confines of this scene

[trent bortknob]

broken bottles in the streets

[Kooh]

AHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAA-

I don't think legalizing drugs would help at all, when someone has to much access to something, it's unavoidably gonna get screwed up somehow.
Tis how humans work.

[bd648]

Ok drugs are not the only problem in areas where it gets this bad. And even if it were to be legalized it would only serve to make it a little better by reducing some of the crime. And that would only be because there are fewer crimes. It would not just make it magically go away.

[sev]

i think they'd just sell it for cheaper than the stores and people would still buy it

[Sinitron]

kill all druggies

problem solved!

[Flash]

drug addictions and trafficking are half cause, half symptom when it comes to neighbourhoods like these. i perfectly understand what you're talking about because in sao paulo we have a place just like that (fuck subtlety, even our politicians call that area cracolândia - basically "crackland")

legalizing drugs is something i agree with (as long as the process is really slow and well thought-out, and politicians and their representatives figure out a way to actually sincerely speak to people on the potential harm drugs can cause instead of using scare tactics and making over-the-top PSAs)
but the extreme poverty, cultural distance and resulting tendency towards crime would remain even if there was no illegal traffic. in fact, one could think that if you give a lot of miserable people the opportunity to buy drugs they can trip out on without having to deal with any kind of danger, the addiction problem might get worse.

so yeah basically i believe that legalized drugs wouldn't solve the problem but it is a step society will have to take sooner or later
as for improving the ghettos - dude, the only way to solve this is by thinking on the long-term consequences of investments on education. as soon as tax money is spent on building more and better schools in those areas, let a few decades pass and you'll see the situation improving dramatically.

i think they'd just sell it for cheaper than the stores and people would still buy it

that would reduce them to street vendor-levels and they would lose most relevancy

also my post is very badly-written i'm sorry i'm just real sleepy right now

[Sinitron]

they're traitors to the development of the human species

they deserve to die

it's not even a case of smoking to calm your nerves, sipping wine while eating steak, or even marijuana for 'medical purposes'

but rather full-blown self-destructive hedonism to a point where there is no hope to salvage any of them for productive purposes

none of them will ever amount to anything, they are so destroyed by living in these communities they're not even viable organ donors

another holocaust would simply benefit the rest of you

[bd648]

however, a lot of the crime in philadelphia is directly related to drugs. like, i'd say 90% of the murders are somehow related to drugs. my train of thought is this: a lot of the people in these neighborhoods were born in this environment. to them, it's common knowledge that if you want quick, easy money, you can just start selling drugs (or selling your body in the case of women). if these drugs were legal, it would be way harder for some sketchy jerk to peddle them on the streets.

ok yes that is true. but that would only get rid of crime relating to the dealing and purchasing of drugs. there are still crimes that would result from the use of drugs.

[Gladius]

most kids i knew who got into peddling/using were pretty low IQ or never had any desire to work hard in life and take responsibility

they weren't necessarily poor or from broken homes either

why should i sympathize?

[rtil]

there is a homeless shelter in Seattle called 1811 that provides taxpayer funded homes specifically for homeless people with alcohol addictions. the weird part? residents can go down to the reception area and request as much alcohol to drink as they want. residents can ask to be limited but the shelter does not force or encourage them to. at first glance it seems like an awful idea, but the weird part is that statistically speaking they are the most successful homeless rehabilitation facility in Seattle. many of their residents have gone on to find jobs and even moved out and started new lives.

their reasoning is that they can allow the residents access to alcohol because they feel more empowered by the opportunity of having an actual home and a real chance at starting a new life. consequently, they are able to reclaim their lives from alcoholism since they are no longer in the desolate conditions of living on the street. i've read and watched a lot of success stories from 1811 and i have to say i'm a believer.

even though there are obviously not enough resources and money to go around to make this a reality for every addict in the world, and i don't think it would work for everything, it definitely goes to show that the "war on drugs" needs to end and we need to approach these kinds of people in a different way. the drug war has killed more people than it has saved, and drugs are just as prevalent today as they were in the 80's when reagan started his stupid campaign.

so while legalizing drugs is a step that i think all societies will have to take, dealing with the presence and usage of drugs, and understanding why people take drugs and how to treat them will be another - one that i don't think we can fully explore until society accepts that they will never go away and we cannot ignore or fight them.

[Greenkitten]

You can still buy legal drugs illegally, they'll just find a way to make it more potent since the base is easily accessible. I know some guy who works at a pharmacy and he swipes all these drugs to make even better drugs. Ghettos are ghettos because of the people living in them, they don't want to improve. Thats why id falls into decay, rather than improving itself and just becoming a poor neighbourhood. I mean here you can go to some shithole town like Alice Springs which due to too much violence now has a blockade on all alcohol shipments because the government deemed it too unsafe, or you could go to a place where the people are equally as poor like Werribee and still feel safe because the citizens there have respect and actually care about the community.

[hattie]

I know some guy who works at a pharmacy and he swipes all these drugs to make even better drugs.

i imagine that even if drugs were legalized we'd have this same problem. some idiot will try to do every single drug at the same time or combine them into some super drug which will probably be banned, then years down the road we'd be faced with the same issue but with a different series of drugs.

half of the time the excitement of doing a drug is because it's illegal and you aren't supposed to be doing it.

[Greenkitten]

half of the time the excitement of doing a drug is because it's illegal and you aren't supposed to be doing it.

Amsterdam is a great example of that.

[creamcorn]

amsterdam is a great example of the other half of the time

[Greenkitten]

I saw there was a chart where after they legalised it there was a steep increase for a bit then it plummeted.