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A serious question... is there anyone reading this who thinks they might become addicted to heroin or cocaine if the drugs were legalized? Is illegality the main reason you don't use hard drugs?

More to the point, is there a flaw in the reasoning that legalization would lead to a significant increase in addiction, or social dysfunction due to drug use? After all, alcohol is legal and readily available, but most alcohol users are not alcoholics.

This article offers solutions all based on the assumption that legalization and ready availability would drive up addiction to dangerous levels. I'm not at all convinced this is so. I wouldn't start shooting heroin even if it was socially acceptable and only cost as much as a coffee. Neither would most of the people I know.

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I'm aware of the issues with /alcohol/ that exist in my family, and detest the smell of smoking (heavier smoking also makes it harder for me to breath).

As I choose not to drink and not to smoke, I feel that others can similarly make /informed/ decisions as /adults/ about which recreational drugs they want to use; and I also very much agree with the approach of that third covered plan; drugs with worse consequences should be harder, but still fully legal (even /without/ a prescription but under supervision; possibly requiring a physical for health evaluation first) to gain access to.

My complete goal with this policy is fighting CRIME, not /drug use/.

No heroin addict thought they might become addicted. That is one of the main dangers of heroin specifically.

I had some friends in high school, and during my first couple of year in college who where in the BBS scene who started experimenting with heroin. They started smoking heroin because it was cheaper than pot, and they started smoking pot because they couldn't get beer as easily. All three of them ended up addicted, 2 of them where only into 'smoking' heroin, the third started injecting it. The first guy, who was/is insanely smart, just stopped, but went through severe withdrawal--he learned his lesson when I bumped into him a decade later. The second guy was from an insanely wealthy family, whose family eventually sent him to rehab. The third guy is still a junkie as far as I heard.

I never started because of the education/indoctrination by Nancy Reagan's "just say no." I just said no thanks when offered, and was only able to watch as these guy's lives spiralled out of control.

seriously? do you really believe this? the addictiveness of opiates is pretty well known. I have trouble accepting that anybody starts using heroin without knowing they might get addicted.

maybe you meant something like "nobody _intends_ to get addicted". that's a very different sentence.

"It won't happen to me" is, yes, what many young people actually believe. I mean, if you have a logical discussion with them, they'll admit that, theoretically, yes, they will probably become addicted. But as with many other areas, they don't really believe that, and their behavior proves it.

Then you aren't living in reality. People all the time think "this won't happen to me." I think you have a lot to learn about the world; I mean that in a nice way.

you trolling me or what? I mean that in a nice way.

If you think more access to heroin will not lead to more addicts, you are really unaware of human nature or reality. It definitely will. Now, the question for you is the fact at least it is "free" is better for society and some notion of "freedom" that having more addicts in society.

You cannot compare the "addictiveness" of alcohol and heroine, although there happen to be many addicted to alcohol and many alcohol related deaths.

I'm not sure why you are not convinced, is it because you don't want to be? There are already tremendous amounts of people addicted to legally obtained opiates, I think this is a terribly naive view.

If you believe the only thing that matters is for all drugs to be free then just say that but don't pretend the quantity of addicted decreases because the accessibility goes up. Imagine if you were a gambler, would you really make that bet?

I'm not saying the addiction rate would go down if it were legalized. Undoubtedly, it would increase. But there are still questions... how much would the addiction rate increase, and what is the social cost of that addiction, relative to the social cost of our current policy of criminalization?

Certainly, violence among dealers would disappear. Liquor stores don't have drive-by shootings to settle their turf. America's absurd incarceration rate would drop tremendously. Incarceration is a major contributor to child poverty. Moreover, a felony criminal record makes it extremely difficult for many adults to find productive work even after serving their time, which begets more crime and more cycling of the system.

The incredible militarization of our police forces, the costs of civil forfeiture (which doesn't require a conviction to take someone's property), the racism, the myriad other ways the "War on Drugs" damages our society and our souls - are you certain that an increase in addiction is so profoundly evil that it's worth this price?

Are you under the impression that gangs would no longer exist and no longer have violent turf wars under a "no substance is illegal" situation?

When you're taking about poverty and getting rid of felonies you have to think is the fact the marijuana going to make the members of "Sex, Money, Murder" gang think "By George, I believe we will now have to earn our collective living by nursing the elderly and painting school gymnasium" .... I mean lets get real. Any time that proponents-of-drug legalization-that-also-believe-it-will-end-gang-violence are ready to come back to reality, I will be waiting for them. :)

As far as the other business, yes racist police actions should be universally reviled. But you have to think if unintendee consequences and the world is not one thing or the other.

I agree with you that there are violent criminals that are never caught committing violent crimes but only end up going to prison because they are caught with a kilo of cocaine; I guess you think that is tragedy that person is in jail and now cannot take care of his or her children. The child would probably also be in poverty if his parents were addicted to Krokodil.

I'm not sure "free heroine for everyone" is as much a panacea for the worlds problems as you suggest.

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