for those who are not aware, one of Trump's campaign efforts is to stop the fentanyl from getting into the country.
one of the ways he plans to accomplish this, is by requesting congress to implement the death penalty for drug traffickers.

i have thoughts to share on this, but i'm going to attempt to let the thread go for a bit before i chime in.

While I have little to no moral disagreement with the death penalty being given out to violent criminals, murders and drug traffickers, to my knowledge its does little to nothing to actually deter crime.

Now I am sure there's studies showing both directions with no actual definitive conclusion.

There is absolutely no way though in my mind that the death penalty will stop the flow or trafficking of drugs, people will absolutely risk their lives , or be forced to via gang involvement, which I am sure any large scale trafficker is part of. Sling drugs or what, die on the streets in poverty or engage in other criminal activity, people are just going to continue to sling drugs. I mean how many routinely risk getting shot / killed regularly in gang violence, risk of a death penalty, death just seems like a risk of the trade.

This post was edited by SBD on Jan 24 2024 09:25am

+1 pretty much this.

I'll add by saying that the real "leaders of drug crime syndicates" are not the guys on the FBI's "Most Wanted" List. Those are the fall guys like el Chapo and the real kingpins have never been caught and if they were they've been replaced.

I've seen the countries who give death sentences for DUI's and their numbers went way down because no one is going to drive after 6 shots of tequila if the consequence is a "firing squad".

The same would happen if you added a "potential death sentence" to drug trafficking's crimes. You would see a small reduction but someone would fill that gap there's too much money and power involved.

Fentanyl is a plague on our country and it's being produced by the Chinese and Mexican cartels but it's odd how Mexican cartels have come out publicly saying they would kill anyone in their organization distributing fentanyl because it's bad for business(dead user gives no cash). But this could easily be a lie and the Chinese could easily pay the cartel or other distributors to lace their products like cocaine, weed, heroin, meth, and pills with fentanyl.

It's a complex issue that sadly could only be rectified by basically sending in Navy Seals to decapitate cartels and their production sites. Many world leaders have discussed this type of action because drugs in general erode society on multiple levels.

Sadly violence leads to more violence and like the previous poster said the drugs will always flow around because someone is always willing to take the risk and users will always pay for a high.

edit: Studies have shown that a portion of the world's GDP is from "drug proceeds" when you have a system that is better compensated it naturally proliferates.

I sold weed for years with a group of friends just so we all had access to cannabis. This was when it was illegal and most possession charges could be a felony.

Despite the fact that we weren't trying to "make money" and just "smoke weed for free" we started making tons of cash.

We all started spending that money buying snowboards, ATV's, cars, clothes, etc.

At one point our friend would drive with 25k from Chicago to Cali and scoop a ton of cannabis product(edibles, concentrates, flower). Get back and sell it all in less then two weeks and make 50-75k.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because it shows how easily one can profit off the drug trade and how a few high schoolers who were just trying to "smoke for free" created a small cannabis operation.

I'll always take a harder stance on harder drugs. Cannabis and Psilocybin have no place as a schedule 1 drug. So when were talking about the death penalty let's at least equate it to chemicals/drugs that can actually kill people.

This post was edited by SwamiVivekananda on Jan 24 2024 10:17am

i'll chime in just slightly here and state, you are relying on congress to pass an additional amendment to the Controlled Substances Act. (at least, i haven't looked too hard into this aspect yet)
if that's not also a policy, you might be hard pressed to see it actually happen. especially as the DoJ loves to assign drug charges as felonies when unable to prove an alternative charge.

This post was edited by tagged4nothing on Jan 24 2024 11:32am

the cartels will just start shoving balloons of the stuff up people that already pay them to get them across the border. you'll be putting house keepers to death after a bunch of coyotes r*ped them.

its funny tho that the gubment still tries the war on drugs, and all in the wrong ways.

That's why state's have ultimately acted on these issues without federal oversight/approval.

In Illinois you can legally purchase cannabis with cash/debit but no credit card because of that "federal schedule 1 status".

Despite cannabis being "legal" it's heavily taxed. So much so that cartels/gangs still sell cannabis illegally for enormous profits because they can get you the same quality product for 1/3rd the price.

Let's not pretend that the government doesn't already sell death in the form of alcohol and tobacco.

If I could go to a store and get "medical cocaine" the same way I could get "medical cannabis" I probably would because it wouldn't be laced with fentanyl or other terrible additives and the "habit forming addiction" that goes with any "drug" is well known.

It's when a community is flooded with high grade/high potency/cheap drugs that you really see the wider issue.

I live near Chicago which is literally the central drug hub of America and I'm a phone call away from any "illegal substance" or a street corner that petals it.

The problem is when fentanyl is added to "street drugs" in mass. i.e buying kilos of cocaine and cutting it with "x" amount of fentanyl it translates to overdoses on a massive scale because by the time all that cocaine is consumed so is the fentanyl.

In the 80s imagine how much cocaine was consumed and how few people actually died from doing a "line of cocaine" but now if you do that "line" there's a chance there's enough fentanyl in that line to kill you.





+1

If the government wanted hard drugs eradicated they would activate the military and intelligence agencies around the world would collaborate to identify the real "sources" of mass production and they would literally go in and kill/arrest everyone.

Clearly they'll continue the war on drugs which was always a "dog trying to catch it's own tail". Total failure.

i always found that distinction arbitrary. why make other deadly things illegal but not drugs? the goal here is high drug prices from scarcity and a death penalty would indeed do that.

one of the big problems here might be the prosecutors situation too. does a death penalty matter if all the DA's drop the charges?

might work in Texas but not elsewhere.

@ bold, citation needed. i dont see any solid logic that this change would drastically increase prices. it could also just cause drug producers to mix in more fentanyl and less of the actual drugs they purport to sell to maintain potency but decrease price.

then there's the math, death penalties are very expensive. and usually carry like a 20 year sentence pre-death penalty. so then you take someone who usually does 10 or so years for trafficking, double the cost of stay, triple to cost of appeals because they'll all appeal to try and get off death row, and add costs of administering the penalty.

and let's be honest, if and thats a HUGE if, trump could somehow get it passed. and he wont. by the time the first group of those prosecuted hit their 20 year death penalty timer you'll have some liberal president who's already undone the law. so you spend a bunch of money in the short term for something that wont stick.

its gum flapping and never going to happen.

I very, very much doubt that, death is part of the game already. Nothing changes.

the death penalty should be applied to a lot more than drug trafficking charges

have you ever sat down on the curb and just observed what people do with shopping carts at walmart?