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Pope: Don't legalize recreational drugs

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Perspicuo

Veteran Member
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Basic Beliefs
Empiricist, ergo agnostic
CNN: Pope Francis says he opposes making recreational drugs legal
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/20/justice/pope-francis-legalized-drugs/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

"Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise," he told participants at the International Drug Enforcement Conference in Rome.

The Pope's call isn't shocking. Francis has spoken of the dangers of drug use before.

But it lends his voice and the authority of the Catholic Church to the growing worldwide debate over legalizing or at least decriminalizing some recreational drugs, most notably marijuana.
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But Francis said such policies are "not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects."
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Meawhile, outside the lunacy asylum...

Drug Decriminalization in Portugal:
Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies
On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal framework, all drugs were “decriminalized,” not “legalized.” Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited, but violations of those prohibitions are deemed to be exclusively administrative violations and are removed completely from the criminal realm. Drug trafficking continues to be prosecuted as a criminal offense.
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The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success. Within this success lie self-evident lessons that should guide drug policy debates around the world.
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BritishMedicalJournal: An alternative to the war on drugs
http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c3360
Consensus is growing within the drugs field and beyond that the prohibition on production, supply, and use of certain drugs has not only failed to deliver its intended goals but has been counterproductive. Evidence is mounting that this policy has not only exacerbated many public health problems, such as adulterated drugs1 and the spread of HIV and hepatitis B and C infection among injecting drug users, but has created a much larger set of secondary harms associated with the criminal market. These now include vast networks of organised crime, endemic violence related to the drug market,2 corruption of law enforcement and governments, militarised crop eradication programmes (environmental damage, food insecurity, and human displacement), and funding for terrorism and insurgency.
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Empirical research, not the pontifications of a... um, pontiff, gives actual knowledge instead of prejudice. Nice hat, though.
 
"Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise," he told participants at the International Drug Enforcement Conference in Rome.
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Isn't this the same stance they've taken on homosexuality, birth control, the laity having a say in church business? I'll get right on volunteering to spread this gospel in the streets, too.
 
Keith&Co. said:
"Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise," he told participants at the International Drug Enforcement Conference in Rome.
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Isn't this the same stance they've taken on homosexuality, birth control, the laity having a say in church business? I'll get right on volunteering to spread this gospel in the streets, too.
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Dude, he's playing both sides of the line. Aren't popes supposed to be straight shooters and non-secretive? "Drugs" help the church, and they don't sellay that in public?
 
Clearly the pope has never gone on a bike-ride through Rome while under the influence. I know if I could ride by the Colosseum while under the influence I wouldn't have this opinion.
 
Sure. Legalize all drugs. The government likes it.

Soma.
 
Perspicuo said:
More competition for das Opium des Volkes.
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I thought drugs were more of a gateway sort of thing.

My friend who talks to God never managed to do it when he's sober....

Wasn't there a poster here who insisted that LSD led him to God and that it's perfectly rational? The name escapes me...

And when i was a kid, i got paid ten bucks to help clean up after a Catholic minister's retreat. I've never seen that many empty liquor bottles in one spot for the rest of my life, which included 20 years in the Navy with three commissioning parties and an alcoholic's retirement.
You'd think that he wouldn't be stumping to fight legalization, he'd be trying to make it part of the holy sacrament.
 
Drug addiction is bad.

Drug prohibition is worse. You still have all the addiction, but now you have all the abuses to personal freedom that comes from prohibition.

It's simple morality. Do the least harm.

The Pope's an idiot.
 
Well, if there's one wise organization who's ethics are beyond question, it's the Catholic church. I always ask what they would do in sordid situations. The answer is apparently to cover it up and pretend that nothing ever happened. Ironically, this seems to work often enough.
 
braces_for_impact said:
Well, if there's one wise organization who's ethics are beyond question, it's the Catholic church. I always ask what they would do in sordid situations. The answer is apparently to cover it up and pretend that nothing ever happened. Ironically, this seems to work often enough.
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Yes. Especially their pedophile protection policies.

And our governments still tax exempt the air fares that move those pedophile priests around.

The Noble Lie should be repealed but governments and churches like us dumbed down too much.

Regards
DL
 
Isn't alcohol a drug? Isn't Jesus said to have turned water into wine. Jesus was a microbrewery and drug dealer. How can the Pope say drugs are all bad?
 
Jolly_Penguin said:
Isn't alcohol a drug? Isn't Jesus said to have turned water into wine. Jesus was a microbrewery and drug dealer. How can the Pope say drugs are all bad?
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I guess he, like many people, does not see alcohol as a drug even if it is one.

I don't know if I would trust what any Pope who runs a pedophile protecting organization would say anyway.
I wonder why Christians would believe the leader of such a vile organization.

Regards
DL
 
Interesting article in The Guardian:

"Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month.
The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/06/science.religion
 
Most literalists in religions will mostly deny any drug use in their religions past.

This is a thoughtless kneejerk reaction as shaman have historically been connected with various psychotropic drugs.

But I don't really expect much thinking from literalist idol worshipers. They follow and do not allow themselves to really think.

Regards
DL
 
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