• Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Trump has been hinting for several weeks at carrying out attacks in Venezuela. In October, he acknowledged that he had given the foreign intelligence agency, the CIA, secret orders to plan attacks in the country.

    And for months, the United States has been attacking boats it claims are linked to drug trafficking from Venezuela, but it has not provided evidence that these “narcoterrorists” actually pose a direct threat to the U.S. The government argues that this threat justifies military force. However, many critics and legal experts point out that there is no proof of a direct threat to the US, thus no formal armed conflict, meaning these operations amount to illegally killings in international waters. At least 105 people have already been killed.

    In fact, relatively few drugs come from Venezuela into the U.S. The synthetic opioid fentanyl causes the most fatalities in the US, but is mainly produced by Mexican cartels from Chinese raw materials, NOT Venezuelan cartels. The US seems to want to see leftist authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro leave. Wth? So Trump is just like Putin attacking Ukraine?

      • MML@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Uh there’s Krokodil (actually it turns out most of what you read is the production not the literal chemical desomorphine causing most of the issues you hear about)

        • chunes@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          In terms of mortality it’s not even close. Alcohol alone kills nearly twice as many people as all other drugs combined.

          Tobacco, 5x as many.

          • nyctre@piefed.social
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            1 month ago

            Sure, but isn’t that just because anyone can buy them in the supermarket? Start selling opioids in the same way and I’m pretty sure those stats would change.

            Is the AK-47 the worst weapon we’ve created just because it’s killed the most people? I don’t think that’s how those stats are supposed to be used, imo.

            • ctrl_alt_esc@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              There are several countries that basically did this and no, the stats don’t change. In fact, de-criminalizing those drugs has lead to a decrease in usage and associated deaths in all cases I’m aware of.

              • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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                1 month ago

                Decriminalization isn’t anywhere near the same as legalization. One means you wont go to jail when you get caught with it despite it being illegal to sell, while the other means it’s legal to possess, buy, and sell.

                I’m also curious about the rates of users to deaths and not just total number of deaths as most adults use alcohol at some point while only a tiny percent use stuff like meth or heroin.

      • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Also “relatively few drugs come from Venezuela into the U.S. The synthetic opioid fentanyl causes the most fatalities in the US, but is mainly produced by Mexican cartels from Chinese raw materials.”

      • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Putins wants Ukraine for resources and to have Zelensky out and is bombing them, America wants to bully Maduro out AND for the largest oil reservoir in the world in Venezuela so they also bomb them… Ok?

      • zebidiah@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        The only reason trump hasn’t attacked Canada is because we are demographically uncooperative with standard US bombing campaigns…