For those that whine about our drug laws..

[Sstashmoo]

10 years for amphetamine use?? Japan is a cutting edge country, what does that say about us?

""TOKYO — Japanese actress Noriko Sakai, once hugely popular in Asia, was convicted of drug use Monday as thousands of people crowded outside the courthouse in anticipation of the verdict.
The Tokyo District Court sentenced 38-year-old Sakai to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for using and possessing drugs, court spokesman Yoshikazu Ishizawa said. He declined to give further details.
More than 3,000 people thronged the courthouse awaiting the ruling.
Sakai was arrested in August after turning herself in following a weeklong disappearance. She disappeared a day after her husband, Yuichi Takaso, 41, was arrested for drug possession and use. The court is set to hand down a verdict on Takaso later this month.
The couple were accused of using amphetamines. The violation carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, though most first violations bring suspended sentences.
Sakai was popular across Asia — including in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — in the 1990s because of her songs and TV dramas.
The drug scandal, which has dominated headlines for months in Japan, shattered Sakai's wholesome image. Her commercial deals, including one with Toyota Motor Corp., were canceled. Her record label, Victor Entertainment, also terminated its contract with the star and pulled all her albums and other products from stores nationwide.
In the wake of Sakai's arrest, Japanese authorities have said they will crack down on drug use in the entertainment industry.""


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...iIT9AD9BS198G1

[ccbatson]

Libertarians have the drug issue right.

[Sstashmoo]

You say just open the script locker and let em' have it eh?

[ccbatson]

Why do I care what someone else does so long as it doesn't infringe on my rights? I don't have to pay for it do I? I don't suffer the consequences of their poor judgement do I?

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "I don't have to pay for it do I? I don't suffer the consequences of their poor judgement do I?"

If you pay taxes you do.

[Blarf]

Quote: "I don't have to pay for it do I? I don't suffer the consequences of their poor judgement do I?"

If you pay taxes you do.

Only because our taxes are used to keep victims of the failed hypocritical bullshit "War on drugs" locked in jails and prisons.

[Sstashmoo]

That's a myth the legalize crowd use, few people go to prison over drugs.

[maxx]

I bet the average Japanese feels much safer knowing that that actress is paying for her "crime" while the Yakuza are involved in real estate, banking and sports.

[ziggyselbin]

Why do I care what someone else does so long as it doesn't infringe on my rights? I don't have to pay for it do I? I don't suffer the consequences of their poor judgement do I?

Maybe not directly......but what if the mechanic fixing your brakes is high? Or any other similar scenario ..

Having said that I would likely support legalization.

[Gistok]

Maybe not directly......but what if the mechanic fixing your brakes is high? Or any other similar scenario ..

Having said that I would likely support legalization.

.... and then there's the airline pilot who has a high blood alcohol level....

The billions and billions spent on the fruitless war on drugs are and always have been a total failure... I have to agree with CC on this one... to each his own...

One defiinition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again [[spend and spend)... and expect a different outcome.

We need to have a sane and sensible drug policy. This is one area where we can learn from the Dutch and the Swiss.

[ziggyselbin]

.... and then there's the airline pilot who has a high blood alcohol level....

The billions and billions spent on the fruitless war on drugs are and always have been a total failure... I have to agree with CC on this one... to each his own...

One defiinition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again [[spend and spend)... and expect a different outcome.

We need to have a sane and sensible drug policy. This is one area where we can learn from the Dutch and the Swiss.

The key word being sane and sensible. Drugs are bad. They cause all kinds of shit for families and users. To think that there are no societal problems from drug use is naive. I am not talking about the financial cut throat [[literally including marijuana)part of it either. I am talking of the broken families, terrified children, missed work, health issues; none of that goes away with legalization.So sane and sensitive does make sense.

[Blarf]

The key word being sane and sensible. Drugs are bad. They cause all kinds of shit for families and users. To think that there are no societal problems from drug use is naive. I am not talking about the financial cut throat [[literally including marijuana)part of it either. I am talking of the broken families, terrified children, missed work, health issues; none of that goes away with legalization.So sane and sensitive does make sense.

There is a difference between use and abuse. Not everyone who uses a drug is a junkie with a broken family. None of the problems go away with the prohibition either. The drug laws cause problems than they solve. Profits and prices are just driven up, and in a black market violence is the only way disputes get solved.

Aparently the anti-drug folks didn't learn a thing from alcohol of prohibition back in the 1920's. IT didn't work than, and it doesn't work now.

[Ravine]

I think Maxx made a good point. The Yakuza do as they damned well please-- can we call them criminals, when their operations do not appear to be seen as "illegal"-- and the Japanese "culture" [[if you want to call it that, which I don't) seems to embrace even more creepy, nauseating, ghastly, barbaric, morally deviant shit than ours does, but they're tough on drugs.
I'm not impressed. The stuff Japan implicitly stands for is much worse than the stuff they stand against.

