- M C Ritz and
- F R George
- Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
The USA bans legal use of drugs at higher rates than other countries, so, when it comes to illegal drug use the USA does open itself to that criticism. However, there are proponents of law enforcement that believe removing the illegal status of drugs will actually provide better police actions to protect society. There are huge resources assigned to drug arrests and allowing those resources to be used elsewhere will be a benefit to society. One of the people advocating that change is the economist Milton Freedman.
Freedman stated in the Stanford Law School report, "Rethinking America's Illegal Drug Strategy," (click here)
“However much harm drugs do to those who use them…seeking to prohibit their use does even more harm both to users of drugs and to the rest of us Legalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and improve law enforcement. It is hard to conceive of any other single measure that would accomplishso much to promote law and order”
July 1, 2008, 11: 30 AM
Despite tough anti-drug laws, (click here) a new survey shows the U.S. has the highest level of illegal drug use in the world.
The World Health Organization's survey of legal and illegal drug use in 17 countries, including the Netherlands and other countries with less stringent drug laws, shows Americans report the highest level of cocaine and marijuana use.
For example, Americans were four times more likely to report using cocaine in their lifetime than the next closest country, New Zealand (16% vs. 4%),...
The idea of legalizing the current global drug economy may also move guns from the cartels to legal use. In other words, the materials would fall into the legal sphere and controlling guns globally would be easier because the cartels would be less likely to profit from this huge economic benefit to them.
This is a bit dated, 2000, but it brings the point to focus regarding the relationship between guns and illegal drugs.
...Linking Weapons and Drugs (click here)
There are an estimated 3 million illegal small arms in this country of 43 million people. Most weapons are imported by drug cartels and political insurgents, and the guns are frequently traded for cocaine.
Colombia's Minister of Defense Jorge Uribe said this arms and cocaine racket is not only a problem for Colombia but also a security threat for Latin America and the United States.
Uribe's explanations are vivid.
"You should be worried about that," he said. "Every time an American goes into that trip from sniffing drugs, they should think where is that coming from and how many lives have been lost in the process of bringing that pleasure. The color of cocaine is white, but it's really red because of the amount of blood."..,
Illegal drugs are the most potent source of income for cartels and international criminals such as terrorists. Basically, Americans are funding the terrorist networks they fear.
This is a global problem and while the USA leads in attempting to end the drugs and guns and violence, it requires coordinated efforts by every country in every corner of the world if there is to effective policy.
This is the Global Heroine Trade. It is highly organized and traceable. This illegal network supplies some of the most dangerous criminals in the world. What are we doing wrong?
...The Balkan (click here) and northern routes are the main heroin trafficking corridors linking Afghanistan to the huge markets of the Russian Federation and Western Europe. The Balkan route traverses the Islamic Republic of Iran (often via Pakistan), Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria across South-East Europe to the Western European market, with an annual market value of some $20 billion. The northern route runs mainly through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (or Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan) to Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation. The size of that market is estimated to total $13 billion per year...
Why control the Poppy Economy of Afghanistan if it serves to destroy an enemy of the USA?
The covert allowance of illegal drugs and their networks is outrageous. In the decade long loss of American lives in Afghanistan while the Poppy Economy thrived is unthinkable but it occurred and continues to do so.
Imagine a country with a heroin problem. (click here) It has millions of people who have used the drug and an entrenched underclass of dealers and suppliers. Because heroin users like to inject the drug intravenously, regardless of how old or contaminated their syringes may be, this country has also developed an AIDS problem. It is in fact facing two epidemics: one of heroin use, the other of HIV/AIDS.
Illegal drugs are the most potent source of income for cartels and international criminals such as terrorists. Basically, Americans are funding the terrorist networks they fear.
This is a global problem and while the USA leads in attempting to end the drugs and guns and violence, it requires coordinated efforts by every country in every corner of the world if there is to effective policy.
