• PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    The “War on drugs” has been a colossal failure.

    Legalize, regulate and tax.

    At least then you can take the money out of the cartels and despotic regimes. You can then use the tax money raised to offset the harm these drugs absolutely do through social policies and rehabilitation programs that actually work

    • nicetriangle@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Also helps ensure the drugs are clean. The US marijuana legalization process has absolutely not been perfect but the regime of testing for pesticides and mold is very effective.

      If cocaine were legal and regulated you wouldn’t be hearing all these stories of people dying of fentanyl overdoses from doing shitty cut coke.

      • Dharma Curious@startrek.website
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        11 months ago

        It does make me wonder where they swiss government will acquire their coke. With weed, it’s fairly easy to grow it wherever you need to, but with coke, you pretty much have to be in certain regions, yeah?

        If that’s the case, is this still going to be supporting those same cartels? If more countries legalized, we could maybe hope to see legally grown, harvested, and processed coke without all the slave labor and shit. Could be a real boon for South American countries, too, if the cartels lost power, and the cocoa plantations could be nationalized.

        I just woke up, so I may be just talking out my ass, though

        • nicetriangle@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          I’m honestly totally ignorant to whether they can be grown indoors at scale outside of their normal growing region, but that’s a good point to bring up.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          11 months ago

          If you go to Peru, you can buy coca leaf tea, grown by legitimate companies, sold entirely legally. It’s amazing for adjusting to high altitudes, if you ever go to the Andes, I highly recommend you drink the tea.

          There’s huge illegal growing operations, but there’s legal ones. It’s not that hard to grow - I think it likes high altitudes and moisture, but although it’s not as easy to grow as “weed”, I’m pretty sure it’s easier than coffee

          • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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            11 months ago

            Not gonna lie I would love to have access to that tea. The powder is great and all but it makes me twitchy and I really only enjoy it on a night out while also drinking. I could see myself using the tea for long work sessions etc.

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
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              11 months ago

              It’s all dosage and concentration, like anything really. Cocaine is just a simple extraction from it

              You could get high off it, but not on accident… You’d have to put in some leg work

          • boomzilla@programming.dev
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            11 months ago

            Is Peru that country where lots of people, even older ones, with physically demanding jobs chew coca leaves before going to work?

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
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              11 months ago

              Yeah, especially at high altitudes.

              I would too… It helps blood flow and is a simulant. Gentler than caffeine too

    • Unaware7013@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      The “War on drugs” has been a colossal failure.

      That’s only true if you believe the lies that the “war on drugs” was actually about drugs. It never has been, it was always about having an excuse to incarcerate and beat down groups they didn’t like; minorities, the poor, and the left.

      When you look at it that way, it’s obvious that the war on drugs is actually a really successful means to an end. Just try not to have a heart and think of the countless lives they ruined to keep a boot on peoples’ neck.

    • chitak166@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The war on drugs has been a massive success.

      It keeps people poor, desperate, and ashamed to engage in behavior rich people engage in.

    • Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      No, we keep it illegal and go the Ollie North strategy. Invent a more addictive form of cocaine (crack), and sell it to minorities to fund secret wars for oil in South America.