Drugs
 

A few observations regarding drugs and the villages. It is alleged Atlanta is a major hub for drug interdiction to the US. It is also alleged the drugs runners use the turnpike to move them to Miami and The Villages is located in a prime location along this route. In addition to this exposure it is also alleged that Marion County has more Meth Labs than any other County in Florida. What does all of this mean. I believe it means we should be prepared to address Drug activities and ensure there is funding to manage this growing criminal activity on our great community. As you read of the criminal arrests in The Villages and note how many have drugs on them or were using them when caught you start to understand the breath of the issue. As the villages continue to grow in size the under belly of drug activity grows and the need for fully funded Police becomes greater. :ohdear:

Such a shame where our country is heading.

Gate arms yesterday. Drugs today. What's tomorrow's topic, prostitution? :popcorn:

Only if we allow it!

Please dude chill out a little , maybe you need to come by for my relaxing end of day ritual of smoking a joint accompanied by Miles, Coltrane or Erroll Garner , you won’t worry about the small things

@Charlie: can we come over, too??? :)

They look so cute , but can they drive ?

Yes, using policing to control drug availability and use has worked so well in the past (not!) let's waste a few more billion to get nowhere again.
Supply arrives to satisfy demand. There is really nothing you can do about it with police except lock up a few poor people who are immediately replaced with zero impact beyond needing more jails, spending a lot of tax dollars, and ruining a few lives.
The answer (not that it is easy or cheap or fast) is to figure out a way to control or manage demand.

War on drugs useless waste of money

Saw this somewhere.
We can't fight, homelessness, Hunger, Poverty or Drugs:
But we are going to fight “Climate Change”?

Yeah Right.

If we look at the local arrests for Drugs it’s a revolving door arrest release, arrest release the same over and over. It’s a waste of time. Seems the Counties are pretty profitable by collecting fines why would they wish to solve the problem.

Here in The Villages ? Surely you are pulling my ---- leg.

Drugs
 

While Atlanta is a major hub for drug interdiction, the drugs sent there are primarily distributed to Eastern cities in the Carolinas and up the East coast and not driven down to Miami. .

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R44599.pdf

Miami is just over 9 hours from Atlanta by car traveling down I-75, not the "turnpike". Even if drugs were sent South from Atlanta, why would they even stop anywhere, let alone The Villages, unless perhaps Rocky and The Rollers were at one of the squares.

Embedded Maps

This report indicates that Bay county has more than twice as many meth labs as Marion county.

List: Florida counties with most meth labs

Feel free to provide links backing up your allegations.

As long as people crave illegal drugs there will be demand. Just like smoking or alcoholic’s, druggies can’t or rarely can stop. Joint smokers claim it’s harmless and they can stop any time, but the never do.

Nothing else to worry about....?

Not so, my friend. I, personally, have quit smoking marijuana. Also cigarettes. I have tried to quit alcohol at times, as well as coffee.

Coffee was the hardest, and in fact, I'm back on it. Likewise alcohol.
So in my experience, pot was the easiest of all of those to give up.

and who wants to stop, smoking a little weed since my teens, going to be 83 in a couple of weeks , never smoked cigarettes, no medications, run, bike ,walk and hit gym 5 days a week , had a very exciting life in many dangerous places in the world which I only tell funny stories about and most of all I couldn’t be more happy now or how my life has evolved. MAYBE it WAS the WEED

No self respecting drug mule is going to ferry dope down the Turnpike. Too many cameras and license plate readers.

That's where the money is located. In the meantime our jails are full of drug cases instead of the real criminals that we release. We seem to be upside down.

There was a thread for business ideas.

The reality is that criminals are mobile. They can easily move to areas that allow them to operate. There is actually a small percentage of our population that are regular criminals. I am a proponent of three strikes and you are out. It has never been allowed to function.

As far as crime throughout history society has been trying to prevent crime. Hangings, famously attracted pick pockets and so did application of the guillotine.

Drugs-we often get news about ultra strong drugs hitting the streets and killing people.
We then spend a fortune to track down and get them off the street. Is that rational?
Only the state can murder people?

I have more questions than more productive solutions.

It is interrelated. Drugs, a drug habit is expensive and debilitating. Only way to make the needed money is through crime. A crime that causes crime.

You cannot collect fines from people with no money, no residence and a likely fake name.
Harsh? Perhaps? We have passed but never allowed three strikes and you are out. Revolving door? It would only go around three times.

Right on. They use Rt 466A and Rt 44.

There are very few people in prisons who were arrested on simple drug charges...

Most have pled down to that, for an easy conviction, but were initially arrested in distribution charges, most probably while armed...

