Jamaica Says it Can Win Its Drug War for $1 Billion
It's a strategy so ingenious, I can't believe no one thought of it before:
Someone should tell the Jamaicans that the U.S. has already tried the whole spend-a-billion-dollars-to-eradicate-drugs idea so many times that it's become a rather unfunny joke, and the only way the drug czar can even get the money anymore is if he pretends it's for something else, like treatment programs.
The last thing Jamaica needs is to owe a billion dollars back to a bunch of international banks for massive drug war that didn't work. Good luck accomplishing anything except an endless series of bloody gunfights that cripple your tourism industry.
If you want a reduction in drug war violence, begin by regulating and taxing the marijuana that's being sold by the handful all over the country. The thing I keep hearing about Jamaican herb is that no one can even finish the $20 bag they bought at the airport when they arrived. You could tax it at 300% and the tourists wouldn’t even notice. Now that's a billion dollar drug strategy.
June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Jamaica is seeking $1 billion in loans and grants to rid the country of “cancerous” drug gangs that have taken over poor neighborhoods on the Caribbean island and hurt economic growth, Finance Minister Audley Shaw said.
Someone should tell the Jamaicans that the U.S. has already tried the whole spend-a-billion-dollars-to-eradicate-drugs idea so many times that it's become a rather unfunny joke, and the only way the drug czar can even get the money anymore is if he pretends it's for something else, like treatment programs.
The last thing Jamaica needs is to owe a billion dollars back to a bunch of international banks for massive drug war that didn't work. Good luck accomplishing anything except an endless series of bloody gunfights that cripple your tourism industry.
If you want a reduction in drug war violence, begin by regulating and taxing the marijuana that's being sold by the handful all over the country. The thing I keep hearing about Jamaican herb is that no one can even finish the $20 bag they bought at the airport when they arrived. You could tax it at 300% and the tourists wouldn’t even notice. Now that's a billion dollar drug strategy.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
True!
You know, that's completely true. If they follow their current plan all they'll achieve is the militarization of their police force. As long as demand for drugs exists supply will be *impossible* to eradicate. They will fail, the gangs will get stronger and the country more in debt.
Legalize marijuana for adults, allow legitimate businesses to undercut the gangs, and use the taxes collected from marijuana sales to pay off your debts. It's a win-win solution rooted in logic and common sense. I guess that's why you won't do it.
300% tax
once marijuana is legalized, if the store price is high with an outrageous tax added to it then the black market for marijuana will continue to flourish. to get marijuana off the black market you must undercut black market prices. pretty much common sense. medical marijuana outlets that charge $60 for 3.5 grams are charging street level black market prices. the best cannabis on the market should be no more than $100/oz. and that includes taxes. high prices and high taxes on marijuana will do nothing to get it off the black market.
win-win!
Gotta look at it through their eyes. If it works, they have a billion dollars! If it fails, they can ask for another billion dollars! It's WIN-WIN!!!
At least they have a sense of the ridiculous!
How about we give them a hundred dollars for a just say no campaign? A strategy which I'm sure will be equally as effective.
Audley Shaw is just a janmaicain con man...
just like all jamaicains, got there hand out begging for money. thy not want to work for money, they want hand outs. just go to any HI LO,, and look at the line at western union on friday waitting for there hand out, from friends and faimly. and the jamaica goverment wanders why there people not work for a living, when they do the same thing. looking for a hand out. and in all these years and all that money we the USA has giving them for the drug war has failed. they grow more ganja then before, they have a real high grade growing now. hemp is legal there but the jamaicain goverment wouldnt let you grow it there, that because they think it will cross with the high grade ganja they have growing there now. dont want to spoil the high grade ganja crop they have growing now. asking for 1billion dollars and there is 2,500,000 jamaicains there. ya right! rasta mon says legalize the herb so we can come out of the bush and burn it to the north and to the south and to the wewewewest & east... quot from killer miller RIP. rub out because he stood up for ganja... end this endless war... PEACE
hmmm
to be fair, jamaica is a pretty small place and could do a lot of stuff with a billion dollars.
they might be able to, as someone else said, militarize the police force and turn Jamaica into a fascist state.
china nearly eradicated the opium trade with strong handed fascism.
it could work...
but i doubt anyone would want to go there anymore.
Spent Time in Jamaica
Everything is already 300% marked up. A bottle of rum can run you $150 in the tourist trap towns like Montego Bay and Negril. Right down the road and over the mountain that same bottle is $40. At Jose's Party Stand down the street from your house in the USA it's $19.99. They could charge $100 a gram right outside an all inclusive resort and rich people on vacation would (and often do) pay it gladly just to be able to get high, safely, on their vacation in utter tropical paradise. I never paid that much, but I talked to people who have. For the most part, the rumors are true about it being the sticky icky. I had a couple of bags turn out to be ditch weed, and a couple where the shit was so sticky I had to rip the plastic bag and peel it off the nug. At first I thought I had been ripped off, it barely looked like weed. This has only happened one other time, at a friend's house in British Columbia. I digress, as usual. The point is there were a lot of unnecessary gun scares and a whole lot of unsettling distrust and threats about killing people if anyone was a cop, just for one person to buy a plant that makes you goofy. Just legalize it and take away a pointless cause of violence in a place where people are already violent and starving as it is.
My heart hurts for the people of Kingston, if they could just figure out how to get a leader in place who has their best interests in mind they would live in the most beautiful city on the most beautiful island in the entire world. The whole country, save the piles of garbage and the houses made of piles of garbage, really does look like heaven. The people are great there, I hate to see it turn further into a war zone, which it kind of already is.
-Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave ... One piece of good sense is more memorable than a monument as high as the moon. - Henry David Thoreau-
I'm sure it's no different in Jamaica than anywhere else
It's alcohol that kills and maims, not cannabis. Alcohol supremacist bigotry rules the world. Just say hell no to the stonewalling, violence promoting bigots who think they are our lords and masters.
Should we be looking at the bigger picture?
Go here:
http://irishandchin.com/news-and-articles/1239-its-not-about-cocaine-its...
I'm not going to claim to know the truth on this and I'm not really a conspiracy theorist myself, but it would be wise for us all to consider the bigger picture.
SICK ARTICLE! THANKS!!
SICK ARTICLE! THANKS!!
If they don't want to legalize cannabis, they should at least
be clear on why not. The authorities all over the planet (other than the hardcore Muslim countries) need to be very clear on why they think it is reasonable and just for alcohol users to be treated so infinitely better than cannabis users, in spite of alcohol users propensity for violence which cannabis users do not share. I wish the authorities would understand this is no game and start showing a decent respect for the questions raised by their fellow citizens.
Jamaica is as stupid as we
Jamaica is as stupid as we are.... and knowing the US, they'll probably help them too. martial law will be declared, bad things will happen, yada yada.
stupidity is definitely a virus...
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