The Drug War, As Shitty As Other Wars
Legalize it. Christmas decorations at Liberty Plaza, Colombo.
I like America, we can start there. Happy 4th of July. America still does some really fucked up stuff. I won’t even get into the hypocrisy, but let’s say that it is a moral argument that states shouldn’t kill their own people, as much as that’s possible. Then what on earth is going on in Mexico, on America’s behalf? Since 2006 over 50,000 people have been killed as part of what is essentially America’s War On Drugs, in which that noun seems to be winning solidly. With a new election, Mexico may hopefully be turning an inch or two away.
Americans like drugs. Everybody likes drugs. Historically, making drugs illegal makes about as much sense as alcohol prohibition. It just doesn’t work and the illegalization destroys countless lives. The main case in point is that America cannot stem the flow of drugs from Latin America (via and including Mexico), despite essentially backing endless wars in those states. The demand and money is still there. Government crackdowns just mean that the more violent and corrupting criminals prevail. The War On Drugs doesn’t result in less drugs, it just results in more crime.
The new Mexican government of Enrique Peña Nieto is not abandoning the war on organized crime or even the militarization of it, but according to Foreign Policy they will likely shift away from the emphasis on drugs and drug trafficking. Which is what the Mexican people want, and which – on the moral scale of things – is right. What’s worse, moving a drug that the US President did (ie cocaine) or beheadings, kidnappings and murder? I’d say the latter.
While Latin America may be moving more generally towards drug legalization, they should at least move towards the demilitarization of the ‘Drug War’, however much the US pushes in the opposite direction. It is as violent, corrupting and cruel as other wars, and fighting it to prevent people from getting high is historically and immediately absurd. Yes drugs can cause health issues, regulate and treat them as such. Prohibition, however, just funnels the money into organized crime and funds highly militarized cartels that can fight this endless war. It’s patently bad policy and it has to stop. Latin American countries just saying no is a start.
Not to quote Ice Cube, but the Sri Lankan police are hardly beloved. A 
I just gave a talk at the University Of Sri Jayawardenapura along with Reeza Zarook of Anything.lk and Rohan Jayaweera of Google. These are my notes: Devin Jayasundara asked me for a subject for this talk and I told him Internet property. But I talked to my fiancé Shru and she had a better idea. Startups aren’t about creating property at all, not really. They’re about creating territory, about creating land.
I haven’t been blogging much, I know. It’s partly because we’ve been doing a lot of work on YAMU, especially shipping 1.0.1 of the Android app today. It’s on the 
I met an old-timer who said they used to drop acid and sleep atop Sigiriya, but the place has taken on a more commercial and quasi-spiritual role now. It was built by a king as a sort of retreat and used as a monastery. Now it’s a prime tourist and cultural destination. Hence it’s a bit odd to see a Japanese beer commercial shot up there. There’s a bunch of people eating, um, deep fried cream filled coconuts and then drinking some bracing beer. I hear the whole thing cost Rs. 25,000 (I’m presuming they used stock images).
Hear, hear!
You’d think the US would have figured out prohibition didn’t work back in the 1930s.
^ This.
It’s virtually hopeless, as ‘special interests’ play a huge part in maintaining this bullshit.
See http://javajones.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/does-the-war-on-drugs-make-any-sense-at-all/
Agreed Java jones. The drugs war has at its root a sad and stupid tale of failed trade policy.
Will see if I can get out a quick summary on that today or tomorrow.
Wrote something on the roots of the US drugs war here:
http://jestforkicks.blogspot.com/2012/07/drugs-violence-and-trade-sad-tale-of-us.html
Huge amount of drugs are flooded Sri Lanka during the war. I’ve heard some interviews from Sri Lanka soldiers on Utube and they looked like they were on some kind of speed drugs. The drugs were useful for the Sri Lanka soldiers to defeat the fear of death or not to fall sleep, or give some energy when tired… Anything was given to the soldiers to achieve quick victory !! Unfortunately, some Sri Lanka soldiers become addicted and now abandoned to the drug hell by Rajapaksa Government. Drug addiction now spread from the Army to the civilian population.