c/europe · by wegbier@feddit.org · 1y

Cocaine, corruption and bribes: the German port under siege by Europe’s criminal drug gangs

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/30/cocaine-corruption-bribes-german-port-under-siege-europe-criminal-drug-gangs-hamburg

89 points · 17 comments · view on lemmy.world

17 Comments

albert180@piefed.social · 25 pts · 1y (12 replies)

Legalize it. War on drugs is stupid and will never be "won"

ijedi1234@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y

I continue to believe that DMT is harmless, and should be recreational.

neons@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

leaglize Cocaine?

SL3wvmnas@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 1y

Well, a legalized coca plant will give you coca leaves. Chew them and you get the effect of a good toothbrush and a morning coffee. Combined.

Cocaine on the other hand... I'm not so sure. But I'm also more in the camp of forbidding alcohol, so...

unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · -1 pts · 1y (8 replies)

They did weed already. Gotta wait a bit to prove that it doesnt cause any issues. Then you can move on to other drugs in a few years.

albert180@piefed.social · 6 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Cocaine is not harmless and will absolutely cause issues. But this stupid war on drugs, them being mixed with shit and the criminalisation cause more of them I guess

unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 1y (2 replies)

~~Cocaine~~ Weed is not harmless and will absolutely cause issues.

I know way too many people who completely fried their brain with weed. Its sad to see whenever people cant control their consumption, be it cocaine, weed, alcohol, sugar, food...

albert180@piefed.social · 4 pts · 1y

Weed is safer than alcohol and cocaine though. Doesn't mean it's harmless

You get people in the ED with Cocaine and Alcohol all the time.

You can Internet and Social Media to that list too

alleycat@feddit.org · 2 pts · 1y

I know way too many people who completely fried their brain with weed.

But their already shitty situation will not be made worse by prosecution and imprisonment, if it is legalized.

ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Wasn't it Switzerland that legalized heroin and offered medical-grade heroin to junkies in proper clean environments and with medical personell standing by in case of an OD, and saw drug use plummet?

calavera@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y (2 replies)

As in many countries I believe the use is legal, but not distribution. The ones seeking for the government drug got it somewhere else in the first place

Saleh@feddit.org · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Switzerland has a program where they specifically give clean heroin to addicts. This is different from consumption spaces, where addicts can bring their own drugs, have access to clean use material like syringes and medical staff is present to help in an emergency. IIRC. Switzerland also spearheaded such consumption spaces.

calavera@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y

I know that, what I mean is. If the user got addicted they got by using illegal drugs not government's. Because distribution is still illegal

gigachad@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 1y

Here is a good article from Tagesschau (GERMAN) exactly 1 year ago about the topic. They also link an episode of the 11km podcast.

Saleh@feddit.org · 6 pts · 1y

“Cocaine trafficking and the associated money laundering in Germany can only function on a large scale through corruption of public officials and other facilitators. But the focus of investigators is only on the perpetrators within the criminal networks,” said Robin Hofmann, a specialist in organised crime at Maastricht University. Instead, Hofmann said, as has been done in the Netherlands, the search for the infiltration of cocaine money must be widened further “to the facilitators, the lawyers, local politicians and financial advisers who enable organised crime and profit from it”.

Germany is still a haven for money laundering. Other European countries accuse Germany of deliberately staying inactive in order to make tax money off of it. Until 2023 it was still legal to buy properties in cash.

hallunke23@troet.cafe · 4 pts · 1y

TIL that there is a difference between a machine gun (das Maschinengewehr) and a submachine gun (die Maschinenpistole). Hamburg port security forces demanded the latter.

@wegbier

Formfiller@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

This is how America became a police state

shekau@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1y

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