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Comment by hated | Hacker News Reader

Also most Americans don't realize what a wild west Mexico is for over the counter drugs. You can buy dangerous stuff like testosterone over the counter no problem.

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Not just Mexico. It’s largely the same across most of Asia, most of south and central America, parts of eastern Europe, and bigger cities in Africa. The whole prescription-only thing (or at least enforcement of it) is largely a Europe / US / Canada / Australia / NZ thing.

In my option it [Drug Prohibition] is entirely futile and held in place by various special interests including the government and pharmaceutical companies. It would be much simpler if we allowed for the sale of every chemical that is non-weaponizeable to everyone.

This would remove a lot of people form the criminal justice system and get rid of the need for the DEA. Only problem is that the DEA is a job creator though.

> Only problem is that the DEA is a job creator though.

On the other hand those jobs include tearing families apart and jailing people for victimless crimes. I think I'd be ok losing those jobs.

Totally agree but you are not a politician up for re-election in AZ/PA/MI or some purplish state. Suddenly you get rid of jobs that does not look good in these areas especially if you are a state level politician.

The same would happen if we get rid of commercial insurance companies which I'm also in favor of. All those admin staff, drug sales, insurance coders would be out of work and politicians would have to explain what happened.

Interestingly aren't amphetamines outlawed in South Korea? Muricans hand them out like candy to kids to do better in school. Adderall.

Yeah, certain drugs are heavily prohibited, often with very serious penalties. OTOH, you can walk into a pharmacy and buy basically anything else without a prescription.

It's a similar wild west in the US, except people are basically brewing bathtub steroids from dubious Chinese powders.

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