Schapelle Corby Should Have Served The Full Sentence

I notice you weren't keen to answer my other question DF. There are obviously other factors behind why prescription drugs kill more.

 

Facts? Research??

I know it is true but when you make a statement like this you have to back it with facts research and reasoning.

So what "legal" drugs are we talking of? Alcohol and tobacco - yep the poster children for legalising drugs

Are we talking prescription drugs - hmmmm - you might have a point until you realise how many people in australia take prescription drugs per year

 

It doesn't matter. If a person wishes to do themselves harm, or even if the harm is an unwanted side effect, the simple fact of the matter is that I don't have the moral authority to tell them they must stop, under penalty of law.

 

And yet we have done exactly that with smoking. If you do not believe me try smoking in a shopping mall or worse near a child

 

Ehhh... Do you realize what your last two comments actually show??? When you ask for evidence of a claim and in the very next sentence you agree that it is true??? Now you say you don't have the moral right but you did anyway???

And people wonder why the rest of the world laughs at Australian's ignorance...

 

While I don't buy it, the case there is that second hand smoke actually CAN cause harm to those around you. I think it's bull(*)(*)(*)(*), but at least it's a claim of harm, which, if real, does give you the moral standing to object to other's behaviors. OTOH, if I do a line of coke, there isn't even a hypothetical claim for you to make that I've harmed you. There's no such thing as "second hand coke".

 

Oh! And getting ripped to the point that you do not realising you are bashing the crap out of the Paramedics trying to help you is NOT causing harm??

 

I think it is pretty obvious that we can't legalise certain drugs! We need to look at reasons why people would want to abuse drugs and attempt to address this issue! Before you know it we would have an epidemic much worse than the impacts of alcohol! Tobacco education has put a significant dent on people's desire to use over many years! I mean really, the amount of people who abuse hardcore illicit drugs is probably minimal and you certainly wouldn't want to promote their use by legalising them even in a regulated market!

 

Of course it is. Are you claiming that every drug user does that every time?

 

You know, I do believe people are sometimes easily led. Moving away from the criminal Corby to impacts of drugs. Just seems little strange to me...

 

Nothing wrong with it. It is all in context to drugs, smuggling of drugs and/or whether drugs should be such a big issue! DF believes she shouldn't have been sentenced due to his reasoning, others believe she should have and should maintain our non tolerance of illicit drugs. If you don't want to enter a conversation then go and continue to make excuses for your beloved coalition party on another thread! :O

 

I think he is more to the freedoms than to what is right or wrong. The problem he has gotten into is he moved away from actually just trying to demonstrate laws that restrict a person is a removal of freedoms onto matter of how you justify it... BUT still really nothing to do with the thread except it touches on one part of the crime...

Regardless, she was found to be guilty of breaching a law in Indonesia and has served a sentence. It is pretty much that simple really...

 

Sorry garry you have confused me, but somehow think we miraculously agree somewhat!

 

The ones that do coke are far more likely to do that

http://www.who.int/violenceprevention/interpersonal_violence_and_illicit_drug_use.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC181074/

 

Sorry to take so long to respond - been working some funny hours. The gateway drug idea. I know where to get alcohol if I want it. There are a lot of outlets not far from my house. I couldn't tell you where to get cannabis though. To do that I'd have to enter a very secretive world where it takes time to build contacts and get information that would allow someone to find a supplier. And in my opinion that's the problem. The moment someone enters that mileu then they've crossed a threshold. If the stuff was regulated and available at licensed suppliers there would be no entry to the underworld required. But once you've in the underworld it gets easier and easier to behave according to the rules of the underworld and your previous principles are quickly forgotten. Our politicians have created this underworld by prohibiting cannabis, they have created the gateway. Selfish, gutless bastards won't admit it though.

 

I think you have a point and one I had not considered - even though I had always thought this was the reason why Australia has less gun crime than the USA - there might be illegal guns out there but the average kid wanting to break into a house to get some money would not know who to go to. Mind you, having said that there have been more than one incident that I know of where retail outlets have been selling drugs

 

Is the jury still out on the effects of cannabis? Maybe I have a negative predisposition regarding cannabis and not sure why I consider it worse than alcohol but in terms of what I have stated in earlier comments! I suppose if valid research suggests that it less harmful on individuals than alcohol, then sure let's push to legalise rather than create an underworld, but is this where it'll stop? Should cocaine and heroine be legalised as well?

 

I think there's some research out just recently that suggests teenagers using cannabis are at risk of developing related mental illness. Now without wanting to equivocate I would suggest that teenagers using tobacco are at risk of developing (insert list of diseases) and using alcohol are at risk of developing (insert list of diseases). Cannabis isn't harmless. It's carcinogenic for starters.

What I'm arguing for is regulation and education, not prohibition.

Same goes for any other drugs.

 

No, the link is stronger than that old chap. There has to be a genetic pre-disposition but Cannabis can and does cause schizophrenia
http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/C22A31B6C742DFE5CA25767E00122541/$File/m684.pdf

 

Yeah, you do, you just don't know it. You may not be a user of cannabis. I won't go so far to say it's universal, obviously that is not true, but based on my experience, if I had to give an anecdotal guess, I'd say 60-70% of the population is at least an occasional user. For those under 50 anyway.

 

Yes.

There is demand for the product, therefore, there will be supply. I'd rather have businesses with quality control departments who use lawyers instead of bullets to settle disputes in charge of supplying that demand.

 

Based on your "experience" but I would say far far less based on admission assessments to health care facilities

I do remember one kid that I looked after - he was 18 and brain dead from an overdose of Heroin (actually and sadly not quite brain dead - that happened a couple of days later but he was near enough on admission). I clearly remember his mother saying that when they found out he was addicted to Heroin they asked him why he had taken it - he acted surprised and said "but you have used it too!" See one of the ways of getting people hooked on illegal drugs is to convince them that "everyone does it"

 

I would put a couple of caveats on that, A) Education because it is obvious from your posts that it s badly needed B) defining WHO should or should not receive the legal drugs and C) control or prevention of NEW users

But to be honest opiates are easily accessed these days (cocaine not so much and really there is less indication for it) and this is causing a mass rise in addiction with the related problems

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...nkiller-abuse-exploding-in-hamilton-1.2419875

http://www.uspharmacist.com/continuing_education/ceviewtest/lessonid/106448/

 

DF, why do people like you have to be difficult! You make one think way too much, but glad you stuck at it!

This is an article about Portugal decriminalising illicit drugs. The article suggests that Mexico is considering the same strategy in the fight against drugs and gangs! Research indicates that there wasn'tt an increase in drug use due to the new law! If this is so, it would be interesting!
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

 

I agree with that. I think most people who want to do drugs already are. I think there are very few individuals who WOULD do them, but for the fact that it's illegal. Perhaps a few, but I think it's a very small number.

Given that, and given that much of the overdoses are caused by improperly prepared substances, and given that much of the street crime is a result of illegal drug distributors settling disputes with bullets, I think the better option is to allow them, and have legitimate businesses control the distribution.