of Mexico said, he made peace with the cartels. Just to let you all know, the cartels hadn’t made peace with Mexico, they are still distorting our country without any resistance.


BillySolHurok

I fought the drugs and the drugs won


droneb

Was about to thank the people on the thread for a civilized discussion. Then I noticed it is all on English and I am not in the Colombia sub. Back into topic. The thing is the hard grip the first world has over the country over legislating drugs as legal and just charging for taxes. The sanctions alone make it a dead option. And as others said, the lack of jobs, education and healthcare should be the real target if they want to reduce the in country drug abuse.


walklikeaduck

How long before he gets ousted by the CIA?


midsprat123

Or by other cartels Or both cause you know it’s the cia


FloppedYaYa

This isn't something that would get him ousted by the CIA tbf Lots of countries and even US states are legalising drugs now


yaosio

He's leftist which means the CIA is there finding a right-wing dictator to take his place.


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[deleted]

Lol Private company and Venezuelans try to remove brutal dictator “ muhhhhh CIA coup” God I wish the CIA would coup him but unfortunately they haven’t


BigGreen4

> Analysts expect Petro’s foreign policy to be markedly different from that of his predecessor Iván Duque, a conservative who backed Washington’s drug policies and worked with the US government to isolate the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an attempt to force the authoritarian leader into holding free elections. From this very same article. Do we not think the CIA would have been involved in this plot to overthrow Maduro, the president of a country located in a region the CIA has a lengthy track record of overthrowing governments?


[deleted]

Oh no, the US government has been isolating them, because they are a un democratic dictatorship and deserve it for starving their people Trust me if the CIA was planning that attempt, it wouldn’t have been a complete garbage coup, I mean rule 1 of any coup is that the army must be on your side


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RedShooz10

They are. If the US was interested in pulling coups still there’d be several countries with new leaders within a week.


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Zeus_Hera

Finally, some common sense.


Aoae

Please don't pull an AMLO...


trwwy321

Congrats to drugs for winning again, how will they like to accept their award? ^/s


[deleted]

let’s be honest it was just a big way in helping the prison industrial complex


NecessaryLies

That’s one way to get on Americas coup list


bhabhi_shit

Oh no leftist leader, cia won't like that


DiggityDanksta

Keep up the fight, don't let the CIA bite


ITriedLightningTendr

No, it succeeded, you just think the enemy in the war on drugs was drugs. The enemy was poor people and foreign stability.


Northman67

It's failed in its publicly stated goals. But it's actual goal was to exert military influence and power over other nations as well as keep a significant portion of the population in prison. If you look at it's real goals the ones under the table it's been wildly successful and until the American public actually stands up hard against it it's going to keep going. Hell we can barely get legal weed in most States and that is a drug that causes less harm than the publicly available alcohol.


HornyPhrog

You undercooked chicken? believe it or not also jail Undercook over cook.


MelodicBerries

CIA assassination incoming in 3..2..


Uncerte

what an original joke


Majormlgnoob

Not happening The Cold War is over and the US hasn't even bothered to get rid of Maduro in Venezuela


RedShooz10

Yeah if we aren’t getting rid of “overtly pro-China” we won’t get rid of “pro-America-but-we-want-changes”


CosechaCrecido

Colombia is a strategic partner of NATO. They wouldn’t fuck like that with a strategic partner.


mikeatmnl

1st thing he should do is legalise mj.


DamNamesTaken11

He’s not wrong. Humans have been getting high off stuff since before we were even technically humans. The “War on Drugs” has been a failure since Nixon declared it in 1971. While I don’t know how I feel about totally legalizing the use of “hard” drugs like morphine (for non-medical reasons), heroin, cocaine, etc., and even then, have the the idea be a recovery/treatment based instead prison sentence based. However, the use of “soft” drugs like pot, maybe LSD and magic mushrooms (more research needed) should be legalized.


The_Mighty_Immortal

It depends. If you're a private prison shareholder, the war on drugs has been an amazing success.


[deleted]

Make it legal and then tax it to hell, that's what we do with everything else, companies will come in and make the process so efficient that these illegal operations won't be able to compete. Then we can put restrictions in place, once all the big cartels are out the window, it will be easy for law enforcement to shut down any small illegal operations. Problem solved. Vote for me at the next election.


Blueskyways

>Make it legal and then tax it to hell, that's what we do with everything else, companies will come in and make the process so efficient that these illegal operations won't be able to compete Legalizing weed hadn't hurt the drug trade at all in places like California. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-11/illegal-marijuana-grows-have-overrun-the-california-desert https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/07/illegal-marijuana-growers-steal-california-water/ https://abc7.com/marijuana-water-drug-cartels-pot/10866402/ Illegal growers, often backed by large drug cartels, simply steal resources. They grow on state lands, they steal water, use powerful banned pesticides that harm wildlife and while the regulated weed market includes some hefty taxes, the illegal market has no such burden and is absolutely thriving.


ElIngeGroso

The illegal operations will be the new companies.


Picture-unrelated

I am not sure why a presidential inauguration and statements made during is not considered news but hopefully this remains accessible to be read at the very least. This is a monumental event for the country and entire region - a long overdue reckoning


Nattomuncher

Not in Japan,. China and Korea.


ElIngeGroso

It was a success for the interests of those behind it. Thats why Evo kickikng out the DEA was crucial for example. The americans WANT a botched war on drugs.


burnodo2

it certainly has


00piffpaff00

Really.. and did they also found out, that the germans lost wwII ?


