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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

Me too.

I think for most young people it's obvious that cannabis should be legalized and regulated like other "vice" substances like tobacco and alcohol. I'd stop short of wanting to legalize "hard" drugs, but I would like to see a focus on addiction treatment rather than virtual criminalization of the addicts --I'd still be for criminalization and controlled distribution of drugs that can have immediate deleterious effects on people's health, wellbeing and functionality. Alcohol, while dangerous, unfortunately is well ingrained in society, so even though it qualifies as dangerous, it might have to remain an exception, given it would be hard to extirpate (see prohibition in the various countries and its lack of success).

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Why should personal consumption, or possession with intent to consume personally, ever be criminalized? No matter how harmful the substance is to the person, the basic principle of bodily autonomy (you know, the same one that dictates abortions to be legal) applies here.

The only reasonable exception I can see is substances that alter behavior in a way that's likely to endanger other people (e.g. those that induce aggression). Ironically, though, alcohol would be relatively high on that list compared to most everything else.

I'll play Devil's advocate here. Suppose you want to consume a drug that is currently criminalized, you need to think past the toll on only your body. You need to consider the toll to society. The retail price you pay includes the salaries of gangsters who commit murders and help perpetuate a culture of violence. It encourages other unrelated crime, because it helps set up infrastructure required by criminals, like easy access to guns. It includes the bribes that are given to law enforcement and other public officials who then subvert some of the rules and laws that are the basis of our society. To a lesser extent, since your transaction won't be taxed, there's a small hit to society compared to if you chose a legal high instead.

None of these points would apply if those hard drugs are legalised and regulated, of course. At that point, I'm less certain about the right thing to do. Should the government sell clean versions of ecstacy, heroin or any of the other million synthetics available? I honestly don't know.

Sure, but why are they gangsters? Because it's illegal.

If it were legal, they wouldn't be called gangsters, they'd be called Heroin Distributors, LLC.

Who's really the root cause of the problem here? I'd argue the gangsters are a symptom and the laws are the root cause.

Just leave it to the free market, no government intervention.

I've always thought this would be a great use of the blockchain. If you want to party with dangerous drugs you take your pharmacy card to the pharmacists and get a recreational prescription. This gets written to the blockchain. Next time you do it they see your full history. If your usage is showing patterns of abuse then they can refuse your request and sign you up for legally binding treatment program.

Antibiotics are a good example; they only work when their usage is very carefully prescribed.

I buy the thrust of your argument, but please note that it really does require a more multi-dimensional analysis.

With the inevitable trend toward public healthcare, I just hope that we're able to tax these kinds of products. I don't want to pay higher taxes just so we can provide extra medical treatment to people with alcohol/red meat/tobacco/marijuana habits.

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