[Jimaz]

Then there's the whole emerging forfeiture-of-innocent-people's-property problem: Wayne Co. profits from police property seizures.

Civil forfeiture is based on the concept that property is guilty, not the owner. And since property has no legal rights, it can be confiscated for any reason, without charges being filed -- even if an officer admits no crime was ever committed.

WTF? Property can't act of its own initiative. That's like claiming a corporation is an individual or a prisoner of war is an "enemy combatant." Weasel words like that disclose how corrupt we've become. Without authority of force they hold no truth whatsoever and it is blatantly obvious.

[ccbatson]

This one is a paradox for those thinking themselves conservative and in favor of strict anti drug laws....Individual freedom goes hand in hand with individual responsibility, how can we expect one and not the other?

[ziggyselbin]

There is a difference between use and abuse. Not everyone who uses a drug is a junkie with a broken family. None of the problems go away with the prohibition either. The drug laws cause problems than they solve. Profits and prices are just driven up, and in a black market violence is the only way disputes get solved.

Aparently the anti-drug folks didn't learn a thing from alcohol of prohibition back in the 1920's. IT didn't work than, and it doesn't work now.

Anyone using cocaine or heroin or even god forbid you pot heads will get your sphincter all knotted up are not using anything they are abusing...

[Ravine]

Ziggy, I think I disagree with you, but it's hard to be sure.

[maxx]

This blogger says Amsterdam makes a distinction between hard drugs and softer drugs like pot.
http://www.amsterdamlogue.com/amster...nal-drugs.html

I wonder if they try to control the amount of THC in their pot.

[maxx]

And when comparing drug use in the U.S. to that in Amsterdam, more than drug laws should be taken into account. For instance.

in the Netherlands, one out of three children is born to “unmarried mothers.” A statistic such as this is reported undigested for it sells news bites. The rest of the untold story is that for 90% of illegitimate births, the parents are cohabiting and marry within one year—and 90 percent of these marriages will not end in divorce. He said that 91 percent of children in the Netherlands live with both of their natural parents till the leave home. Only 3 percent of women have children with [more] than one ‘partner.’

What is driving down the birth rate is that there is rising rate of childless women.
Because of the economic structure, the family is the loser—luxury consumption takes place in phases without children: couples in their 20s; couples in their 50s and 60s.
“98 percent of “flying” vacations booked are by couples without children.”
Germans call having no children “the Porsche Option.” In Europe, one child will cost 250,000 Euros from conception until he leaves home.
http://merecomments.typepad.com/mere...amsterdam.html

[ccbatson]

Apples and oranges Lormaxx...lax drug laws and single parenthood are not connected.

[elganned]

Much as I hate to say it, I agree with Cc on the whole drug issue. Morality and good judgement cannot be achieved through legislation. Vice cannot be eliminated by targeting the source. The economics are unmistakable and ironclad: so long as there is demand, there will be a supply. There's too much money in it not to be.

We've lived with alcohol and its effects for thousands of years. We saw what happened when we tried to legislate it out of use--black markets, the rise of criminal gangs funded by exhorbitant profits, and rampant contempt for law. The same has happened and is happening via our drug laws; the current carnage in Juarez, Mexico is just the latest example of many such.

Legalize them, tax them, and regulate them. It's the best we can do.

[elganned]

Oh, and I advocate the same for prostitution. At least we've [[sort of) come to our senses concerning gambling; the proliferation of casinos seemingly on every corner hasn't meant the end of civilization as we know it. Legalizing the other two of the Big 3 won't, either.

[Sstashmoo]

elganned, one step closer to an uncivilized society. One more nail in the coffin. What is wrong with people just abiding by the law? It is always yielding to the issue instead of addressing it. Japan has tough drug laws, do they have a drug problem? If people here understood there were heavy consequences to pay, we would not have a drug problem either.

Turning drugs loose on this nation would finish it off in no time. For every person that is a functioning drugger, there are 20 that it would destroy. Stiff penalties is the answer. Just like DUI, that has been all but eradicated due to stiff penalties.

[d.mcc]

We need to have a sane and sensible drug policy. This is one area where we can learn from the Dutch and the Swiss.

I don't think sensible drug policy is all we can model after the Dutch and Swiss. 2 of the highest quality of living rankings in the world you say? But I thought the United States was the best in everything!?

[Bearinabox]

I don't think sensible drug policy is all we can model after the Dutch and Swiss. 2 of the highest quality of living rankings in the world you say? But I thought the United States was the best in everything!?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry about America these days. We're on the fast track to a third-world standard of living and we're too fucking insular to realize it. Far as we're concerned, those commies can keep their health care and their job security and their paved roads and their clean, on-time trains and their thriving downtowns and their schools that actually educate people, and we'll stay in our little backwater and praise Jesus every day that our income taxes would be lower than theirs if we still had any income left to tax. This is what happens when you have a population that thinks it's too much trouble to get a passport.