This is the Global Heroine Trade. It is highly organized and traceable. This illegal network supplies some of the most dangerous criminals in the world. What are we doing wrong?
...The Balkan (click here) and northern routes are the main heroin trafficking corridors linking Afghanistan to the huge markets of the Russian Federation and Western Europe. The Balkan route traverses the Islamic Republic of Iran (often via Pakistan), Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria across South-East Europe to the Western European market, with an annual market value of some $20 billion. The northern route runs mainly through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (or Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan) to Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation. The size of that market is estimated to total $13 billion per year...The covert allowance of illegal drugs and their networks is outrageous. In the decade long loss of American lives in Afghanistan while the Poppy Economy thrived is unthinkable but it occurred and continues to do so.
Imagine a country with a heroin problem. (click here) It has millions of people who have used the drug and an entrenched underclass of dealers and suppliers. Because heroin users like to inject the drug intravenously, regardless of how old or contaminated their syringes may be, this country has also developed an AIDS problem. It is in fact facing two epidemics: one of heroin use, the other of HIV/AIDS.
The threat to the national health is obvious, but elected officials say little. The public looks upon drug users, and upon people with HIV/AIDS, with indifference or scorn. The government could take action but doesn’t. So the epidemic spreads. Millions of unnecessary deaths result.
Americans shouldn’t have a hard time imaging such a place; we need only look back to the United States of the early 1980s. In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, one needn’t look back—just looking around should suffice.
In a country of 143 million people, between 840,000 and 1.2 million are HIV-positive, according to a 2009 estimate by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). That means Russia has one of the highest percentages of HIV-infected people in the world, outside sub-Saharan Africa; Robert Heimer, an epidemiologist at Yale who has been studying the intersection of Russia’s heroin and HIV/AIDS epidemics, says as many as five percent of all young people are infected....
This is absolutely unconscionable and The West looks the other way because it's covert operations believe it is in their benefit. A government overrun by such problems, such as Russia, will give up and only seek to ostracize those citizens and to be rejected by the larger majority. What choice does Russia have? They can't possibly spend all their resources on an effort to recapture their drug addicted population and continue to move forward to build a nation.
Putin: Russia not aspiring to be superpower, or teach others how to live (NATION BUILDING - MY WORDS NOT HIS) (click here)
Published time: December 12, 2013 11:28
Edited time: December 12, 2013 18:11
In a country of 143 million people, between 840,000 and 1.2 million are HIV-positive, according to a 2009 estimate by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). That means Russia has one of the highest percentages of HIV-infected people in the world, outside sub-Saharan Africa; Robert Heimer, an epidemiologist at Yale who has been studying the intersection of Russia’s heroin and HIV/AIDS epidemics, says as many as five percent of all young people are infected....
This is absolutely unconscionable and The West looks the other way because it's covert operations believe it is in their benefit. A government overrun by such problems, such as Russia, will give up and only seek to ostracize those citizens and to be rejected by the larger majority. What choice does Russia have? They can't possibly spend all their resources on an effort to recapture their drug addicted population and continue to move forward to build a nation.
Putin: Russia not aspiring to be superpower, or teach others how to live (NATION BUILDING - MY WORDS NOT HIS) (click here)
Published time: December 12, 2013 11:28
Edited time: December 12, 2013 18:11
...The Russian leader gave an assurance that Russia wants to respect the sovereignty and stability of other countries, as he was addressing the Federal Assembly, the collective of the two houses of the Russian parliament.
“We will seek leadership by defending international law, advocating respect for national sovereignty, independence and the uniqueness of peoples,” Putin said.
“We have always been proud of our country, but we do not aspire to the title of superpower, which is understood to be pretense for global or regional hegemony. We do not impinge on anyone’s interests, do not impose our patronage, do not attempt to lecture anyone on how they should live,” he added.
Putin did not directly mention the United States in his speech, but the reference to Washington’s military actions in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya was hard to overlook....
