Sean Penn interviewed drug kingpin El Chapo

[meridannight]

Methinks, however that in this chain of responsibilities you are leaving the producer without its due blame.

A market doesn't exist without consumers, but it also doesn't exist with out the one who manufactures the product.

To be lessening the criminal's responsibility just because some other factors allow said criminal a grater frame of action is as messed up as ignoring these other factors.

it was not my intention to create the illusion that i was lessening the cartels' blame while arguing for the blame of the US government in the process.

Sure, I speculate. We can also speculate on how many people Hitler and Stalin directly killed, which is probably zero...right?

a whole different ball game. Hitler had people killed because of their ethnicity and sexuality. he deprived people of basic human rights because of something they were born as, and was not their fault.

what kind of people do the drug cartels kill? their competitors and (i imagine) people representing the law enforcement mostly. their competitors and the people in the law enforcement weren't born as criminals/cops. they chose their way of life and knew the risks inherent. thus, that was an informed decision on their part. killing them in the process of conducting your drug business is hardly comparable to Hitler sentencing homosexuals and Jews to practical death.

EDIT: Oh hell no to the above. Drugs, starting with alcohol and tobacco and ending with the hardcore stuff should be/remain illegal and hard punished to the teeth.

that is your personal opinion and does not bear on people who use drugs and who have the right to do what they want with their body. it does not bear on our legal system.

The ilogical thought of "oh, look how they start criminal endeavors, lets make them legal" is an easy way out instead of finding ways to educate people and eradicate their consumption all together.

that's not what i was arguing, now was i? i didn't say, nor have i ever said, that drugs should be decriminalized because they produce organized crime. i said that organized crime is also the responsibility of the society condoning the war on drugs as a whole, and people should stop acting like imbeciles and own up to their share.

also, i am pro-decriminalization because i am a long-term drug user. cocaine, among other things. i know first hand the risks, the danger, the negative and positive effects, psychological and physical, associated with drugs use. i know the US government and criminalization is wrong. what do you know to argue in favor of criminalization?