Warcraft: the most potent drug known to mankind

I love it! Mission accomplished. :)

The irony. It is deliciously sweet.

Good on Blizzard for helping them out. I don't get a boner on the "War on drugs," or anything but I think it was a cool step on Blizzard's part. It's good press for them and hopefully for videogames in general.

I hear WoW is more addictive than crack cocaine or heroin. I has cost people's lives, jobs, families. Mainly just lives though.

"A bit of hypocritical for Blizzard to condemn a drug dealer considering what they sell."

This statement is irresponsible at best.

I've tried to read this article several times, but this keeps distracting me.

Seconding irony and hypocrisy. One of the few occasions where I agree with one of Jim's sensationalist stories.

Good article, but it begs me to wonder, did he do exactly the same thinks that Goldbots do on the servers?

I CAN STOP ANYTIME I WANT, OKAY?

WOW isn't pulling me in at all... wait till the warhammer 40K MMO goes live... you won't hear from me ever again... I'll prolly just get divorce in advance to make time available :p

chances are we'll loose Jim as well in the warhammer-universe :-)

Wokka wokka wokka.

I hate Orc Cops!

A shaman no doubt, he probably spent his time screwing with herbalism.

Oh man, he was involved with MARIJUANA and SCHEDULE III AND IV drugs? What a heel! I'm so relieved that Blizzard helped out and thwarted the heinous victimless crimes that could have occurred.

It's only fitting that one of the worst companies (ActiBlizz) would help enforce one of the worst laws (the Controlled Substances Act).

@mackie: If you think that there are no (even innocent) victims involved in illegally obtaining hard drugs then you're pretty damn naive. The drug business is probably the most violent second only to the military industrial complex.

which is 100% due to america's prohibition

Pretty much what Weapon said. If it was possible to set up a better distribution model, drugs wouldn't be such a precious commodity and fewer people would be killed and exploited for them. And that doesn't even enter into the ethics behind a government telling its citizens what they can or can't do to their own bodies.

There are some awful, heartless people in the drug trade; don't get me wrong. But there wouldn't be such an incentive to be that way if the laws were reformed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't a subpoena legally require the information to be divulged, as opposed to saying "Hey, it would be cool if you gave us this. But totally not required" ?

I work with street people, including a lot of addicts; drugs aren't a "precious commodity", they're everywhere. A better (legal?) distribution model would simply mean more addicts, and also less OD's from shoddy gear. Good luck in working out how to stop the Turkish/Columbian/Mexican syndicates and creating a new distribution model.

@Naku

I seem to remember Google was subpoenaed a while back and refused to comply. I dunno if they did in the end though.

Mackie is right and it's exactly why I have to comment.

Detective Matt Robertson could have spent all that effort and time to tackle/prevent any other sort of crime but he chose to use tax dollars chasing after some non-threatening absconder in Canada to bring him here where we can use more tax dollars to put in in prison where he can get out and be the same burden to society he was before, and keep that tax-dollar cycle going when he gets busted 10 years later

Do you think D.A.R.E failed to reach this man? Or can't you take those blinders off and see the system is a failure?

Also, the video game industry employees quite a lot of "drug" users, so let's just fire all of them and then we can then go after people that use bad language next.

"A bit of hypocritical for Blizzard to condemn a drug dealer considering what they sell."

taking out the competition :P

I swear to god I seriously think I saw this guy at Best Buy. I live in Howard County and saw this homeless looking guy reeking of pot buy one of those WoW mouses.

I can't believe this happened in my city, jesus christ.

Microsoft does this too. I heard it on the Major Nelson PR podcast.

I was under the assumption that most companies like this had a department to deal with police matters.

@Z0L0 It's supply and demand. If drugs can be had legally, it's going to take sales (and therefore power) away from the drug cartels, because the drugs can be produced domestically and the labs don't need to be clandestine. And yes, there might be more addicts, but I think the personal freedom is worth that price. Plus, treatment for drug addiction would be likely to progress rapidly.

@ mackie

I know people who have had their lives ruined by drugs, and before they woke up to themselves, they were all about the legalization of it. The government does some bullshit things in almost every country, but when it comes to drugs, they are really just protecting the people, I've seen the negative effects they can have. And as such, I support them being made illegal.

I have no doubt that some people can enjoy them without the negative side of things, but on the flip side some people don't have the self control for that. The government has a responsibility to look out for all its citizens, and that includes the weak willed ones who don't know whats good for them. Its a fine moral line when it comes to telling people what they can and can't do. But for drugs I'm okay with it.

That said... That's only my opinion. I can see where you're coming from, and you're definitely right about legalization taking power from the cartels and reducing gang violence. However I think perhaps more addicts could result in more innocents getting hurt. addicts don't hurt only themselves. for example they can hurt their girlfriends. Of course, this depends on the drug. I think they should be looked at individually.

"...the government has a responsibility to look out for all its citizens.."

Except when it come to health, homelessness, or being stuck in a turkish prison.

Other then that though, big brother rules!

I wish the would legalize something, at the very least pot. Really, we could use the revenue.

WoW FTW

Wow, things really took a turn for the worse for Hightower after Police Academy.

SCREW BLIZZARD! The guy was wanted for weed. A bowl to 100 TONS I don't care! Week makes WoW fucking Tolerable!

I'm so tired of WoW. Now Blizzard has given me a REASON TO FUCKING HATE HATE HATE THEM. You DO NOT talk to the FBI Blizzard. You don't burn your own people down!

All the pussies on here who talk about "the government has a right to .." People make their own lives. A dude weights 400 pounds you don't throw McBurger in the slammer for selling him his poison.

Weed ... Anyone who says our tax dollars were well spent going after this guy for his lettuce dealing is a retard.

Rofl, humorous thing is I think I played with that dude before. I remember quite a few people who talked about drugs and its dealings. The character name rings a bell, rofl I thought most people on the internet were only wannabes. I guess the more you know.