• 4am@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      How about if I’m not bothering anybody then don’t even arrest me?

      • hyper@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Edit:

        How about if I’m not bothering anybody then don’t even arrest me?

        I misunderstood that comment above. My bad.


        What do you mean? People get arrested for possession of weed for example that they plan to consume by themselves, not bothering anybody. Then they get locked up. You rather lock them away, than try to rehabilitate them? This applies to so many cases. Of course there are cases where the verdict says prison but at least try to keep people out of prison. But wait the prison system is a corporation trying to make money.

        • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Uh did you misread it? That’s exactly his point, people getting arrested when they weren’t even bothering anyone.

  • jabjoe@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    The logic is deterrence.

    I mean it’s stupid, but that’s what the supporters think.

    The thing they are missing is that no one commits a crime thinking they will get caught. So ever increasing the deterrence doesn’t help.

    Drugs is a public health issue, no really criminal. Prohibition doesn’t work with things done at scales like drugs and alcohol. You’re just feeding the criminal gangs.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The logic is subjugation. These laws are applied largely to a specific group of people, and even if they don’t spend life in prison, their ability to build a life for themselves afterwards is neutered, and they lost the right to vote.

    • Tehzbeef@lemmy.world
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      The logic is it also ruins other peoples lives. No one exists in society in a nut shell or as an island. If your choice to use drugs would expose, entice, or otherwise encourage a person to use drugs then it is reasonable in my opinion for the state to protect people from it.

      That being said clearly our approach isn’t working. There shouldn’t be laissez-faire drug use all over but there shouldn’t be life in prison immediately consequences either.

      The most succesful drug rehabilitation programs are mandatory rehab facilities that are a choice alternate to going to jail for an equal amount of time.

      Also housing first models are incredibly effective. But… the entire western world uses housing as an investment vehicle and commodity so it is diametrically opposed to housing first initiatives. If the average citizen is paying 50% of their income for housing and then “junkies” get given free housing the political party that implemented it would be booted so fast.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    That’s because it’s not logic - it’s propaganda. The war on drugs was always built on a solid bedrock of oppressing minorities, black people in particular.

    • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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      What? White people like smoking weed? Well its probably ok then. What? White people enjoy opioids? Oh no, it’s a crisis we better get people the help they need. Don’t worry big pharma drug dealers, you can keep your fortune, just say sorry.

  • BilboBargains@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s perfectly circular, like this man’s dome.

    Don’t forget that drug laws are often racist e.g. cocaine possession carries a lesser punishment than crack, cannabis is a schedule 1 substance, etc. This goes some way to explaining the legal rationale.

    • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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      How is this racist? I don’t doubt that you’re right but I’m not understanding what makes that racist. Are black people significantly more likely to have crack than cocaine or something? At first glance it seems logical to me that cocaine has less of a punishment than crack, but that’s based off of a somewhat limited understanding of the effects of the two drugs.

        • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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          They are the same pharmacologically, but the effects between snorting and smoking vary greatly.

          Regular cocaine powder is cocaine hydrochloride. Crack is made by mixing cocaine hydrochloride with ammonia and then burning off the hydrochloride which makes it a freebase. People don’t smoke regular cocaine until it has been turned into freebase. Smoking cocaine powder is just wasteful compared to snorting it.

          Smoking crack results in a more rapid absorption into the bloodstream—compared to snorting the powder. Therefore, the effects are more rapid and quicker to dissipate than if someone just snorted cocaine.

          Crack is cheaper than powder cocaine, because crack has less cocaine per dose, and is still very potent. So poorer areas get flooded with crack, as no one can afford to be addicted to cocaine powder in the lower class.

          So, in conclusion, it is absolutely discriminatory to have harsher punishment for crack than cocaine. Even if crack is more potent, it has less illegal substance in it by weight than cocaine powder does.

      • tuwwut@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        The racist associations between crack and black people are rumored to actually be an intentional thing. The US government says the allegations have no merit, but the CIA has been accused of funneling large amounts of crack cocaine into the black neighborhoods of LA. Here’s one article about it on a .gov but you can find many other sources on google: THE CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE CONTROVERSY Relevant quote from the original source accusing them:

        For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a Mercury News investigation has found.

        This drug network opened the first pipeline between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a city now known as the “crack” capital of the world. The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America . . . and provided the cash and connections needed for L.A.'s gangs to buy automatic weapons.

  • arefx@lemmy.ml
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    I’m from the city this cop was from and if I remember correctly he was shot in the head and survived but obviously not the same. Maybe he died I don’t really remember.

    I’m not a fan of the police but on a human level some awful stuff happened to this guy.

    Edit: looked it up because I was curious he underwent brain surgery and survived.

    Fuck the police as a whole tho

      • arefx@lemmy.ml
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        I agree even this guy but life has nuance and I felt this was info that is pertinent to the meme.

      • flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz
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        There is always some nuance, but in general most morally upstanding people drop out of training or are pushed out of the force in some way.

  • Piers@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Regan’s administration started the war on drugs. Convicting drugs users of a criminal crime has the effect of taking the right to vote away from people who tended not to vote for the Republican party and allowed them to be legally used as slave labour. At least one member of that administration has explicitly stated that this was a strategic decision to win elections.

  • TheBlue22@lemmy.world
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    Cops do not, never have and never will “protect and serve” a regular person. They protect and serve the elite.

    There is a good reason we say ACAB, fuck the police and call them class traitors

  • TimDave@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Just a reminder that cops exist simply to uphold the status quo! Our first police squads were created to hunt down escaped slaves! Fuck - and I really mean this - the police.

  • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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    I’m all for caging money making dealers that kill when they are threatened with prison. I’ve seen too many people get killed because some cunt that already has enough money is scared to get caught.

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        I know. It’s so sad. Know gang members I figure out they call the cops on their enemies alto get their enemies pissed at the police until the shoot out and usually their victim dies and the cops like gets fucked up.

        They use the cops to get away with murder… just like rich people and companies do.

        Trap jaw affiliates and the AX graffiti crew do it in New Hampshire/Boston/RI/CT/NYC/Epping/Manchester

        They got two people I know killed and even the cops don’t want to hear it.

        That’s why I have this username.

        I’m starting to think a lot of the 2020 black deaths were staged to help Trump, who is probably controlled/in the mob. (Roger stone/oath keepers/bloods)

        Giuliani “got rid of crime” in NYC… i think he was either a part of masking the organized crime or he got owned for fighting it and now they control him.

    • SpezBroughtMeHere@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What’s the threshold of income that would meet your criteria? Do you normally base jail time off of someone’s income, legally or illegally?

      • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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        Enough to rent and live in a studio apartment. (If they are single)

        Im mainly talking about anyone willing to murder innocent people to scare off people that figured out their drug/burglary/pimp game.

        I think drugs and prostitution should be legalized.

        I’ve known too many criminals that are complete tyrants and fascists. They are heartless and will take from anyone. They are just as worthless as materialistic rich people.

  • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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    It didn’t say what mechanism would be used for the drugs to ruin your life. Prison works just as well as turning tricks for smack as far as life ruining goes.

  • nxfsi@lemmy.world
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    Failure to enforce drug prohibition resulted in Qing China having a nationwide addiction epidemic for British opium, resulting in the opium wars, the country’s bankruptcy, partial European colonization as well as the so-called “century of humiliation”. The effects of this addiction epidemic are still being felt nowadays, e.g. in widespread racism towards Asian people as well as the current opioid epidemic where Chinese-made fentanyl is exported worldwide with the unofficial sanction of the Chinese government.

    This is the reason why drug prohibition is a thing, and why many Asian countries have death sentences even for simple possession of narcotics.

    • TheBlue22@lemmy.world
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      There is no way you just compared modern drugs and war on drugs on the fucking Qing China.

      Especially when there are MODERN examples of drug decriminalisation that work, like Portugal or Switzerland.

      You are either completely ignorant or stupid to ignore it and use a fucking ancient example instead

      • nxfsi@lemmy.world
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        Why not? The opium wars are a dark spot in Chinese history and the fascist CCP government is hell bent on “revenge” against the west for that. That’s why the CCP is exporting fentanyl to the west via shell companies and causing the modern opioid epidemic. I would like to see how decriminalization can deal with a targeted attack like that.

    • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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      Yeah… Racism has nothing to do with the historical opium epidemic in China. Racists just racist. Anyone different from them too, like LGBTQ, and intellectuals.

      • nxfsi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There are racists everywhere that’s true, but people who are naturally racist are rare because racism is something that is taught. The lack of a strong voice for minority races is what allows racists in power to normalize their discrimination against them, eventually making it a systemic and widespread phenomenon.

        You argue that the opium epidemic has absolutely zero effect on racism towards Chinese people. However I say that the opium epidemic directly started a chain of events that led to the downfall of the Chinese government, which enabled racist people to teach their racism to the government and the rest of society without fear of repercussions, therefore enabling widespread and systemic racism against Asians.

        • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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          I’m sorry, I’ve never seen any mention linking racism to be caused by the Chinese opium epidemic. Because it’s not true. Racism is the belief that one’s own race is superior to others. In order for the opium epidemic to have caused it initially, the common person would have had to know about it at some point.

          Due to the speed at which information traveled, hardly anyone was aware, let alone understood, that there was an entire country being controlled by opium sales from Britain.

          What I’m trying to point out is that a racist individual will be racist no matter the cause, they were predisposed to think their race superior.

      • nxfsi@lemmy.world
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        This approach is 100 years after prohibition. Hopefully it can overcome the institutional momentum of current drug laws and get implemented in more places.