The Heroin Epidemic on Long Island... (New York, Buffalo: for sale, attorney, neighborhood)
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Pot's already on its way to becoming legal. I'm for it 100%. The Feds have said they will not prosecute people in Washington and Colorado for recreational use after the states decriminalized it.
As for hard drugs, I'm not sure how that would work out. I doubt anyone will be legalizing heroin or crack anytime soon. So it's moot in a way to discuss it.
If you fully legalize pot and allow businesses to grow and sell it in a regulated market, the prices will come down substantially. Probably close to where cigarettes are today $10-$12 a pack (that's with a lot of taxes included). The profits wouldn't be there for a black market grower to spend the money and effort required to grow it. Not to mention if they regulate it through federal and state excise taxes, the risk the grower would take evading taxes to grow it. It's the same reason why there's no real black market for cigarettes and alcohol.
As for banning opioids completely, I wouldve been for that a few years ago. Now, not so much. There is a real need/demand out there for breakthrough pain meds. And plenty of people use them without getting addicted. The difference today is more people are aware of how potentially dangerous they are, plus every script is recorded in a database to weed out most of the doc shoppers and pill pushing doctors.
Part of thereal need/demand has been created by doctors writing scripts for Oxycontin like it wasn't something heavily addictive. There are plenty of people who don't know the full story on opiods and those who are predisposed or who have addictive tendencies.
Peqs, I've seen too much damage from a legal prescription drug. I can't imagine it getting any better if heroin were legalized.
There will still be a black market. Someone will find ways to skirt the law and produce their own for unregulated profit. I understand and agree with some of what the legalize it all side says, but at the same time realize that there will never be absolute control/regulation.
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There won't be a black market for something completely legal and reasonably taxed... Alcohol as a perfect example - yes; people still make moonshine, but it's not a black market. That said, when you start pushing unreasonable taxes like with cigarettes, you do open doors for marketeers. The key is doing it right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pequaman
Pot's already on its way to becoming legal. I'm for it 100%. The Feds have said they will not prosecute people in Washington and Colorado for recreational use after the states decriminalized it.
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Although this is true on the user side (no federal prosecution for the consumer when following state laws), there still is an issue with the dispensary/growing side related to finances... specifically dealing with any bank who does business outside the states where it's completely legal. 60minutes had a nice piece on it recently. The Feds have been fuzzy with the banks and specifically leaving themselves open to chase the money on that side if they feel the need - which is leaving the banks gun shy to do business with the wholesalers. Until that end is cleared up it will be problematic on a large scale, which won't allow for driving prices down in the short term.
There won't be a black market for something completely legal and reasonably taxed... Alcohol as a perfect example - yes; people still make moonshine, but it's not a black market. That said, when you start pushing unreasonable taxes like with cigarettes, you do open doors for marketeers. The key is doing it right.
Although this is true on the user side (no federal prosecution for the consumer when following state laws), there still is an issue with the dispensary/growing side related to finances... specifically dealing with any bank who does business outside the states where it's completely legal. 60minutes had a nice piece on it recently. The Feds have been fuzzy with the banks and specifically leaving themselves open to chase the money on that side if they feel the need - which is leaving the banks gun shy to do business with the wholesalers. Until that end is cleared up it will be problematic on a large scale, which won't allow for driving prices down in the short term.
Are you sure the banks doing business outside the states in particular are such scaredy cats when they've already gotten away with money laundering for straight up illegal drugs? Wasn't it Pequa, the man you are addressing, that posted an article about the big banks getting slaps on the wrist like fines that only consist of 1 days' profit or something for doing massive banking for the Mexican drug cartels, including custom sizing extra large drop boxes at the branches in Mexico so the mules could deposit extremely large bundles of US currency into them easily? Pequa, do you remember that article about the big banks actually laundering drug money and getting slaps on the wrists? Can you relink to that article? Because if I remember correctly, there's nothing for banks to be afraid of with dealing with dispensaries and wholesalers if they got away with that.
I'm sure you all realize this thread is about 3 years old. For all of the 'drug wisdom' the OP claims to have, he mentioned he was in rehab with the guy who clipped the 12 year old girl in Smithtown. Well, it was a 20 year old woman who killed the girl, not a guy. OP is a troll-par-excelonce.
