And the prison industrial complex would crumble. And people would catch onto the bullshit they're fed daily.

I don't think people would just suddenly catch on to the shit they are fed daily. Just because one conspiracy or even a group of conspiracies are exposed, people will still be dumb. It would take thirty years of an improved educational system, including critical thinking, before the masses would begin to catch on.

How do you plan to teach critical thinking? You can explain to them what it is, but every person has to learn the process for themselves. As a matter of fact this fucked up world of backstabbings coverups and denial is probably one of the best environments for learning critical thinking by comparing actual facts to official stories.

Investment in education is obviously a good idea but it's not going to help people catch on to anything. Dropouts are gonna drop out regardless of how much we invest in education. Those that would benefit would go to college where you learn to specialize, pretty much the opposite of staying open minded.

Drugs on the other hand let you see alerts perceptions which does open your mind

Drop outs will drop out? I dropped out of high school three years early, and tested in the top 1 and 2 percent in all subjects. Dropping out of a broken school should be of no alarm to you.

DUDE!

Most area colleges offer a course in critical thinking. Why don't you go take one?

Investing in the education of our youth is the smartest thing we can do. These are the people who are our future. College should be free. We should offer free courses to adults so people can continue to educate themselves over the whole of their lives.

I am not sure what you are trying to say with the last line, but I am guessing the weed just kicked in.

Alter* perception that was the auto correct kicking in not the weed. I don't even smoke weed because I get anxious but it is beneficial to some personality types.

I'm agreeing 100% that education would be the greatest investment in our future but you and I both know our government isn't competent enough to recognize and act on that point so really it's a moot point. I'm pretty sure the entire right is anti education because people learning is killing their base. Can't really expect more from people who call facts biased and deny global warming though I guess.

But yeah college should be free. And it shouldn't be the basically just career field requirement it is now, people should learn to better themselves and expand their understanding. With how much robots increase productivity were going to need to employ like half the world in research to keep people employed and useful, encouraging learning as an end instead of a means to an end would only play into that

yep and id be high as fuck

I don't buy it. If the drug money all became legal, wouldn't the vast majority of it end up in banks anyway, either through legal vendors, consumers having more spending money, or similar?

And don't most drug cartels keep cash?

It's not just drugs, it's the "war on drugs" that makes money. Think about how many people would be out of a job without illegal drugs. Not to mention that the CIA can use off-the-books drug money to fund operations that aren't above board.

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that the CIA has been, and still is, heavily involved in running drugs into the US.

It's not like the DEA employs that many people. Or even all the private prisons in the US. You are at most looking at around 100,000 people. That does not have that big an effect on our economy overall. But if you look at the number of people globally employed by the illegal distribution of drugs, and the amount of cash involved, now we are talking about some big numbers. Marijuana is a multibillion dollar industry, right now. One can only imagine how big it would become if legalized. This is the piece that the people forget. When we legalize we are going to make a ton of money. Also, the police and correction officer lobbies are against legalization, simply because it would reduce arrests and lockups. That is some terrible stuff right there.

I think it's safe to assume that more than 100,000 people are thrown in jail for non-violent drug related offenses...

I am talking about employees not inmates.

So this effects more than just the employees, right?

Legalization would effect almost every aspect of our society. Besides the unbelievable amount of money and tax revenue it would generate, there are many industrial applications that could create whole new areas of commerce. There is no question it would have an effect on almost everyone in our society. The reasons against legalization are purely political and having almost nothing to do with the drugs themselves.

This is an extremely low brow way of putting it but banks literally gamble their money away daily (bad risks)- on top of pocketing it. Why do you think they need bailouts every couple years? While I agree he accusation in the OP idn't quite that simple ( if we didn't have fiat currency with the Federal Reserve it would produce the same result) it would still damage them.

legal drugs are WAY cheaper. so, say good bye to the big drug business

So the drugs are cheaper. Yes, the business goes away. But where does the money go? It doesn't just disappear. It stays in the pockets of the average consumer, who puts it into a...bank.

Banks get a big boner for huge influxes of liquidity. Drugs are really expensive because of the black market, and Wall Street likes it a lot when people at the very top of the drug supply chain deposit all that big, phat liquidity. They go out seeking that kind of stuff. Now legalize drugs. Suddenly, anyone can produce them and the price falls to one percent of what it previously was. Those people are not part of a network, and they may deposit that 1% of the previous liquidity, but it will be in thousands of different places from under the mattress to the credit union to paying cash for a new tattoo. It's not the same thing.

Wouldn't legalized drugs also be taxed out the ass, thus allowing for more bailouts?

MJ and most drugs have a low production cost. The high price people pay for drugs is because it's illegal. If drugs were legal without any taxes, they would sale for almost three times less then the current price. So even if the government was to tax 100% production cost, these drugs would still be cheaper than illegal prices.

Alright. Don't know why I got down voted for asking a question, but thanks for the reply.

I would think laundering would bring profits of up to 40%. Legal transactions much less.

