Drug Laws
This week there was an article about drug use in Jordan. Every time I read about any drug problem here, I realize that I don’t know what laws exist, if any, about drug usage. In the States the government has chosen a strange path regarding drugs. It has made it a criminal act and because of it, the nation deals with two startling results. One is that the price of drugs is exorbitant because drugs are illegal. An entire industry involving billions and billions of dollars exists because dealing in drugs is such a lucrative business. The other is that America has the largest prison population of any nation on earth, the majority of whom are there for drug related ‘crimes.’
What a waste of national and human resources! Drug usage, smoking tobacco, alcohol abuse, are all medical problems and punishing the abuser is not the answer. I would be interested to know what laws Jordan has regarding drugs?
ASH
What a waste of national and human resources! Drug usage, smoking tobacco, alcohol abuse, are all medical problems and punishing the abuser is not the answer. I would be interested to know what laws Jordan has regarding drugs?
ASH
posted by joladies at Friday, October 19, 2007
5 Comments:
thank you thank you thank you !
the drug laws here is that everything beside tobacco and alcohol is illegal .
there are quite a few medical drugs that are not even available in pharmas (ethyl chloride and vicodin come to mind)
now i don't know about the sentences regarding being busted, but from what i know is that even for first offenders there is a prison sentence even if its just possession of a small amount of marijuana. now we all know how much damage a criminal record does to a career, and not even the US do it that way (the 3 strokes rule)
As for drug use in jordan its quite prevalent, with marijuana taking the top spot in the form of hash. on the other hand we do have a high rate of medical drug abuse since naturally its alot easier to obtain those drugs in jordan and thats the type of whatever comes in handy. morphine, oxycodin, muscle relaxants, zoloft, prozac, retilin.
on the other hand since the whole thing is a big stigma in society (although historically it was never the case atleast in the form of natural drugs) rehab centers are scarce and shrouded in mystery.
So yeah the best description is a society living in denial, and the drug enforcement agencies are pretty active about busting people, except for a couple known drug dealer places where they let them carry on with their business without much hassle because they can't handle the gun power and they do lurk on the outskirts of those areas.
and its not that uncommon to be busted for possession but the problem is that like anything else in jordan is to get the charges to stick to the people who should be busted not the small fries
I think alcohol and tobacco should be made illegal!!! I agree that there is a dreadful abuse of prescription drugs. As for being busted by the police, we are the only police force in the world (as far as we know) that actually rehabilitates drug abusers and if a person comes there for help it is not put on a record. There is a Ministry of Health rehab centre in Shafaa' Badran but this is voluntary so the abuser can leave at any time, which is not a good idea. In Singapore if you are caught with drugs THAT IS IT! They have very punitive measures there. If you know of any dealers you should let the Anti-Narcotics dept know. They have been attacked many times and I remember one officer being shot dead in a gun fight with drug dealers. T
LOL T ! you make them sound little santa helpers there, oh how sweet !
while we at it why not just ban sudafed too.
see here is whats on the table, on one hand you have crazy addicted people pulling off stupid sporadic stunts and mistakes
on the other hand you have the mafia who embezzle, blackmail, enslave, prostitute, counterfeit, execute , destroy agricultural resources, and etc ...
now which one of those sounds like the one you want to eliminate ? the lesser of 2 evils lets say.
ok, I can criticise the police as well - especially the traffic police! I have spent time at the anti-narcotics dept and their rehab centre, they certainly do have a difficult job and they are certainly not all 'santa's little helpers'. But they do try. People are so ready to say all sorts of things are going on in this country and passing on gossip about corruption here and there. I certainly would like to see the police pick up all the under age drinkers at the night clubs and bars. But surely there is parental and personal responsibility in all of this? We always blame someone else. T
well i agree with you about the drinkers but whose fault is it that we don't have an enforcible drinking age policy ? the parents perhaps
anyways am of the school of thought that beyond a certain age a person is solely responsible for his life and what he does with it, so naturally am against banning almost everything since i believe that its counter intuitive
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