"some cities are almost exclusively supported by their prisons."

[donsu]

http://counterpunch.com/taylor06072007.html


Two Cheers for Meth
Free the Tweakers!


"I have nothing good to say about methamphetamines", declares Mike Goldsby, a highly-respected local expert in drug addiction, in our local paper here in Humboldt County, northern California. The estimated 1.4 million users in the US would disagree. Productivity-oriented professionals with demanding careers praise the increased alertness afforded by meth. Timber fallers, mill workers, truck drivers, and others in dangerous occupations extol the stamina it provides. The military has always depended upon meth as a source of courage and quick reaction time. Poor people, trapped in multiple low-paying jobs or the exhausting paperwork demands of public assistance, emphasize its empowering and antidepressant effect. people agree that, like other drugs, meth can be fatal. But its high morbidity and mortality, they would add, rest in the fact that its use is illegal.

Like marijuana, also a medicine, meth is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. There is naturally violence where such huge profits are to be made. As revealed by Gary Webb in his San Jose Mercury News articles on crack cocaine, successful drug networks involve protection and exploitation by government agencies, including law enforcement. Police departments flourish on grants for drug interdiction. The domestic cost of the War on Drugs was $51 billion in 2006. The penal system, increasingly privatized, prospers as well. The public pays an annual $27,000 for each of 2.5 million prisoners. As a society, we are invested in this industry: some cities are almost exclusively supported by their prisons.
-snip-
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you will want to read the rest of the article

america has become a mean country

[siligut]

1. It is only good for awhile.

Amphetamines rob Peter to pay Paul, and the user bears the burden. Catecholamines (Any of a group of amines derived from catechol that have important physiological effects as neurotransmitters and hormones and include epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine) are released at a more rapid rate, causing the alertness and energy, however, the end result is a deficit of catecholamines and their effects.

As Frank Zappa said so eloquently, “Speed: It will turn you into your parents”.

[shance]

2. So exactly who is the source behind the making of all this meth?

And don't tell me its some meth labs in various neighborhoods.

This is another "war on drugs" policy that is intentionally being created to perpetuate addiction.

Because of course, addiction is *profitable* to those already very rich.

[MountainLaurel]

4. Mainly Mexican cartels

Making it in huge labs.

As for "war on drugs" issues, the government didn't care about meth -- which has been around for decades -- until middle-class white kids from the Midwest started using it (instead of drinking themselves to death, I suppose). And then, it became a crisis. The feds really did not care when the primary users were truck drivers in the Southwest or gay men in California.

[fed-up]

6. I can count about 6 known former meth labs in my neighborhood-5-10K in my

county of 200,000.

With about 500 labs busted since the late 1980's and knowing that they only bust 5-10% of the operating labs I figure there are/were at least 5,000-10,000 houses/apartments/trailers/sheds that contained a meth lab in my county.

Granted the number of labs has decreased since they stopped allowing people to buy pseudophedrine by the case and most of the cooking is now done in Mexico. I hate to see the environmental hell holes they are creating there.

One lady in California was dealing with a $5,000,000 (yes, million) toxic mess left by a meth cook that had been using a mega lab in a barn he had rented from her. I tried googling her name, but never found out how the story was resolved.

[Lasher]

3. Many prisoners believe the biggest reason they're incarcerated is to support the prison industry.

And you know what? Lots of them are right. We have privatized ouselves into a sorry state.

But don't do meth, not even once. There is a very good chance it could become your life.

[MountainLaurel]

7. Funny you should say that

I've noticed the extent to which WV is welcoming new prisons as a way to make up for jobs lost from extraction industries. I recall when the new North Central jail was being built, how several communities were vying for the privilege of being its home, when most communities wouldn't be so happy about a medium-security prison moving in next door to the elementary school.

[fed-up]

5. just wait until you have to deal w/cleaning up a former meth lab on your prop

The "cook" that poured his highly toxic meth waste in the soil and that left residue in the shed on the property I recently bought only had to serve a short 7 months in jail. Clean-up may run anywhere from $10-100K and hopefully I can get the seller to pay. There is currently another house in my town that is for sale right now that had a meth bust on the property. I asked the seller if there were any major defects and she said "no".

Fuck the meth users who don't give a god damn about their kids or the wake of destruction they leave in their path for others to deal with. If they are using it, someone had to make it and someone had a mess they most likely did not clean up.

Yes, it is highly addictive shit, but there have been plenty of warnings out lately about how bad it is. It can totally warp people's personalities and can sometimes turn what was a kind soul into an unpredictable violent monster.

What the hell is wrong with plain old coffee and chocolate??

[Xithras]

8. Sadly, meth also helps to eliminate fears and inhibitions.

There have been countless cases of children and innocent people being molested or raped by people high on meth. Why? Because meth also triggers hypersexuality, helps shut down parts of the brain responsible for controlling our inhibitions, and makes its users relatively fearless. The concept that rape and molestation is WRONG becomes an abstract concept to users on an intense high, and the fearlessness makes them believe that they'll never be caught anyway.

My cop friend was telling me about a meth user who went through this just a few months ago. He got really high, raped his own 13 year old daughter, and then blew his head off when he came down and realized what he'd done. People high on meth tend to do some really stupid shit because their sense of empathy and self-preservation go right out the window. This is arguably a good thing on the battlefield, or in situations where getting the job done trump everything. It's a bad thing for pretty much everyone else.

[Ezlivin]

9. Where are the Valium or Xanax labs?

The only reason we have meth labs is because of the WOD. If meth was legalized and regulated the meth abuse problem would not disappear, but it would become much more manageable.

Just as the legalization and regulation of alcohol has made the still almost non-existent, so, too, would the legalization and regulation of meth make the meth lab disappear.

But you already know that...