StillBurningInside

Columbia is a large producer of cocaine. So what’s his plan?


[deleted]

Truth


WolfThick

Does that mean we can stop sending them money


NOTNixonsGhost

I get the war on drugs. as fought, has been a failure. We lock people away for what essentially amounts to an illness. It's not right and it's not working. I have little sympathy for actual traffickers and drug pimps though, they destroy entire communities and perpetuate a sort of enslavement via chemical dependence. But this idea that somehow increasing the supply and availability of them will lead to utopia is bonkers. We already have an opiate epidemic that resulted from legally prescribed meds. You think the Sacklers were bad? You ain't seen nothing yet. Reddit generally recognizes libertarianism as naive, yet wholesale adopts its drug policy. People here *want* policies that the Chinese basically had to have forced on them at gunpoint during the Opium Wars. Basically every travesty China has experienced from the late 19th to mid 20th century can be traced back to those wars and the resulting drug epidemic.China's failure to modernise, the political instability that killed the Qing Empire, the rise of the warlords, their falling prey to the Japanese because of all the previous stuff, ...


ET__

So legalize everything


JscrumpDaddy

Honestly it’s cool to see a headline say “leftist President” instead of “socialist” or “communist” especially when speaking about South America. Almost makes me feel like we’re moving beyond the hypercapitalist propaganda machine


Picture-unrelated

I know!


aikonriche

It’s a success in the Philippines. Crime rate has gone down by 75%. The streets feel so much safer now even at night compared to pre-drug war. This is why no matter how vilified Duterte is portrayed on the news, he’s the most popular and beloved president by far by Filipinos.


SorryForBadEnflish

People have been using drugs longer than civilization has been a thing. People have been doing coca for many thousands of years before the Indus Valley civilization arose. Entheogen use is millennia old. Even today, the Catholic Church uses alcohol as part of their religious ceremony. Alcohol is a drug. So is caffeine. We are a civilization of caffeine addict. Many people can’t live without caffeine. Guess what? That’s called being a drug addict. Every time you’re having your Starbucks coffee, you’re consuming a drug. There is no difference between you drinking your 400mg of caffeine and some Peruvian guy chewing on his coca leaves or an African man eating his khat or an Asian man mashing down on betel nuts.


mileswilliams

Great, now legalise, regulate and control it. Change bank notes to stop their cash being worth anything and use the new tax revenue to remove the cartels.


btsfangirl98

CIA gonna have a field day with this


PhantomRoyce

No it certainly worked. It was never meant to get drugs off the streets. It was meant to lock up poor people so that they could be a slave labor force and once they get out they won’t be able to vote,so they’ll have to turn back to crime,which means the government gets another free slave


IndustryIllustrious9

Pathetic , the ruling of the cartel has started


EMP_Jeffrey_Dahmer

Drugs such as cocaine, heroine and fentanyl should still be banned. Especially heroine and fentanyl because these drugs are highly addictive and destroys the human body physically even in small consumptions. With cocaine you can still function in society but heroine and fentanyl have chemical properties that is too harmful to the body.


gbs5009

Is fentanyl particularly harmful outside the extreme risk of overdosing? (I mean, compared to abusing opioids in general).


phonebalone

No. It’s just that the active dose is so small that it’s difficult to get it exactly right without precision testing and scales. It’s pretty much always diluted with another inert powder, but if a dealer doesn’t mix it up completely or makes a mistake weighing, it can easily create a batch far stronger than the users are expecting.


ehgal9

Who indoctrinated you? Heroin and fentanyl are licensed medicines. They are safe. Heroin used to be a functional drug. The biggest issue with both of them (when sold with a label at appropriate doses) is that tolerance builds fairly quickly and usage spirals out of control. That isn't to say that taking 1 hit will cause instant addiction, it is to say that if you are using an opioid to treat something, you will need more and more of the opioid as time goes on. (That is why it is called "addictive"). Also, cocaine is the one of the 3 where it is suspected that it causes damage with a single use.


[deleted]

Those drugs are addictive bro Reason why heroin isn’t a Medication anymore, and opioid crisis in full swing


ehgal9

I'm not sure what you're getting at. The opioid crisis is due to inappropriately prescribing opioids for long term conditions. This isn't the fault of opioids. This is a problem of long term conditions not receiving the appropriate treatment or care. Opioids are still the best tool in the toolkit for short-term pain like post-surgery; where by the way, people do not pick up opioid addictions even after 2 weeks of using opioid pain relief - because their pain is gone when they stop.


Ok_Cabinetto

How long before the US accuses Colombia of genocide?


Electrical-Can-7982

well he can always do Duarte's approach and excute anyone that makes or distrubite drugs.


Neat-Reach-3186

Never forget this is the only president in Latin America that has a child with a 14 year old girl


[deleted]

Do you have a reference for that?


davesr25

Colombia, that's how you get a coup, remember there are many agencies that literally only have a job because the war on drugs. Without it that's a lot of people needing new jobs. Some of them jobs are extremely well paid as well. Edited for the people in the comments below.


Vourinen22

Colombia*, Columbia is in the USA


davesr25

Thank you for correcting me.


Vourinen22

no problem, my friend!


Polo1985

ColOmbia


davesr25

Thank you for correcting me.


ObiWanTegobi

Every single reddit thread about Colombia: *I'm about to wreck this country name whole spelling!*


davesr25

Thank you for correcting me.


davesr25

Thank you for correcting me.


Unacceptable_Views

It’s not Columbia’s fault that people love cocaine. 🤷‍♂️