Democratic debates

yeah...there is a ton of different data out there, but hectares of tweed grown is mexico is down. Poppy is way up over the last 5 years. in comparison of cartel price based on seizure figures, if you give the cartel max price of 5,000 for kilo of heroin and the farmer wholesale price (the lowest possible for cartel) of $25 for marijuana still totals due to volume is much higher for marijuana. cheap marijuana not going away, but the cartel marketshare certainly dented due to legalization in the US.

These figures don't take into consideration of cartels marijuana grows in the US, this has become preferable. You could probably add an additional 10-15% in total kilo.

cash crops hay, sugar still higher than marijuana at this point.

Can I please see some of that data? Or I'm calling bullshit.

Can I please see some of that data? Or I'm calling bullshit.

dude seriously? First take the link from the "Drug threat assessment" report from the DEA I first posted which will give you the volume.

Following heroin's path from Mexico to the Midwest | The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/09/24/pellets-planes-and-the-new-frontier/)

heroin resurgent report from the post...cartel price of 5K which actually seems a little high.

Then $25 a kilo farmer price!!!!...I mean, Im giving on the absolute bottom price for a farmer in the mexico. You can probable add 50%(again minimum) on top of that for the cartel because he is the one-stop, wholesale purchaser.

Matty, again, he's saying it costs all state and federal governments combined $20 billion. Do you know what the federal budget is, in total? $3.8 trillion. So let's not even bother adding in the 50 state budgets into that and just stick with the $3.8 trillion.



$20 billion as a % of $3.8 trillion is 0.5%.



If I convert that in terms of the NFL salary cap, because you know I like that shit, 0.5% of the $153 million salary cap is $765,000. In other words it's one veteran minimum (! lol) salary player.



It's not a big issue.


I understand in terms of the numbers, but all this over a relatively benign substance, putting people in prison and ruining lives over it, is absurd.

And $20b is still $20b, I'm sure that could be allocated more wisely.

I understand in terms of the numbers, but all this over a relatively benign substance, putting people in prison and ruining lives over it, is absurd.

And $20b is still $20b, I'm sure that could be allocated more wisely.

Yeah no argument that its about as benign as alcohol and tobacco, maybe even more so. But it's a freakin recreation. We have serious injustices to deal with in this country, from healthcare costs and coverage to equal pay for women to how we deal with international terror threats, etc. etc.

You can't prioritize a recreational activity over these much more serious matters, not on the basis of $ cost and not on the basis of the gravity of the impact on the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (the most important being life).

who's saying we're prioritizing it? i'm just saying it makes sense to do things that make sense. the cons of legalization are pretty low, so it's not like there's a strong financial or safety risk compared to some of the more intractable issues.

again,, you're saying :why don't we deal with terror first" because terror is an arbitrary term and kills less americans than drug violence. how many americans died to foreign terrorism last year?

if we're prioritizing harm reduction, international terrorism falls very low on the list. alcohol and drugs land much much higher. and people definitely die to pot deals too, any time you put big money and people that aren't afraid of committing crimes in the same place, bad things can happen.

who's saying we're prioritizing it? i'm just saying it makes sense to do things that make sense. the cons of legalization are pretty low, so it's not like there's a strong financial or safety risk compared to some of the more intractable issues.

again,, you're saying :why don't we deal with terror first" because terror is an arbitrary term and kills less americans than drug violence. how many americans died to foreign terrorism last year?

if we're prioritizing harm reduction, international terrorism falls very low on the list. alcohol and drugs land much much higher. and people definitely die to pot deals too, any time you put big money and people that aren't afraid of committing crimes in the same place, bad things can happen.

K follow me here.

Unless you're a complete sheep, I'm sure there are subjects upon which you agree with the democrats and subjects upon which you agree with the republicans.

Parenthetically, if you line up entirely behind one party or the other on every single issue, then you're not really much of an independent thinker. But you guys are all sharp.

So when you decide who to vote for, how do you reconcile those conflicts? For example, I personally can't stand that republicans are opposed to gay marriage rights, but I'm also very supportive of their stance on trade policy, particularly with China. How do you decide how to break those kinds of ties?

You prioritize. You decide which policies are more important to you, and you put more weight on them.

All I'm saying is this weed issue can't possibly factor big into your voting choice, or I worry about how you think through your priorities.

I jumped on Mooby because I read his post to mean that this is a big issue for him. I since realized I misunderstood. While I agree that legalizing pot just makes practical sense, I can't believe it would factor into anybody's decision on who to vote for.

And maybe it's not factoring into your decision on who to vote for. In which case I'm sorry I even engaged in the discussion, because who cares.

yeah, no, it has nothing to do with deciding who i vote for, it's really not the president's job either, it's congress's, i just think it's a reasonable thing to do. I don't think anyone is using it as issue #1 in who to pick, so i guess we were kind of talking past each other. that's for the articulation, the thread makes a lot more sense now.

i really wish our political process didn't cater to short sighted, self-serving a-holes. it just seems like every 4 years i have to make a binary decision between different shades of terrible/

From a CNN entrance poll in Nevada



Top candidate quality
1024 total respondents
Can win in November HC-80 BS - 15
Cares about people HC 26 BS - 72
Honesty and Trust HC 12 BS - 82
Right Experience HC 92 BS - 8

Those are some stark numbers.

Dems' new fear: Sanders revolt could upend Democratic convention - CNNPolitics.com (http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/17/politics/democrat-bernie-sanders-revolt/index.html)


Sen. Barbara Boxer, a veteran of Democratic politics, says she never saw anything quite like this before.

Loud cursing, shouting, obscene gestures and vile insults, including crude comments about the female anatomy. It was all on display over the weekend as supporters of Bernie Sanders turned the Nevada State Democratic Convention into chaos.

"I was not able to stop these people for doing what they did," Boxer, a Hillary Clinton supporter, told CNN. "Apparently they've done it before. .... This group of about 100 were very vocal, and I can't describe it -- disrespectful doesn't even explain it, it was worse than that."



READ: Changing super delegate rules would still leave Sanders behind

Boxer is hardly the lone Clinton supporter to experience such harassment on the campaign trail. Several top Democrats told CNN publicly and privately that the energy and enthusiasm of Sanders supporters has at times descended into incendiary attacks that threaten to tear apart efforts to unite Democrats against Donald Trump. Several female senators told CNN the attacks have been misogynistic.



Feel the burn bitches

Hillary just gave Bernie and his supporters the ultimate fuck you...lololololol with the Tim Kaine choice.

Kaine is a really nice guy...normal guy. Met him at a small bar/music venue bout 5'years ago. Really cool guy. Very moderate with his views. He isn't a Vice President type IMO, but he is a good choice for Hillary.

Kaine actually lives about a mile from my sister in a very ordinary house in a cool neighborhood. He isn't and never been an elitist like Clintons or the Obamas.