Education
 

I was thinking that maybe some education would at least stimulate the naysayer regarding drugs and thus may open their eyes a little and cause them to think beyond the "chill out" excuse or current users. Of course the "Dealers" will continue to spread their poisons and chase after our children. Did you know there are 12 NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings in the Villages and near neighborhoods each day of the week? Did you consider each NA attendee leaves a family at home who are regaining a decent life. Of course if you are a dealer or user you don't give a damn. Did you consider that almost everyday there is mention of person being arrested for either drug use or having the tools to use drugs or caught with the amount to be a dealer? Who do you think those dealers are going after? Of course the children and youths! Forget the rumor that is mentioned in previous posts that the drugs being flown in to Atlanta are going northeast.! Hell, take a minute and check with the DEA and Marion County Sheriff's Office and you will be educated they are using the Turnpike as a major route to Miami and The Villages are a good place to push drugs on the way to Miami.!Some mention now being made aware of more "homeless" showing up in The Villages! Come on why do you think many are homeless. Duh, could it be drugs are a major cause? Heck the San Francisco streets are loaded with people sleeping on the side walks, historic sites, etc because they are exhausted looking for work. We truly respect and honor those who attend the NA Meetings as they are the ones who recognize the horrible impact it is having on their and others lives and are taking action to build up our
lives and not further wreck them for the sake of a selfish addiction. :ho:

I think someone’s been watching to many viewings of the movie Reefer Madness that shows up late at night sometimes on TCM , actually it’s a great movie to light up and giggle while you watch

1. Defunding doesn't mean what most people think it means.
2. The War on Drugs was lost the first week it started, and has been losing ever since.
3. See Prohibition on Alcohol history if you want an explanation on #2.
4. Many people who are addicted to painkillers, first became addicted when it was prescribed LEGALLY to them for legitimate reasons: recovery from surgery, for example. Anyone addicted to narcotic painkillers needs help. Arrest them not for being addicted, but for the burglary they committed, or the red light they ran, or whatever other thing they did OTHER than simply being addicted to drugs. And then help them to stop being addicted to the drugs. That's what defunding is all about. It's about giving the police more authority as police handling crimes that actually need a police officer to handle. And giving authority to people who are qualified in other aspects of public service, to handle those other public service jobs. Like helping homeless stay off the streets and hopefully find them shelter, mental health services, and jobs, or veterans suffering from PTSD and needing someone to talk them out of killing themselves, or help new mothers suffering from post-natal depression so they don't kill their own babies. Defunding puts police funds into hiring people who can do THOSE things to prevent crimes, so the cops can BE cops.

The only people who 'know' what defunding means, who are actually against defunding, are people who don't want to prevent crime. They only want to attack if after its been committed.

Ha ha. They showed us Reefer Madness in 1968, the first week of each school year at Frederick Military Academy to deter us from smoking pot. Being a young country boy I never knew about pot until they showed me the movie.

Do your research
 

I don't recall including the drug "marijuana" in any of my notes so am lost to understand why someone would raise an old film on that drug as some way to discredit the threat of drugs on the Villages. Usually old and long time users like to try to redirect the problems of drugs by using this age old film. They give no consideration that when the film was made it was made by the film industry who were major users of drugs, that hardly any research was made on it's long term effects, and they relied on person's getting high and becoming long term customers of the drug dealers. The ones who tout the drug have not done any research on its effects on the youth and user families who watch their futures go up in smoke! It has terrible effects on or children who start smoking when they are before the age of 21. Look it up. :ho:

You said drug running that seems to indicate all types of drugs , and if weed is so bad how come 36 states give you permission to smoke weed with a doctor’s prescription, 12 others limit somewhat the THC in the weed and 18 states allow it for recreational use , contrary to what you are saying there has been extensive research on the benefits of smoking weed long before the medical and recreational permission and voting was given . The detriment to our youth has actually been the archaic laws that in some states and even living in some neighborhoods saddled many young people with criminal records.

Wrong murders murder people state levels the penalties
For murder. IMO the need to bring back guillotine for mass murderers.

Cause society has rules. Or only ones some want to follow.

You know what the say “ 100 men will test today but only three will be green Bret” or you could be as rare as 1 in 1000 like Winchester 94.

Rules that in some states part of the state had law enforcement telling you to put it out and other parts of the same state putting you in jail or in poorer neighborhoods being arrested for smoking weed and better neighborhoods getting a warning , or the rules about crack cocaine where a small amount used mostly in minority neighborhoods could get you a large sentence while powdered cocaine of much larger amounts got you less time . I’m not condoning the drugs just the unjust sentences inflicted on many poor people and especially among minorities

???
 

Light up or not, it is still funny as hell. Probably the reason a lot of folks decided to give it a try in the first place.

Just as Funny?
 

Was it just as funny there were 5 of 8 arrested for being drunk and one even striking his parents and so also arrested for assault yesterday? There were more but these qualified to be reported in the press. Talk about the fun of drugs, this must have made a lot of drug supporters laughing? Want more fun, think of the 12 Narcotics Anonymous meeting each day in the Villages with each member having recognizing the need for help and the strength to seek it. How can any sane person ever think drugs are funny and fun when so many users and families suffer because of their use? SAD. :ohdear:

There are also meeting for people that are compulsive eaters , gambling ,sex and shopping , should we also give up these ? I know maybe we can bring back prohibition, how did that work out ,or maybe a war on drugs ,or a sugar ban , or close all the stores or stop people from having sex , I’m sure for some people that wouldn’t be enough because there would always be something more wicked that people would warn us about

Much of that was due to the local community leaders demanding harsher sentences, in order to get the crack out of their neighborhoods...

Pay attention.
 

In case your post is in response to mine, You mistook my finding humor in a movie (Reefer madness) as meaning that I condone drug use. I also think the Cheech and Chong films were funny. This has nothing to do with condoning or not condoning drug use any more than liking Western movies mean I condone shootouts at high noon on the city streets.
You seem to have been very negatively affected by some drug association, personal or otherwise, and your sensitivity causes a knee jerk reaction leading to misinterpretation of others comments. Simple misinterpretation can lead to unnecessary and avoidable arguments.