UN Global Commission: Drug War a Failure

[civver_764]

Most America's supported the public option actually.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Ah, but for reasons other than caring what the rest of Earth has to say. Which is what's important; we will legalise UHC because Americans want it, not because a few other countries get together and start bashing us for not having it.

 

[GhostWriter16]

If other countries start adopting more sensible drug policies though the US will start to look pretty bad.

I doubt we'll care TBH.

Heck, I don't care much about drug laws now since I have no interest in using them

Warpus took the words out of my mouth.

The American mindset seems to be "Screw you, I'm a superpower." + whatever jingoism you can think of here.

Plenty of them have UHC and do we care? Apart from a few liberals here and there, most Americans do not... most have abolished the death penalty. Do we care? Yet again, apart from a few liberals...

UHC is a bad idea, as is abolishing Capital Punishment. Do you now see why I don't care for the UN?

 

[bestrfcplayer]

The U.S.? Healthcare? Good luck with that..

Maybe that's a good sign to get rid of Obamacare

 

[Communisto]

I doubt we'll care TBH.

Heck, I don't care much about drug laws now since I have no interest in using them

and yet, the consequences and ramifications of the drug war still affect you on a daily basis. Reality, amirite?

 

[carmen510]

Even though its good to see acknowledgement of the failure, countries are still going to persist fighting their "War on Drugs", and the UN is pretty much powerless to stop it. Heck, if they couldn't get Mauritania to ban slavery until 2007, will they have any luck stopping the drug wars and passing drug decriminalization laws?

 

[warpus]

Maybe that's a good sign to get rid of Obamacare

What's Obamacare?

 

[Berzerker]

requirement to buy insurance

 

[G-Max]

All Catholics are Sith though, so that's not really pretending

(And Protestants are Jedi)

No way. The Rajput warriors of India are the Jedi. Well, they're more like the Protoss from Starcraft, but same thing.

Find an alcoholic. Lock them in a room without access to alcohol. Observe.

Hi, my name is G-Max, and I'm an alcoholic. I also haven't had anything to drink for like a week, despite living about 2 minutes' walking distance away from a liquor store.

Warpus took the words out of my mouth.

The American mindset seems to be "Screw you, I'm a superpower." + whatever jingoism you can think of here.

Plenty of them have UHC and do we care? Apart from a few liberals here and there, most Americans do not... most have abolished the death penalty. Do we care? Yet again, apart from a few liberals...

This is because we're actually a federation of sovereign states, each of which is supposed to have full autonomy regarding things like the death penalty.

 

[Silurian]

It’s always strange when people attack the messenger rather than the message.

 

[Tani Coyote]

UHC is a bad idea, as is abolishing Capital Punishment.

I'm surprised no one's called you out on these... then again, that would be off-topic.

Do you now see why I don't care for the UN?

I don't care for the UN and I support some basic UHC and abolition of capital punishment...

This is because we're actually a federation of sovereign states, each of which is supposed to have full autonomy regarding things like the death penalty.

I don't see what that has to do with what I said...

All I said is, Americans in general don't care about legalising or criminalising something because the rest of the world did it. We make our laws based on what we want, not based on other countries calling us "barbaric" or whatever.

That goes for the state level as much as the federal, since both are composed of Americans. We're just moving down a level.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Find an alcoholic. Lock them in a room without access to alcohol. Observe.

Let's talk to someone with leukemia and see what they think about an alcoholic's "disease". Some people do have a genetic predisposition towards addiction, that's true, but I'm not comfortable calling it a disease because at the end of the day, drinking is a choice, even if you are addicted you can (and people do) make the decision to just not drink anymore. Diseases are something you have no direct control over, you have no choice. Cancer is a disease. Influenza is a disease. Drinking is a lifestyle choice, some people DO have a harder time saying no than others, but it's still a choice.

 

[BvBPL]

I think the disease model of alcoholism, and drug addiction more broadly, is a helpful, but isn’t universally applicable. People drink for a variety of reasons and some people cannot help themselves whereas others are more capable of doing so. Similarly, there are recovering alcoholics who can never have another sip of alcohol without relapse, but there are also those who can moderately indulge after recovering. Whether this is because of physical / genetic factors or something is hard to say. It is obvious, however, that groups like AA, which does support the disease model, has been a great help for people trying to recover from addiction.

The really good thing about the disease model is that it makes addiction a public health topic, which is really important.

 

[Aegis]

requirement to buy insurance

Oh, you mean personal accountability.

Let's talk to someone with leukemia and see what they think about an alcoholic's "disease". Some people do have a genetic predisposition towards addiction, that's true, but I'm not comfortable calling it a disease because at the end of the day, drinking is a choice, even if you are addicted you can (and people do) make the decision to just not drink anymore. Diseases are something you have no direct control over, you have no choice. Cancer is a disease. Influenza is a disease. Drinking is a lifestyle choice, some people DO have a harder time saying no than others, but it's still a choice.

A person has no control over their withdrawal symptoms or cravings.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

You might then have a case for calling the withdrawals themselves a disease, I still wouldn't because it's a chemical response in the body which seems like a different thing to me, but the case could be made. As for cravings? I have a craving for beef jerky right now, do I have a new disease called jerkyism? Cravings are not even close to a disease, despite having no control over them.

 

[GhostWriter16]

@Communisto- Please enlighten me. How does the drug war affect me personally? (Note: this doesn't mean I support it, I don't. I just won't waste time campaigning against it unless I actually run for President someday.)

 

[Aegis]

You might then have a case for calling the withdrawals themselves a disease, I still wouldn't because it's a chemical response in the body which seems like a different thing to me, but the case could be made. As for cravings? I have a craving for beef jerky right now, do I have a new disease called jerkyism? Cravings are not even close to a disease, despite having no control over them.

Cravings are a symptom, not the be-all, end-all. Your wanting to eat jerky has nothing to do with your body physically craving jerky in the way that an alcohol or caffeine addict's body does. Jerky does not carry an addictive element, unlike alcohol and caffeine. Your body will not go into withdrawal if you don't eventually eat jerky to satisfy your craving.

@Communisto- Please enlighten me. How does the drug war affect me personally? (Note: this doesn't mean I support it, I don't. I just won't waste time campaigning against it unless I actually run for President someday.)

Your tax dollars are wasted trying to combat it and wasted on incarcerating non-violent people that needlessly flood the prison system.

 

[civver_764]

Your tax dollars are wasted trying to combat it and wasted on incarcerating non-violent people that needlessly flood the prison system.

Among other activities of the DEA.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Your tax dollars are wasted trying to combat it and wasted on incarcerating non-violent people that needlessly flood the prison system.

That's true.

Then again, my entire family is against legalizing drugs (Well, most of them anyway) so actively campaigning for it wouldn't go over well with them

Also, there are better things I could do with my time.

But yeah, it is unnecessary.

 

[Communisto]

Also, it pumps millions of dollars worth of profit into the hands of criminal enterprises when that money could be going, you know, back to us.