Wow your right but look at this snippett

The corporate offices are located in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK. Other major offices are located in the United States in Wayne, Pennsylvania and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition, Shire owns a manufacturing site in Owings Mills, Maryland. The company has recently announced that it will move its tax domicile to Ireland. The move will be effected through the creation of a new holding company in Jersey, which will pay reduced tax on global earnings in Ireland. The new structure is thought to be motivated mainly by the rule that royalties on patents lodged in Ireland are tax free.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_Pharmaceuticals



Either way it still seems shady that they are lobbying in our laws.

Regarding theft, after you make it legal to sell, possess or use drugs, the seller or user will no longer face criminal charges for that. But where will the street user get the money to buy the legal drugs? I am not talking about the functioning addicts who actually have a job, but the toads on the street who break into cars, shop lift, etc. to get their fix.

Legalize drugs and yes, you will be happy, the dealer will be happy and so will the guy who replaces car windows.

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"Simply put it is possibe to have convenience if you want to tolerate insecurity, but if you want security, you must be prepared for inconvenience"
General Benjamin W. Chidlaw December 12, 1954

It is generally true that the Federal government relies on its authority under the Commerce Clause (unduly broad, if you ask me; but no one has, so I'll be quiet) to regulate narcotics; but as a general proposition, the Federal government cannot commandeer state actors to implement its policies. Thus, I wonder whether the PPD could simply decline to arrest (or the DA could decline to prosecute) non-dealers for drug possession, even if it were a crime under Federal law. Now, what I really don't know is whether the PPD could simply decline to enforce state laws w/r/t drug possession. In that case, you don't have issues of Federalism b/c the city of Philadelphia is merely a subsidiary of the Commonwealth and, in many respects, is bound by whatever rules the Commonwealth prescribes. That being said, I know even less about state and local law than I do about drug laws generally, so I won't make too many affirmative statements.

Rather, I will simply ask: why not do this? Let's reduce prison overcrowding and focus more resources on violent criminals.

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-- Vincent LaGuardia Gambini

I think prohibition proved this theory wrong.

I know wiki is not the best source but

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition

Many social problems have been attributed to the Prohibition era. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Racketeering happened when powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle. The cost of enforcing Prohibition was high, and the lack of tax revenues on alcohol (some $500 million annually nationwide) affected government coffers. When repeal of Prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states (states still had the right to enforce their own laws concerning alcohol consumption), because of competition with low-priced alcohol sales at legal liquor stores.

el: would you legalize heroin, coke, crack and meth?

I know this wasn't addressed to me, but I can't see legalizing any chemically made drug.

I never noticed problems with people doing natural drugs like weed and mushrooms, but every chemical drug user I knew seemed to lose touch with character.


I have never had a problem with a pot user, but every coke user I knew would steal and break down all their relationships. They always seemed so much more focused on the next "high" and would seem to change their relationships to only focus on hanging out with other coke heads. I don't see this so much with pot smokers. Personally, I only hang out with maybe a couple other smokers, but I never let this detract from my relationships with other people who never smoke.

I agree. BUT how many people are sitting in jail on weed charges? I would bet most are in there on coke, crack, heroin, meth charges. I know one quite well actually..he has been there for 11mos waiting for a hearing. He was a really low level crack corner boy.

Well where I live we are getting 200 or so inmates in one of the three half way house we have in Juniata Park.We are told there is nothing to stop it. We would not have a prison problem if we used holmesburg Prison. What ever happened to the saying don't do the crime if you can't to the time prison is prison. You should give up all your rights when your sent to prison. Why do we foot the bill for them to watch tv among other perks. Yes I have no mercy for people that commit crimes.

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First off, you assume all drug users are addicts which is more indicative of your beliefs than reality. Or perhaps you didn't mean addict as a negative thing. Having a doobie after work shouldn't be any worse than a beer. People who have jobs currently buy drugs and I'd venture to say these people make up the majority of marijuana and cocaine users.

Malloy-I'd mentioned earlier that I couldn't support legalizing meth and the same goes for crack. It's worth noting that crack was developed as a "poor man's cocaine" but cocaine is the domain of the relatively well to do almost entirely because it's illegal. It would be helpful if pot were legalized but if you aren't going to address cocaine, you aren't going to do enough damage to the violent black market. Pot is a relatively low margin business and it's most likely sold by the bottom of the barrel dealers (think of it as an entry level drug job). the margins on cocaine are enormous and it's illegality causes problems both in the US adn South America. In short, the money made form cocaine pays for the guns and the lavish lifestyles more than marijuana. Legal cocaine would also act as a legal alternative to the far more damaging chemical concoctions of meth and crack. I have known plenty of people who have used coke for a time or that use it casually and a few that used it too much (of course, some people eat too much, some drink too much, some smoke too much). I haven't seen them steal but when they use coke they generally do so with other cokeheads. On the other hand, perhaps they have more to lose if busted than someone with a joint. I'd support either the legalization of cocaine or it's primary ingredient, the coca leaf. bring back coca-cola.
It's worth noting that we don't need to look to amsterdam for what a world with different drug laws would look like, drugs were legal in the US until the early 20th c. cocaine became illegal after a bunch of southerners convinced americans that negroes were using cocaine and woudl become uncontrollable rape (or seduce) white women. the flip side to that is that cocaine became extremely popular among southern blacks because southern whites had made it illegal for blacks to drink, arguing that they couldn't handle their liquor. (cite: history of illegal drugs, history channel).cocaine had also been in widespread use among baseball players, theater stars,and with people like fraud.

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If it's 300 it's too many. Cocaine used to be the purvey of pharmacists, making it illegal moved it to shoe shine boys, yesterday's natural equivalent of the "low level corner boy."
You're 18, you get busted for dealing marijuana, you spend three weeks in jail, you lose your part-time job, you're no longer eligible for student loans, and you have a criminal record. how is his life going to turn out? Given this, the money is too good and it's clear all those deterrents aren't working and you've just ruined this boy's life because you are being overly harsh for something that isn't really even that damaging.
Alcohol prohibition led to soaring usage and an enormous rise in violent crime. drugs have been the same way. we've all been educated to believe that without the state keeping drugs in check, society would collapse but most evidence doesn't support that.

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