[billg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MrBill', '
')
Criminal gangs move into whatever commodity where they can make a lot of money quickly. It really does not matter whether it is hard drugs or soft drugs; counterfeit OTC medicines; fake merchandise; tax-free liquor or cigarettes; human trafficking; etc. They are in it for the money. They create their own demand for their product.

[TommyJefferson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'C')annabis.com ....no longer tolerates the practice of vetting online dealers for reliability or honesty.

[HeckuvaJob]

Carhole - ordering pot through the mail reminds me of a story I heard about a man and his dogs.

You may have dodged a fairly large bullet.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CarlosFerreira', '4') to 6% increase in the use of marijuana, about 100% increase in the use of heroin and 50% increase in the use of cocaine.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CarlosFerreira', '4') to 6% increase in the use of marijuana, about 100% increase in the use of heroin and 50% increase in the use of cocaine.

[CarlosFerreira]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '
')That study was based on data from the DEA. What conclusion would you expect it to reach? Seriously. Go look at the DEA website. See what they have to say about marijuana. Then go to a medical library and try to find studies that support it. I promise you, it doesn't exist. I've looked. DEA's agenda is political and moral and it is wholly disconnected from empirical reality. You really think DEA is going to publish data that say "Well...when we bust all these drug dealers and drive up the price of heroin, it actually doesn't affect usage rates at all."? How long do you think that person would stay employed at DEA if they produced data that showed that?

[CarlosFerreira]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '
')Marijuana/ hemp was made illegal by the likes of Hearst and Dupont. One for control of paper products and the other petro fibers such as nylon. The smear campain was targeted towards blacks and mexicans in the South.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CarlosFerreira', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '
')Marijuana/ hemp was made illegal by the likes of Hearst and Dupont. One for control of paper products and the other petro fibers such as nylon. The smear campain was targeted towards blacks and mexicans in the South.

[CarlosFerreira]

I heard about a company here in the UK that was planning to use hemp to produce building materials. Sounded like a really good idea, they presented some great advantages. I remember they said hemp was one of the strongest fibres in nature, and that the whole process produced no waste - they used all the product, and the only thing exterior to the process was the strings they used to tie the hemp stacks.

The company was this Hemcore
http://www.hemcore.co.uk/index.htm

They also stated that hemp was good for ag rotation, when the other cultures were, for instance, cereals. I don't really know if any of it is true, but might be worth a look.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CarlosFerreira', 'H')owever, the fundamentals are still there: there is a price elasticity of demand for drugs, as there is for food or DVD players.

[CarlosFerreira]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '
')That's certainly the bias of the authors and what they were looking to find. I'm sorry, but I'm really not sure that many people are making the decision of whether or not to start using meth based on the price. And more to the point, there's use and there's use. I understand that in certain parts of central america, most people chew coca leaves on a fairly regular basis. That doesn't mean they're experiencing adverse effects on their health or the social cohesion of their communities from it. Most of the ill health effects and crime come from shipping refined cocaine to the US where drug enforcement has run the prices up and created a large profit motive. Actually I think it's very conceivable that if the societal issues were considered more and the moral issues less, it's very concievable that we could have fewer users who were simultaneously using cheaper and cleaner drugs in a more safe and controlled way.

[vision-master]

Churches have a lot to do with "the war on drugs". Even tho they are based on astrotheology and shooms. Go figure.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CarlosFerreira', 'A')ctually, that's something we can't be sure of. I was rummaging the REPEC (REsearch Papers in EConomics) website and found a 1995 econometrics approach at the problem, that contradicts the idea that demand won't increase:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Henry Saffer and Frank Chaloupka', 'T')he purpose of this paper is to estimate the effects of heroin prices, cocaine prices and marijuana decriminalization on the demand for these three drugs, respectively. There are few prior empirical studies in this area because data have been difficult to acquire. This paper makes use of newly available data on drug prices and is the first to link these data to a sample of 49,802 individuals from the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse. The new drug price data comes from the Drug Enforcement Agency. The results provide empirical evidence that drug use is more price responsive than has been previously thought. The results show that the participation price elasticity for heroin is about -.90 to -.80 and that the participation price elasticity for cocaine is about - .55 to -.36. Marijuana decriminalization was also found to increase the probability of marijuana participation by about 4 to 6 percent. The price elasticity for heroin is estimated at about -1.80 to -1.60 and for cocaine at about -1.10 to -.72. It is estimated that legalization would lead to about a 100 percent increase in the quantity of heroin consumed and about a 50 percent increase in the quantity of cocaine consumed.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'C')hurches have a lot to do with "the war on drugs". Even tho they are based on astrotheology and shooms. Go figure.

[TommyJefferson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CarlosFerreira', 'I') am looking, if you can put that way, for an intellectual experiment, a sort of brainstorming if you may.

[mattduke]

The government cannot even control drug use in prisons, where they literally have everyone in a cage.

[smallpoxgirl]

IMHO, if you want to address drug use, you really have to take a hard look at:
-What actually are you trying to avoid?
-Why are people using drugs?
-How can you provide them a less destructive outlet for the desires that motivated their drug use?

IMHO, a lot of it comes from the simultaneous desires of young people- a: to act in self destructive ways, b: to thumb their nose at authority, and c: to seek adventure. Lets face it. Modern society is boring. We've rubber padded all the sharp corners. Criminality is about the only legitimate adventure left. If you don't like kids using drugs, you need to offer them an alternative way of foolishly risking their necks while pissing off their parents and teachers. There's no surer way to entice kids to use drugs than a bunch of lame prudish TV commercials telling them how dangerous drugs are.

[mattduke]

Prohibition makes all these problems worse, as it did for alcohol. Cocaine and heroin should be available over the counter, or in cola form.

link

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'I')MHO, if you want to address drug use, you really have to take a hard look at:
-What actually are you trying to avoid?
-Why are people using drugs?
-How can you provide them a less destructive outlet for the desires that motivated their drug use?

IMHO, a lot of it comes from the simultaneous desires of young people- a: to act in self destructive ways, b: to thumb their nose at authority, and c: to seek adventure. Lets face it. Modern society is boring. We've rubber padded all the sharp corners. Criminality is about the only legitimate adventure left. If you don't like kids using drugs, you need to offer them an alternative way of foolishly risking their necks while pissing off their parents and teachers. There's no surer way to entice kids to use drugs than a bunch of lame prudish TV commercials telling them how dangerous drugs are.

[mattduke]

The consumption of mind altering substances is a part of human nature. The lotus eaters in the Odyssey lived in 8th century BC.