I would hope that these days no rational individual could support jail time for any non-violent drug crime, with the possible exception of cross-border smuggling, which treads on some different areas of the law.
As I see it, we need both a propaganda campaign pointing out how nuts the drug laws are in addition to some recognizable way of incrementally easing the laws and adjusting to it. That’s the rational thing an individual would do anyway; i am more aware than ever you need to parcel these things into 2 year steps for american power transfers between parties.
To the person who downvoted me, this is distinctly less useful than contributing the conversation in a meaningul manner.
You're talking about big distributors, not individual users. Portugal has probably had the best response to drug use, evaluation each case individually and helping people quit drugs when it interferes with their lives.
You don't need specific drug laws for that. Child endangerment laws are enough.
Are they, for small doses?
If/when they demonstrably are, those laws should be enough.
Otherwise, the term overdosing wouldn't exist.
Even the most invasive surveillance system is more humane that the US prison system.
They don't have the easy access to guns that we don't want to get rid of in the US. I've asked a few people this question: "If it could be so that you were allowed to kill anyone, anywhere. Nobody will stop you. You will face no legal consequences. You just have to produce a list of no fewer than five people you would definitely kill. Can you do that in the five minutes starting now?" You'd be amazed by how many answers I have gotten in the affirmative.
I want to believe that most people don't commit violent crimes because doing so is against their moral fabric. That is not true in the world (or at least the country) we live in.
But most criminals, even most murders aren't out of reach.
Note: I'm not proposing that there need not be control initially. Merely that we need to be better at giving up control over time. And yes, you'll find exceptions.
I think the main problem is 1. most people just don't care about anything other than themselves and 2. they don't see of themselves in the same shoes as convicts
The US have political problems. They are unfixable as long as most of you have given up.
Pretty sure branding half the US population as irrational isn't going to win you much consensus.
(I don't think, from what I know, that distribution of crack would be in that latter group.)
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/alcohol/en/
Legalizing drugs without more thought may actually make the problem worse. If drugs were 100% fully legal no restrictions why wouldn't corporations start advertising and pushing them as much as they do alcohol today?
I'm actually for legalizing drugs but heard these arguments on an Intelligence Squared debate.
BTW: Heroin isn't legal in Portugal, it's just decriminalized. You can still go to prison for selling heroin in Portugal and using, while not a criminal offense will still get you sent in to the authorities for "dissuasion"
But I'm not an expert, and probably the people who are could come up with a better solution.
That's no excuse for further delay, but explains why he was locked up in the first place.