I'm glad we're starting to move the conversation and American laws towards decriminalizing drugs. With Oregon leading the way last week.
Focusing on helping addiction not ignoring it and shaming people will go a long way to breaking the cycle
Focusing on helping addiction not ignoring it and shaming people will go a long way to breaking the cycle
It isn't just about breaking a cycle, though not shaming addiction is helpful. It isn't just addicts that do drugs: I've met folks that do cocaine twice a year, for example. Few folks are addicted to LSD, and most folks only take MDMA occasionally. There is more than one way to take heroin, and folks do use occasionally. All drugs I wouldn't take are safer if folks know they are getting, strength and purity are verified as much as possible.
Legalisation takes some strength away from cartels, which hopefully means less human trafficking.
As a bonus health of patients(addicts) is not deteriorating so rapidly due to crap they take along with actual drugs, so bonuses go back to whole society in form of lower costs of general healthcare. Imagine cigarettes that would be killing 10x more slowly/less often. Smokers would often die of old age and not in 1-5 years of super expensive agony. Safer methods of applications can be used.
The benefits just mount for whole society. All it takes is general acceptance that there will always be some part of society that will want to get high / calm the existential pain, be it physical of psychical.
Surely decriminalization is an improvement.
For this reason, I try to bring it up in conversations about decriminalization.
Would “drug courts,” where offenders are not prosecuted provided they complete treatment not also be an improvement?
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-28/aguanga-...
The other issue is that there are conflicts between state and federal law. Not being able to bank easily is a major hurdle, and these sorts of things need fixed.
Edit: someone already mentioned it and provided evidence.
My anecdata contradicts this.
I know a lot of musicians who say "Yeah, they lied to us about pot. So, I assumed they were lying about everything else, too. And they were--except heroin. Do NOT do heroin--that's a path you do not want to be on."
I don't know of any who use it "recreationally" and control it. It just doesn't seem to work that way.
> All drugs I wouldn't take are safer if folks know they are getting, strength and purity are verified as much as possible.
I agree with this 100%.
Ok, this might not really contradict you since it is more about being able to use it regularly and still be functional.
I'm in favor of decriminalizing all drugs, because I don't think getting high should be a crime by itself; because I don't think the government has any right to control what people do with their own bodies; because the war on drugs costs a fortune and doesn't do anything to prevent drug use; because unregulated drugs are more dangerous than legal ones; and because our prisons are overflowing with people whose only crime was possessing the drugs themselves. But if someone breaks into my house and steals my shit to feed their habit, I still want them locked up. It's a terrifying experience to be victimized, and it's not always just a property crime; there's a lot of violent crime too.
It _could_ have helped in this case because maybe Ryan M. Moser would have gotten help and broken his addiction with a treatment center that didn't have shame and felony crime associated with it. Maybe Ryan M. Moser would have sought help. Maybe. And at least Ryan M. Moser would have had the option if the drug addiction treatment centers were more accessible, walk-in style.