It's USA's fault

[cobraboy]

Originally Posted by Avrora

All I know is whatever works in one place does not necessarily work in another country. Amsterdam is a good example of drug and post. legalization working right. But this is Europe. US is much more conservative country. Things are very different here. I can only imagine how much religious and other type of opposition drug legalization would create.

You overestimate the direct influence of religious people in the US. Most just want to be left alone.

[Alyonka]

If certain drugs become legal – more people will have access to trying them out and becoming addicted. Even those who would have never learned otherwise that such pleasure exists. Drug dealers will come up with new illegal drugs to sell and other ways to make profit. They are not going to retire or go away. Crime and criminals will still be there, they are just going to find other ways to survive. It is not that easy.

[windeguy]

I am happy to see this discussion going the way it has. My personal opinion is to legalize and regulate drugs. Then prosecute only those who use them irresponsibly in the same manner that is done with alcohol use and abuse. Prohibition of alcohol failed in the USA, just like the war on drugs has failed.

As has been pointed out, decisions made in the US about how "illegal" drug use should be dealt with greatly impact what happens in the DR, other countries in Latin America and beyond. The Taliban is back to raising a lot of money selling opium from the poppies they grow. This impact on countries has been hugely negative due to the current policies and I feel that a complete change in approach is necessary. I happened to catch a Bill Maher show on TV last night and this exact issue was brought up about how people need to realize that the current war on drugs is completely wrong. Aside from being a funny man, I happen to agree with what he said about legalizing drugs to remove the criminal element.
( HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher)

As to if more people will use them if they are legal: Probably, at least for a time. There will always be some people that are addicted to something. I believe people should be able to make such decisions on their own. Society has to make a decision as to whether that is better than the current situation of corruption and crime all the way from the crooked cop on the street up the ladder to those in charge in a small country like the DR together with all of the related criminal behavior in the general population.

I personally vote for a change.

[Capt. Rob57]

Make drugs legal and tax them just like prostitution. Once you take the criminal element out of it we as a society can deal with the problems. Just like illegal immigration just tax the hell out of what they send home and they won't come. If I as a U.S. tax payer pay say 33% income tax,tax them 50% to send money home.

[apdomini100max]

Originally Posted by NALs

Posted on DR1 News on March 19, 2007:

Fernandez blames US for drug increase
In his opening remarks at the first summit on Drugs, Security and Cooperation held in Santo Domingo last week, President Fernandez said that as a result of 9-11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the presence of US efforts in the Caribbean has diminished by 62%.

To Leonel Fernandez: Ever since when does the Dominican Republic has to depend on any other country (regardless its the US or not) to fight its problems. Last time i checked that was what made a country independent.

[Rick Snyder]

After reading 5 pages of crap I decided it was time for me to get on board this band wagon on this quiet Saturday afternoon.

My first statement is that LF never said that the increased drug traffic through the DR was the fault of the US. That was a newspaper editor that decided to put that spin on the article. LF said that there was less participation by the US on the ‘war on drugs’ in this neck of the woods and this is true. LF also said that because of this reduction on the part of the US that the other local nations would have to expand their resources to ‘fight’ this problem and that is also true if the desire is to ‘fight’ the problem.

Just for the heck of it let’s look at the price that the US pays for the ‘fight’ against drugs. Now after seeing that then the talk that begins to flow is legalization. When contemplating legalization the first thought that enters my mind is do those that wish legalization have any idea as to what drugs are or what they do to the humans that should decide to partake in them in a recreational or curiosity manner? I find it amusing for those that wish to classify drug addiction as a disease. Though it has been classified as a sort of mental disease the fact that 99.9% of the cases of drug abuse are self induced has a tendency to make me look at it as something other then a 'disease'. Kind of like my not wanting to put my hand in fire. I've never done such but common sense just dictates not to do it.

When you talk about legalization and when referencing the Netherlands I think it is important to point out that in the Netherlands not all drugs are allowed and that they have differentiated between soft and hard drugs. You say you want drug companies to get involved in all this legalization?

From reading a lot of these posts a person would get the impression that the ‘war on drugs’ in the US doesn’t involve the treatment of. I think it is warranted to mention that for the FY 2003 that of the $19,179,700,000 US drug war budget that $3,811,700,000, (19.9%), was spent for drug treatment.
Source: ("National Drug Control Strategy: FY2003 Budget Summary," Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) (Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President, Feb. 2002), p. 6, Table 2)

Also warranted is that for 2005 an estimated 22.2 million persons aged 12 or older were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the US. Of these, 3.3 million were classified with dependence on or abuse of both alcohol and illicit drugs, 3.6 million were dependent on or abused illicit drugs but not alcohol, and 15.4 million were dependent on or abused alcohol but not illicit drugs. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that of these, 2.3 million (0.9 percent of persons aged 12 or older and 10.0 percent of those who needed treatment) received treatment at a specialty facility. And that there were 20.9 million persons (8.6 percent of the population aged 12 or older) who needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem but did not receive treatment at a specialty substance abuse facility in the past year.
Source: (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, "Results from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings," (Rockville, MD: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA), NSDUH Series H-30, DHHS Publication No. SMA 06-4194, p. 67)

The interesting thing about these statistics as they relate to drug treatment is a failure to mention if these ‘users’ did or do in fact want to be helped and how many of them have been ordered by the courts to seek treatment and if in fact the ‘users’ do in fact follow the guidance of the treatment facility. “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. It is a fact that treatment of drug abuse does help the entire scheme of drug use, sale and the crimes associated with drugs but treatment IMHO must also involve all the other aspects of fighting drugs.

So the questions that I wish to address to those of you that continue to address the US situation. Do you think the DR should make drugs legal? If so should they differentiate between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ drugs as done in the Netherlands? Should the DR government get involved in the treatment of drug abuse, (presently being done by ONG’s)? And the final question is where will the DR get the money to do any of the above to include increasing the ‘war on drugs’?

I KNOW, from the proceeds of the metro!!!!

Rick