Morbid Koala
Senior Member
In an ideal world, there would be no drugs (other than use for medical purposes) would there not?.
In YOUR ideal world, not mine.
In an ideal world, there would be no drugs (other than use for medical purposes) would there not?.
Bearing in mind that governments are controlled by multinationals. As I said earlier, the issue isn't "government" but the "big fish", who consume us little fish ... have a look at that book recommendation BassDriver gave me. The big fish include government but, rest assured, if governments don't do the multinationals' bidding they get voted out.
In Oz, most of our money comes through mining, which is largely owned by multinationals with majority foreign ownership. They are digging up non-renewable resources at breakneck speed and making mind-blowing profits. The government decided that we needed to keep some of this one-off money in Oz and aired the idea of a super profits tax - which only raised rates for the companies after the company had made billions and billions of profit. There is no way the companies would be struggling because they had already made "super profits".
Thing is, we're losing our resources and most of the money is going overseas. The mining companies spent many thousands on an aggressive advertising campaign. They cried poor, saying they'd be forced to leave Oz (BS) and sack thousands of workers (BS). With the help of the Opposition and the Murdoch press they got the prime minister sacked through his plummeting approval ratings. Soon afterwards the government lost their previously-healthy majority next election, surviving with only the help of two independents - and this was with a religious fundamentalist loony in charge of the Opposition who was previously considered an unelectable joke!
The tax made sense. When the resources are largely gone - we are screwed. We'll have diddly squat. We need to make the money when it's available. Thing is, we also need to invest that money wisely to set ourselves up for the time when the minerals are depleted.
And what better investment for a country's citizens is there than to pour thousands of dollars on police, lawyers, courts and administrative costs so as to humiliate rock stars and persecute harmless little people who enjoy a few scoobies?
So, yes, government sucks but they are only a cog in the larger sucking machine, which is largely controlled by big biz. They call the shots. Do you think about the spider's life when you pull down its web? Do you worry about the children when you kill pregnant cockroaches (apart from being glad)? If a trail of ants leads to the honey in your pantry, do you leave it be so they can get on with their lives? Or do you "tidy them up"?
We are big biz and the govt. The insects are Phil Rudd and other small, annoying pests like you and me. It's the law of the jungle. All we insects can do is avoid the predators ... the Big Things.
Sure, for some reason Scandinavians seem to be more evolved and have moved past some stupid stuff that we Yanks, Poms and Convicts obsess about. I suspect it's because they're usually stuck indoors in bad weather and are therefore forced to actually think.
I'd rather enjoy good weather and stay under the radar so I'm not squashed like a bug Then you have Mike's comment - when you're young it's satisfying to thumb your nose at being naughty and evading the Big Things. That, of course, is why the US has much higher drug use than Holland. Forbidden fruit.
On a musical note (ha) the speakeasies hired lots of musos. Now we have E-fuelled rave parties and they hire DJs.
// end insomniac rant - back to bed //
... I'm still not clear where big biz has much of a stake in this particular culture mini-war. My impression is that in this case it is solely politicians fretting over the next election cycle and the formidable block of social conservatives who would likely succeed in derailing the career of any who dared push for legalization.
Not really, but there are areas within "safe" countries where you can get on with life pretty much as you want to, my location being one of them.I admit I don't really know what the best place in the world is to live to escape lying governments. Is there such a place?
Do you feel smoking pot, something that increases your chances of mental illness and is in general bad for your health, morally correct?
General bad for your health? Possibly. But no more than other pharmaceuticals we consume, I'd bet.
Isn't it grossly criminal that a naturally occuring plant that can feed us, (with the very best complete nutrition known to the plant kingdom) provide our liquid fuel, (biodiesel) clothe and house us with the finest natural fiber on earth, (hemp fiber) provide a myriad of medicines that can relieve everything from menstral cramps to cancer, be kept from us?
Like anti-depressants?
This is, for the most part, a lie. Marijuana increases episodes of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders but does not increase the chances of mental illnesses. General bad for your health? Possibly. But no more than other pharmaceuticals we consume, I'd bet.
Here in the US, Cuban cigars are indeed still illegal. In 1962, the political genius that is our government decided to punish the Cubans for trying to impose Communism on its own people by ceasing their ability to sell their primary export to the US.
Of course this is a long and drawn out story, but it does have a very exciting crescendo. At the height of this Capitalist pig-dog versus Communist heretic story is how our whole entire world almost came to a swift and fiery end via nuclear devastation.
We are willing to destroy all humanity to prove how righteous and wholesome and morally proper we are.