The banks take the cash from the cartels and launder it. Cash is pure liquidity. The banks need liquidity to stay afloat.

If drugs were legal, the banks wouldn't have to launder it... they would lose their cut, but more importantly, they would lose the liquidity that the illegal drug cash gives them.

Drugs wouldn't be worth shit if they weren't illegal.

Look up the HSBC and the Mexican weed cartel. lol. I don't make this sh!t up. Basically, the tellers windows were modified to handle the cash boxes. The bank got fined 1.2 billion, I dunno what happened to the drug cartel. Maybe they got fined too. LOL. It's too much .

I don't buy it either and I agree.

The banks wouldn't crumble, if anything it'd boost the economy.

The banks will most likely find a way to keep getting their cut before drugs are legalized. It's only a matter of time before drugs (weed at least) are legalized. Bankers aren't idiots, they can see the writing on the wall.

they would just Tax it... same goes for Bitcoins.. when it comes time to take it on... they will tax the shit out of it and allow you to pay your taxes with it.

I think that this comment on the original story said it all. I fixed it a bit:

The revival of opium harvesting (banned by the Taliban) was one of the two reasons for which the occupation of Afghanistan was planned by the Zionist elites in US government in December 2001. The other reason was to bring Caspian Sea crude oil to a Haifa refinery via a pipeline up to Pakistan’s port Gwader through Afghanistan.

Most of drug trafficking is controlled by Russian Jews and Israel has been known as a haven for such criminals. Even the Israeli government ministers have been involved in this lucrative trade. Captain Gonen Segev, the former minister of Energy and Infrastructure (1995) in Yitzhak Robin’s cabinet and member of Israeli Knesset – was arrested in April 2004 for smuggling of thousands of Ecstasy tablets from Amsterdam to Israel.

Kyrgyzstan’s billionaire Jew, Alexander Machkevitch, is a close friend of country’s dictator Nursultan Nazarbyev and member of many Jewish lobby groups working for Israel’s interests in Central Asia and Africa. He owns the lion-share of oil industry in the country.

And couple that w/ the prevalence of Bitcoins - and the people can help to chip away at the power and the legitimacy of the State...

THOMAS SHERIDAN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW UN-PENNED SHOW APRIL 2ND 2013 excellent show recorded, edited and uploaded to youtube. Want to know more about the madness we are living in? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPj2VlYl5_8

Here is another interesting piece from 1999. The NYSE Chief went down to Columbia to meet with the leader of the FARC, which their revenue sources are from kidnapping & taxing of illegal cocain & heroin production

Drug money? what about printing.. i mean moving decimal point on the ledger.. Now if everyone took an heroic dose of psliocybin or DMT the world would be such a different place and priorities would change greatly.

Too bad we need another technology like the internet that provides information that is accurate to everyone in an instant and cannot be manipulated to fit someone's agenda. A true Hivemind, and then we will finally have peace and justice in the world... Google Glass maybe the start of this tech.. lol, if aliens are monitoring us as an experiment they have to be upset how greedy most of us are when it comes to controlling how others live their lives. Maybe its time for the next version of humans to try and make it to the next level of civilization. If they wouldnt have built us to be slaves it may have been a better result. I still say Mushrooms are the key to healing the world. Especially people in power should be force to take multiple heroic doses and then explain to us what they have learned from their experience before starting their office.

Why am I not surprised. Banksters...

This is another reason why I feel strongly about spreading the ideas of drug legislation. People don't realise how much of an effect it would have on reducing crime (and thats BEFORE you take into consideration the criminality of the banks).

NO! thats not true because Obama SAYS ITS NOT! NORTH KOREA! lets keep paying attention to NORTH KOREA

Drugs are a big business, but small compared to oil. The CIA probably has agents who take advantage of loose supervision to smuggle drugs. The banks make some money laundering drug money. But not enough to make or break them.

We could, however, cut the number of cops and prisons by half or more.

Actually the profit margins are much higher in drugs.most of what you pay at the pumps is added tax. And the infrastructure, helicopters, rigs, pipies.

Sure, but it's still a much smaller business. There is no way it's what's keeping the banks going.

Imagine if all the money being fed into our prison system was fed into our education system. Just Imagine...

Coincidentally, Freeway Ricky Ross gets out of jail this year...

Good.

The international banking system better reinvent itself, or it will be left out completely in 10 years.

Think I am kidding?

If Drugs Were Made Legal In The US, The International Banking System Would Collapse

Because everyone, including bankers, would be too fucked up on drugs?

[deleted]

Yeah, you don't know who Putin is, he is looking out for Russian Oligarchs, And he is the number one oligarch, he is minted,they say he is just number two or three richest guys in the world.. It is all about the money.

I don't think people would just suddenly catch on to the shit they are fed daily. Just because one conspiracy or even a group of conspiracies are exposed, people will still be dumb. It would take thirty years of an improved educational system, including critical thinking, before the masses would begin to catch on.

Alright. Don't know why I got down voted for asking a question, but thanks for the reply.