Sure, there are drugs in Nesconset, Smithtown, Ronkonkoma, the Islips, Brentwood.... you get the idea... but an epidemic, not bloodly likely. Even if it's a spike in the rate of abuse, it's still not an epidemic.
I'm sure you all realize this thread is about 3 years old. For all of the 'drug wisdom' the OP claims to have, he mentioned he was in rehab with the guy who clipped the 12 year old girl in Smithtown. Well, it was a 20 year old woman who killed the girl, not a guy. OP is a troll-par-excelonce.
Sure, there are drugs in Nesconset, Smithtown, Ronkonkoma, the Islips, Brentwood.... you get the idea... but an epidemic, not bloodly likely. Even if it's a spike in the rate of abuse, it's still not an epidemic.
3 of my former classmates have OD in the last 6 months. They were in their 30's.
I'm sure you all realize this thread is about 3 years old. For all of the 'drug wisdom' the OP claims to have, he mentioned he was in rehab with the guy who clipped the 12 year old girl in Smithtown. Well, it was a 20 year old woman who killed the girl, not a guy. OP is a troll-par-excelonce.
Sure, there are drugs in Nesconset, Smithtown, Ronkonkoma, the Islips, Brentwood.... you get the idea... but an epidemic, not bloodly likely. Even if it's a spike in the rate of abuse, it's still not an epidemic.
If my memory serves me correctly, the woman who was charged with hitting the girl tried to say her male passenger was the driver. Regardless, you clearly do not work in the healthcare field or have kids in their 20s or 30s. If you do you are in denial. Most of the arrests, ODs, ect never make the news.
For those of us working in the healthcare, there is mandatory database we must use to determine if our patients are abusing narcotic drugs before prescribing. The database has been active for 2 weeks and we've already found a handful of people with a problem in our tiny dental practice. Same story for all of my colleagues in their practices around long island.
The proof is there, kids are hooked, their parents are hooked and their grandparents are hooked.
Purely anecdotal evidence. Show me real statistics that shows that LI has more of a drug problem then any other major metro area suburb.
Call it whatever but:
-Opioid deaths in Nassau and Suffolk tripled from 2007-2010 (and have not leveled off).
-Documented shortage of rehab beds and average age of patients widened to include younger AND older groups.
-From 2008-2010 Oxy prescriptions increased 42% in Nassau and 23% in Suffolk (is everyone in 42% more pain?!?!). -Heroin arrests in Suffolk went from 404 in 2004 to 882 in 2008. In Nassau for the same years, the number of heroin arrests 109 to 201. Those #'s have continued to go up, never leveling off. In Nassau/Suffolk combined 798 heroin arrests in the 1st 6 months of 2013.
-81% increase in drug related pharmacy (and bank) robberies since 2011. (This doesn't begin to mention the overall petty crime related to opiate addiction).
These are LI stats but your are right, no doubt it's a nationwide problem. LI is a glaring example of the "epidemic" nature of what's going on and LI is likely on the high side of "medically addicted." Along with the 4 teens and 20 somethings I personally know who OD'd in the last 4 years, I can't even begin to fathom the number of middle and upper middle class junkies created from hip, knee, back surgeries, arthritis, accidents, migraines, etc, etc where pills are just being thrown at people as though there is nothing to worry about with no education on the dangers. It's a mess. Those pills filter down to the kids. The price goes sky high...in walks super strength heroin at pennies on the dollar. Voila..."epidemic."
I'm sure you all realize this thread is about 3 years old. For all of the 'drug wisdom' the OP claims to have, he mentioned he was in rehab with the guy who clipped the 12 year old girl in Smithtown. Well, it was a 20 year old woman who killed the girl, not a guy. OP is a troll-par-excelonce.
Sure, there are drugs in Nesconset, Smithtown, Ronkonkoma, the Islips, Brentwood.... you get the idea... but an epidemic, not bloodly likely. Even if it's a spike in the rate of abuse, it's still not an epidemic.
Make sure to remove your head from the sand next time you mow your own lawn. As much as you'd like to convince yourself that this is a spike, it is not. It continues to increase, not drop off as would occur after a spike.
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