"Nor is lethal assistance the sole answer. These countries need across the board assistance to build up their judicial and penal systems and more economic opportunities for their people to depress the lure of the drug trade. But nothing is possible without re-establishing peace and security and that means employing superior force against those who prefer it the other way."

so your advocating doubling down on what doesnt work? this is the strategy they have tried for the last 40 years. prohibitionists are the definition of insane, keeping doubling down with the same ineffective strategies on the drug war and expect different results

The drug lords have tunnel vision and are unable to see the bigger picture. They do not understand the true power of hi-tech agriculture in finance and how it can support, employ and feed the people.
It is interesting that there is all of this time, money, hatred and killing invested in the drug war when you can raise produce and herbs in a specialized growing system and generate near as good of a return as raising marijuana or cocaine. The demand for locally grown produce and herbs in every part of the world is greater than marijuana and cocaine. It cost me 600k to setup every acre on this system and I have my cost back plus a healthy premium at the end of the first year. Google the poster. No wars, no armies, no killing, no prison, no hiding and no cross country distribution and no drug enforcement costs to the people. It employs people, it feeds people and it reduces our tax exposure. Cash in and cash out year-round. They could be the heroes of the people instead of the enemies of the people. thegardenmasterqc@gmail.com

Apart from a dubious philosophy that drug use is a criminal act the current world wide war on drugs keep pumping money in the black cirquit, which will destroy the foundation of our society. With well over 100 billion going into this cirquit each year we do not have to be PhDs to realize that at some point all economic activity is financed by drugs money.

The argument that decriminalizing drug use will increase the use of these substances has been proven wrong for a long time in several places, including my home country Holland.

The acceptance that drug abuse is a disease rather than a crime aslo opens the door to treatment and a light at the end of the tunnel for those afflicted. Interesting enough this way of treatment is well accepted for alcohol, so why on earth does this not dawn onto the drug warriors?
The situation is asking for leaders with the courage to see this fact in the eye and unfortunately I still do not see this enough, so the torture goes on.

Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.

* A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine.

* The massive majority of adults who use drugs do so recreationally - getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning.

* Apart from the huge percentage of people addicted to both sugar and caffeine, a small minority of adults (nearly 5%) will always experience the use of drugs as problematic. - approx. 3% are dependent on alcohol and approx. 1.5% are dependent on other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroine etc.

* Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so.

* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits.

* Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.

* Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement - even whole governments, while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death.

* Apart from the fact that the DEA is the de facto enforcement wing of the pharmaceutical industry, the involvement of the CIA in running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, and Cocaine from Central America has been well documented by the 1989 Kerry Committee report, academic researchers Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott, and the late journalist Gary Webb.

* It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets.

* The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries.

* Prohibition is the "Goose that laid the golden egg" and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of the opium poppy. An estimated 44 % of the heroin produced in Afghanistan, with an estimated annual destination value of US $ 27 Billion, transits through Pakistan. Prohibition has essentially destroyed Pakistan's legal economy and social fabric. - We may be about to witness the planet's first civil war in a nation with nuclear capabilities. - Kindly Google: 'A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST GROUPS' Only those opposed, or willing to ignore these facts, want things the way they are.

* The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation. - Good intentions, wishful thinking and pseudoscience are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.

* Many important advancements in human society (even the reasonable requirement that gynecologists wash their hands before examining a patient) have been vehemently resisted by unconscionable, selfish individuals who were willing to use outright mendacity, specious logic and fear mongering to sacrifice the well-being of the rest of us.

We have spent over a TRILLION dollars directly on the War on Drugs (including cost of incarceration). Using availability and street price as a barometer there has been almost no return on investment. What we have done is destabilize countries and regions.

Obviously this is a user problem. A politically emotional issue, our leaders are afraid to take the logical step. Worse, it is well established that drug money funds terrorists. We are not even willing to do what is in our own best interests. Hypocracy reigns supreme.

How much are we willing to spend with no visible results. Any rational business would have changed tactics long ago.

It always starts with losing short term memory. Combine that with a tendency to shoot from the lip, and an illusion of becoming president of the United States, and you can expect some pretty scary speeches..

"Is rio orange war always forfait blackberry inevitable ?"
MaximB

There are many issues to discuss with responsible governments looking to better the lives of their peoples. Drug legalization should not be one of them. femmes seules