"I am fully in favor of jail time, and lots of it for offenders. Why? Primarily, it will keep them alive. Both from the drug induced violence on the streets and drug induced overdoses."
Drugs. I hate them. I hate what they do to people. I hate what they have done to our country. Yes, I even hate what they are doing to Mexico. Drugs are truly a one-way street. A highway to ruin and oblivion. Think I am being overly dramatic? Just look what the opioid epidemic is doing to our country as I pen this.
Buckle up, as this part is going to be mind blowing. According to the CDC, since from 1999 to 2015, slightly over 183,000 Americans have died from overdoses of prescription opioids. That is over three times as many who died in Viet Nam. Who knows how many more have died from black market opioids, now available on the dark web. Every day, 1,000 people are treated by emergency professionals for opioid overdosing. My youngest daughter, who is trained in harm reduction, carries Narcon with her just in case she has a client (or even a stranger) who needs immediate help from opioid overdosing.
How about the new opioid menace, Fentanyl. The graphic I used in this article is from the DEA. It shows just how little of this drug can be fatal. How easy it is to overdose. And many states are having a growing problem with Fentanyl. Minnesota is one of them. The county I live in in not immune to this menace.
Mexico is a country which is particularly hard hit by the drug war. Whereas we have had over 183,000 die from just prescription opioid overdosing alone, Mexico has lost over 100,000 of its citizens to the violence perpetrated by the drug lords. Yes, Mexico has become a battleground for the turf who is going to get the most drugs into America.
The question has been asked before, what would happen to the drug trade in Mexico should America ever become a "cold turkey" nation? In other words, if we had zero demand for illicit drugs. The answer I heard was the Mexican drug economy would collapse faster than our financial markets did in 2008. It would be over. Then Mexico could get back to being a developing nation with a normal economy.
Yes, it is us. We have a demand pull economy for drugs. Mexican drug lords are all too happy to supply this un-quenchable desire for more potent drugs. We are killing ourselves. Many who are dying are our kids. Lives cut short by some drugs powerful enough to tranquilize an elephant.
President Obama did not like the fact we had some stiff sentences for drug offenders. Even the users had some jail time to do. I am fully in favor of jail time, and lots of it for offenders. Why? Primarily, it will keep them alive. Both from the drug induced violence on the streets and drug induced overdoses. That is my story and I am sticking with it.
Key is PULL economy. What is it about life in America that creates an environment where so many persons are addicted. So many persons are angry. So many persons have lost hope. This should be the land of milk and honey. Why are so few enjoying the fruits of there labor and what this great nation offers. To quote Alexander Fraser Tytler "The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
ReplyDeleteWe may be near the end.
Dave G
Whatever happened to the wonderful Minnesota law that would have prevented all this? It was pretty simple: Every drug would require a "tax stamp" on the package, just as we do for liquor. The value of the tax stamp would be set roughly equal to the street price of the drug so if you bought one, which you could do no questions asked from your local government bureaucrat or over the internet anonymously, you essentially gave up all your profit. If you did NOT have the stamp, simple possession made you guilty of tax evasion on an open-and-shut case basis. The trick here is that, if you reported where you got it, you got a free pass on the heavy fine and the jail time. Most basic users would turn in their pusher, and the purchaser, sitting on even MORE stamp-free merch, would roll over on the big wigs and very quickly the whole distribution network would collapse. And if it's not the law, why shouldn't it be?
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