2020 US Election (Part One)
- Thread starter Lexicus
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Socrates99
Bottoms up!
Legalizing means stores can sell it, gov't can tax it etc. Decriminalization just means law enforcement won't seek out and prosecute users of whatever's been decriminalized. Not "legal" but not a crime anymore either.
At least that's how I understand it. So he could legalize marijuana and decriminalize the rest.
At least that's how I understand it. So he could legalize marijuana and decriminalize the rest.
Or fire/layoff... to-may-to, to-mah-to...
Zardnaar
Deity
Kinda like Yang and Harris. Could live with Bernie, Biden, Warren.
onejayhawk
Afflicted with reason
That's disingenuous. Cutting back on marijuana arrests is not going to reduce police staffing. Reduce overtime, perhaps. Redirect toward different safety hazards, certainly. Staffing is a red herring.
J
Berzerker
Deity
I doubt we're paying overtime to bust potheads, maybe dealers
but its gonna be hard to lay off or fire cops, thats just not the nature of bureaucracies
Harry Ainslinger lost his war on booze so he simply transferred the effort to marijuana and other drugs
but its gonna be hard to lay off or fire cops, thats just not the nature of bureaucracies
Harry Ainslinger lost his war on booze so he simply transferred the effort to marijuana and other drugs
Decriminalising opioids for personal use should free up a lot of court time and reduce the overcrowding in your jails though.
Heroin deaths are at 15,000 a year; Opioid deaths at 47,000. If the goal is fewer deaths because of legalization, it would be better to legalize heroin rather than opioids. Fewer people would die. But a better approach might be to lock up drug manufacturer CEOs when they let their product loose in the market irresponsibly.
Tristan_C
Emperor
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In the mid 90s a new decision emerged within the medical profession to categorize pain as a symptom and treat it. This was particularly good news for chronic pain sufferers. But every policy decision has drawbacks— otherwise it's not a decision but a matter of course— and the downside here was that medications that reduce pain are highly addictive. If it's addictive, it means that just because a prescription expires, that doesn't terminate the patient's lingering dependence on the drug. They will go looking for it, somewhere. That gives the product street value. Coincidentally, the decision in the profession was concurrent with the tobacco lawsuits and the subsequent drop in smoking.
So we got sort of a one-two punch from the whitecoats:
- The implosion of a widespread, addictive, over-the-counter palliative drug, nicotine.
- Treating pain patients with temporary exposure to addictive and heavily-controlled substances.
I mean, I have thought about these developments from the heroin and crack dealers' point of view. They are basically rising to meet the needs of a market that the doctors had inadvertently created. It seemed to me that there was some kind of class and even racial issue to be gleaned from this, that the drug dealers get chased down and prosecuted and the men in the white coats get off scot-free. It's interesting that you put the CEOs into the same position, conceptually, as the dudes in the alley, and you proceed to call for their prosecution, and you ignore the whitecoats.
First let me say cigarettes haven't gone away; they have just become more expensive and more of a social pariah. I do not know how their cost compare to opioids though. Bad doctors aside, the rest are caught in the middle: patient demand and manufacturer push. They have hard decisions to make. Cigarette manufacturers and drug makers are driven by stock prices which is driven by revenue and profits. Addiction is part of being human as are mind altering states. It is a challenging situation. When you make addicting, mind altering drugs that reduce pain, readily available and encourage their use without contact with the those who are badly affected, you are the bad guy. In the old days all the top management teams at the cigarette companies smoked. They paid the price just like their customers. That is not the case so much any more. And it is certainly not true for drug makers.
I do not know what the role of the AMA has been in all of this other than some level of approval. I do not think any of them ship cartons of drugs to KY.
onejayhawk
Afflicted with reason
True, but Sommerswerd is saying that the cops will get laid off, RIFed or otherwise lose their jobs because of lack of work. I am suggesting that is an unlikely outcome.
J
Bamspeedy
CheeseBob
20 years ago there seemed to be a much greater presence of cops waiting to catch speeders than today. Now, maybe it's just my driving pattern has changed (i'm not getting pulled over all the time....), and I do see them occasionally, but I have a theory they are too busy with the opiods and meth to run as much speed traps as they used to.
Cloud_Strife
Deity
Worry not, they can always be redirected to harassing minorities, as they are want to do.
Berzerker
Deity
I'm watching John Delaney (D-Md) running for Prez defending a mixed system of a single payer option and private insurance and he said the NYT published analysis showing hospitals across the country would go under if the compensation they receive for treating Medicare recipients were expanded to everyone. That means "the market" allows Medicare to exist by subsidizing the health care for seniors.
On the other hand Delaney didn't mention that most of our health care dollars are spent on old age so I assume younger people in a Medicare for all system would still be subsidizing seniors.
On the other hand Delaney didn't mention that most of our health care dollars are spent on old age so I assume younger people in a Medicare for all system would still be subsidizing seniors.
Estebonrober
Deity
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What? That’s bull crap Medicare is the standard that the insurance companies eventually push down too. He sounds like a paid for shill. If Medicare couldn’t keep hospitals afloat most of the nation would be without hospitals. I know in some areas it gets so bad that states have to step in just so that there is a an option in some areas. That’s usually due to uninsured not Medicare.
Berzerker
Deity
The rest of us keep them afloat by paying more to cover the lower costs imposed by Medicare, and the people who pay the most do so out of pocket. People with employer or private insurance based health care at least have them negotiating prices down. You sound shocked to hear the market subsidizes Medicare.
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