Uncle Robert's closing?

[Tink]

Some new messages I have heard-- "we'll see" , "I'll look into that", "hire a consultant", "create a study".

[My 2 cents]

"Noticeable reasons for this decision such as underage drinking, salesof illegal substances and Ohana rulesbeing disrespected or ignored..."

They have had similar problems in the past and have taken care of them in house, Hawaiian style, and continued on. Why is it different this time?

[glassnumbers]

all drugs should be legalized, and this has always been true. If you want to look at an in-depth reason as to why any drug, including heroin, should not be illegal, watch The Wire. the drug war benefits literally no one, the game is rigged. With that said, there was once a mayor of Baltimore that did an amazing thing-he ordered the police to round up all the mid level lieutenants, the guys who have the most direct control over the lower end employees that sell the drugs, and had them move all their people to one of four designated "free zones" where the cops wouldn't hassle them. District wide, he lowered crime by 4% in a month, which, historically ,is unprecedented.

The point i'm getting to is this-guess what happened after that? the press got wind, the ****ing Drug Czar shows up, and the mayor ends up losing the next election behind the epic ****storm that ensues. If there's an open air drug market for too long, federally, they get their panties in a bunch because its a geographical zone where a federal law is being completely ignored. We're an island far away from them, and it certainly is a backwards, idiotic way of doing things, but damn, I don't want to risk the feds coming down on Puna just so some 20 year olds can buy coke.

Aloha

[kalakoa]

all drugs should be legalized

All activities involving consenting adults on private property provided that the activities do not cause undue burden on society. Basically, if you can pay your taxes, what you do in private is nobody's business.

move all their people to one of four designated "free zones" where the cops wouldn't hassle them

Vancouver BC did this 20 years ago.

don't want to risk the feds coming down on Puna

Consider: we have State-sanctioned permitting of Federal felonies ... it's pretty clear the Feds don't care.

[glassnumbers]

that would be fascinating if what failed in Baltimore could actually work here, it would be a net positive for everyone involved because the resources it frees up within the police department allows them to do stuff like community policing instead of diverting so much money and time into chasing drug-related calls. The community would no longer be occupied territory for the soldiers of the drug war to wage war. It would also be very Hawai'ian. I certainly hope the Feds continue to stay away!

Aloha

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

all drugs should be legalized, and this has always been true. ... the drug war benefits literally no one, the game is rigged.

From comments here on Punaweb, Uncle Robert's is a place where police have looked the other way for some time. Has anyone ever been arrested down there at the end of the road? If they are a law unto themselves, how is the non-enforcement of drug and alcohol sales (without a license) and consumption working out? Again, from comments here, perhaps not as hoped for in a better world:

Noticeable reasons for this decision such as underage drinking, salesof illegal substances and Ohana rulesbeing disrespected or ignored..."

Conventional wisdom has it that the county police have routinely looked the other way (if they looked at all) in reference to violations there.

Aina Keli'iho'omalu is a place of rules. Not the rules of the county or the state. But rules of the Ohana.

[TomK]

"If you want to look at an in-depth reason as to why any drug, including heroin, should not be illegal, watch The Wire."

The Wire was a TV show, an excellent one I'll grant you, but that's all it was. Basing real life on a TV show tends to carry little weight and if it did we'd probably all be living in some sort of utopia like Star Trek portrays. I'm OK with making marijuana legal and treating it just like alcohol, but I have a very hard time picturing a successful community where meth or heroin is acceptable, let alone legal.

[randomq]

Meth is medicine, man. Small batch, artisan crafted, do it yourself American medicine. Why would you take pharmaceuticals from some man in a suit, when you can make meth at home with your family? C'mon sheeple, wake up! Legalize it!

[geochem]

Interesting perspective on recreational drug use. I'll need lots of convincing that this utopian ideal is workable when it intersects the real world.

Given the number of accidents/injuries/deaths that occur on our roads, I wouldn't/couldn't argue that we adequately manage alcohol use sufficiently well to avoid destroying far too many lives - yet we have a political push to legalize other drugs whose use and impairment are less easily detected and managed. Do I want to be driving in the presence of other drivers on the road who are impaired? Do I want to be working around heavy equipment where the operators are impaired? Do I want to be working in a laboratory (where compressed gases are used, where corrosive chemicals are used, where dozens of potentially toxic compounds are kept) where the technicians are impaired?

And who, ultimately, is going to be held responsible for the damage done by impaired drivers/operators/workers? In other countries I've visited, they are a good deal more serious about impaired driving than the US has ever been: (https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2010/01/08/t...ng-ticket/). Possibly with sufficiently serious penalties for impaired driving and workplace performance, it would limit the damage, but as things stand now, the victims suffering the damage of others' impairment are the ones expected to bear the majority of the costs....

[Chunkster]

"Do I want to be . . . "

You probably already are.