It should be a healthcare issue. You go to some state run place, they give you the option of something to get you off drugs or the real thing. They provide a safe place and clean needles. You have to take some mandatory drug education on a weekly or monthly basis. They should offer all the support and information to help the ones that want to clean up.
It should be state run. Private business should not profit off hardcore drugs ever. There will never be an incentive to get them clean.
In NL we already had (have? It was that way when I was young) The needles and the police checking dope quality at parties, why not go the extra mile? I am afraid this is not the good of the people but the money made from drugs somehow or is that too cynical?
Yes 100% this is in my view the best approach.
>In NL we already had (have? It was that way when I was young) The needles and the police checking dope quality at parties, why not go the extra mile? I am afraid this is not the good of the people but the money made from drugs somehow or is that too cynical?
Yes take the money out of the cartels. All profits from state run facilities go toward drug rehabilitation and/or mental healthcare in general.
Sourcing of the drugs is the part I am unsure about. Seems like they have to give production to a pharmaceutical company(s) (creating a new cartel). Buying from cartels is not an option as you are just pushing the misery out of your back yard and into Columbia, North Africa, or Afghanistan.
I am from Spain. What are you talking about? Everything you just listed is not only illegal, but very illegal, considered hard drugs by the vast majority of the population, and will get you jail time if you're trafficking or even just possessing low quantities of it if you have previous legal convictions (not even drug related ones, any previous convictions!). And you can get them "everywhere"? lol
I am often amazed with the matter-of-fact tone that is frequently used on this site to speak about certain topics while being 100% wrong about them. The scary thing is, if I wasn't from Spain, I might've read your post and believed it. Makes me wonder.
Andalusia: it is really common and the guardia only arrests when there are dealers. Spain is big so I apologize for being too broad.
Where are you from because I did not see a difference in Madrid or Barcelona : it is illegal to have or deal but use is tolerated? You do not have this impression? I am definitely not talking about dealing. While I think every country should as it will kill the money incentive.
You will go to jail for dealing, and for possessing any quantities above a threshold of purity (you read that right: they do test the purity of hard drugs even for street-possession charges, and will slap you with a harder charge when the results come back). Nevermind that 90% of regular citizens find drugs very disturbing and will call the cops and treat you as a degenerate junkie the moment they even think that you might be on drugs, especially if you're a foreigner and you're outside a tourist-trap nightlife district.
Spain, or our neighbors in Portugal, it doesn't matter: you do something supposedly "light" and "tolerated" like smoking weed on the street, and the police will impose a hefty fine between €400 and €1200 (a person's whole salary in many cases), depending on the circumstances. It's the law. It goes without saying that they will confiscate everything. On top of that, if you're a foreigner/tourist and they think you're flaunting your drug usage or simply assume that you just don't give a damn about learning the law of the place you're visiting, they will put your ignorant ass in jail for the night on any charge they like, just for the annoyance. Like that. And then you can talk that 'but it's tolerated!' nonsense on your way to the back of a police van. And then, if still feel like getting smart with them, they'll bring you back to your senses. With a slap across the face, follow by an obstruction of justice charge. And you'll still go in the damn police van.
Take it from me, who's grown up here and have been living here for 30 years, or take your risk with taking idiotic internet tourist assumptions for granted. I strongly advise you to do the former, but as we say here: you're free to do as you please, and so is the police.
You think otherwise? Lol.
This is like a choir boy arguing weed is hard to find and "nobody they know does it".
Since drugs are so widespread and you seem so confident: why don't you go get some of these easily obtainable, semi-legal drugs and walk them up to a policeman, see if you're right about the issue or if maybe they semi-put your stupid ass in semi-jail for the semi-night? Please, please record the whole thing, me and my friends always welcome a good laugh.
Finally, a PSA: there are so, so many jokes about anglo tourists in Spain (I'm a native), and for some reason, a huge percentage of them are specifically about 'adventurers' who have 'seen the world' and 'know where the good stuff is'. Go figure lmfao.
edit: Specifically, I'm not sure if combining the sale of drugs and the drug cessation treatment is the way to go. We don't do that with alcohol for example. Don't you think that most of what you want to achieve can be done by separating the two, where indeed drug cessation treatment is provided as part of the normal medical care system (but sale isn't)? Except (sorry if I put words in your mouth, consider it a general observation) you will have to let go of the idea that you must at all costs make those people who are wilfully and with informed consent using drugs stop using drugs.
Are you an actual cartel member lol.