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Comment by dmitrygr | Hacker News Reader

Singapore solved this problem, and we should probably follow their example

> Singapore's top diplomat in the UK, Michael Teo, defended Singapore's harsh drug laws by pointing to the country's lower rates for drug use.

"8.2% of the UK population are cannabis abusers; in Singapore, it is 0.005%. For ecstasy, the figures are 1.8% for the UK and 0.003% for Singapore; and for opiates—such as heroin, opium, and morphine - 0.9% for the UK and 0.005% for Singapore," claimed Teo. "We do not have traffickers pushing drugs openly in the streets, nor do we need to run needle exchange centers."

https://www.tripsavvy.com/drug-laws-in-singapore-1629780

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So did Portugal [0], except they didn't resort to draconian rule-of-law policies and instead took a more compassionate approach.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...

Portugal didn’t solve the drug problem. Portugal has stratospherically high rates of drug use before it’s change in policy. At one point fully 1% of the population was addicted to heroin. That has come down, but drug use rates are still much higher than in China, Japan, and Singapore.

In fact, heroin use was the only drug the use of which went down in Portugal after the decriminalization. Use of other drugs went up, especially MDMA. At the same time, heroin use also went down in other European countries in which no decriminalization happened. It blows my mind that some people believe that change in Portugal’s policies was some kind of a huge success.

Solved by extremely harsh penalties including execution.

Not exactly aligned with Western countries of human rights.

If you find a country with fewer needles on the streets and fewer people using drugs, we are happy to listen to their policies and how they accomplished it

Singapore is tiny, not much more than a city-state. Rates of drug use is also a matter of honest reporting.

And wow are you really advocating execution of people with addiction and mental health issues that use drugs?

Japan is not tiny, and has a fraction of our drug use. They’re also brutal with drug crime.

I wouldn’t execute drug addicts. But their pushers? Line-em right up!

Just curious: would you advocate lining up liquor store owners? Bartenders?

If alcohol was as illegal as the drugs are today, sure. Even during prohibition the actual laws against alcohol were much more lenient than today’s laws against opiates.

Alcohol consumption has purposes other than mere intoxication. Likewise I wouldn’t execute a pharmacists who sells opium for legitimate reasons.

But sure, if you have an alcohol executive cutting their wine with methanol, pushing it to middle school kids and breaking interstate laws shipping laws to evade enforcement, like you did in prohibition... screw him.

You realise that most/many addicts will sell small amounts to other addicts?'

Do you advocate the death sentence for drug company executives as well?

Yes, the executives of big pharma are the first in line.

The Dr. and pharmacists who enabled the opioid crisis as well.

You have a shockingly narrow understanding of addiction

Singapore, being a city state ruled by a benevolent dictator, is not comparable to nation states with normal political systems.

Period.

By that logic we should emulate the reasons the moon has fewer people using drugs.

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