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Comment by rms | Hacker News Reader

This news has been happening for a while. All the way back to the First Opium War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banki...

Sadly, many massive crimes against humanity go unpunished when commited by corporations. Compare the crimes of HSBC to the crimes of Pfizer. http://www.fbi.gov/boston/press-releases/2009/bs091509b.htm http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Huge-penalty-in-drug-...

The laws of the USA suggest that corporations that are convicted of two felonies are subject to a corporate death penalty, but given the continued non-punishment of perniciously malicious companies like HSBC and Pfizer, don't expect the US Department of Justice to act anytime soon.

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US drug laws are actually just about keeping people who may vote for democrats out of the voting pool wrapped around a layer of public health stigma and "scary minorities terrorizing white people" images.

Yet Democrats don't come out against Draconian drug laws because...well, I don't know...let's go with bipartisanship.

Well, all the drug laws started in the early 1900s and their rationale is forgotten unless you find a documentary or do research somewhere.

For example, the reason opium dens were outlawed in San Francisco is because they got very popular with the chinese laborers and that upset the white establishment. So, the white lawmakers got together and made a campaign about "chinese men on drugs are stealing your white women." Soon after, SF outlawed opium dens to punish the chinese workers for, well, the falsely manufactured epidemic of all upper class white women falling in love with chinese railroad workers and leaving their white husbands in shame.

The ruling class has a mind of continuance and more restriction, not clearing out the cruft from long ago.

For fuck sake. What claptrap do you have to explain every other fucking country banning opium?

Well, if 90% of your population is high and unproductive, that makes you ripe for invasion. There's a difference between fixing a problem collapsing society and targeting groups to punish them for your own gain.

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium#Prohibition_and_conflict_... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/his...

Chinese-patronized opium dens were banned. Tincture of laudanum (opium rum) was still available at every drug store.

The history of drug prohibition is a process of cracking down on one minority group after another in order to get votes. Opium: chinks. Marijuana: niggers. LSD: smelly hippy sluts. Methamphetamine: poor white trash/wiggers. Visible booze bottles: bums.

The Single Convention, pushed into the UN by American prohibitionists.

And signed and ratified by all those poor helpless victim countries.

under duress with the likelihood of the withdrawal of aid, trade, or unilateral sanctions. You do realize the united states is a permanent member of the security council?

They're also about providing government kickbacks and cheap slave labor to the prison-industrial complex. Not to mention the free stuff for police departments seized from citizens.

There are a lot of people who benefit from the war on drugs, who also share responsibility for perpetuating it.

Do you actually believe that or are you a troll?

Fun fact: the word "that" is an expletive and doesn't convey any information.

I guess "that" answers "that" question.

>Sadly, many massive crimes against humanity go unpunished when commited by corporations.

And/or first world countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down

Sure, but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns

(E.g I don't care if some strict leader in an African village behaves badly to his people and gets away with it.

Compared to what large powers do and get away with, with their world wars, invasions, opression, colonialism, etc, it's neglighible).

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