Paris Hilton arrested on cocaine charge

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100828/ap_on_en_tv/us_paris_hilton_arrest

In light of what US drug use is doing to Mexico, I'd like to see her in jail for years. Extra time due to her high profile. It won't happen, of course, the charges will be dropped and she'll be out on bail. She doesn't live in Juarez, so she doesn't care what her snorting has done to the place.

I would like to see a focus on punishing (not rehabilitating) users instead of suppliers now, since punishing suppliers clearly isn't working.

Perhaps we should make arrangements with the Mexican government that all those caught distributing drugs and benefiting from their sale be sent to very special Mexican prisons where the war lords fight it out. The U.S. drug lords live in posh mansions in Palm Beach and are major contributors to local charities, with their children in private schools and their wives in the society pages.

I heard Paris had been in Jail before.

What a disaster of a kid. Her poor mother...She has my sympathy.

Alice,
the term "poor" needs qualification.

From what I've read of her mother, she's just as odious. Where do you think Paris learned it?

I would like to see users put to use in a modern-day chain gang. There isn't enough room in the jails for all of them, so rent out a bunch of Motel 6's and have them DO things. Clean up blighted neighborhoods, fix run-down houses, etc., for a period of several years, just like a jail term. Failing that, make them live in Juarez for that time.

Letterman said that Paris was charged with being in possession of less than an ounce of common sense.

Instead of discussing who ought to be arrested and what the penalties should be, why not simply legalize and tax the stuff? Solves a lot of problems.

I've never agreed with the legalize and taxing folks before but the way society is going, I think our puritan values are gone anyway. Let everything be available in the marketplace, legal and taxed. Use some of the funds like the tobacco money to combat the resultant pain and suffering. Whoever wants it gets it anyway - except illegal it keeps a huge crime wave alive and well.

Legalization and control is the only reasonable solution because criminalization does not work. It isn't a question of values, unless you expect the world to recognize some arbitrary value system as the only correct one.

Booze is legal. It didn't work when it was illegal. Instead of keeping people from drinking, it gave us organized crime. Booze kills more people than do illegal drugs.

Nicotine, cholesterol and sugar are legal. They kill far more people than do cocaine, heroin, marijuana, PCP, meth, etc., all together. And if you made them illegal, the black market would flourish, and we'd have more crime.

In 2009, almost twice as many people died from legal prescription drug usage than died from abusing illegal drugs.

Let's say you buy an ounce of mary jane (to which no health problems have ever been incontrovertibly linked). Unlike booze, tobacco, and gasoline (which killed about 10,000 more people than did illegal drugs). the drug is not taxed. There is no sales tax. The guy taking your money pays no income tax. But if you get caught, it costs enforcement $ to catch you, judicial $ to prosecute you, and correctional $ to penalize you. Furthermore, while you are in the clink, you earn no $, so you oay no taxes, and your family goes on welfare.

Keeping drugs illegal is costing the government a lot of money.

Al does have a point--a strong one.

Al,
I'm in agreement with your views. What is forbidden is sought after and available.

Just think of the savings on money spent to stop drug distribution. Think of the tax revenue income that could be used to educate and help people with addiction.

I don't know. I was in Amsterdam 20 years ago and my biggest memory of it is of drug addicts lying all over the streets, coffee shops selling pot (and who knows what else) to them, and me getting propositioned to buy drugs on every block. Leniency didn't work so well there, IMO.

I was in Amsterdam about 10 years ago and saw none of that. But maybe I didn't hang out at the right places.

10 years ago they became a lot less lenient. I recall reading about their crackdown. As for where I was, all over the downtown area. It was a filthy mess.

I worked for a Dutch company and lived there for a short while.
There are areas where those people hang out. To imply that they are "all over the place" is stretching things. You choose to go into the Red Light district. It's a tourist attraction. Big cities tend to have sections that cater to sex and it is usually these areas that deal in drugs.

I was also in the Red Light district. Separate from the downtown area where I saw people just lying in doorways all over the place, and was offered drugs on every block by seedy men.

That Red Light district sure was interesting. I never saw people sitting behind plate glass windows before, waiting for business. And I didn't have an issue with that. Although, come to think of it, that wasn't so hot, either.

My concern is for the minors. I don't care what the adults do, but worry about the effects on the kids. Will they be fed and housed, etc? Where are they in the "plan?"