I think it is long past time to legalize cocaine. Why should Americans be forced to spend so much money to have it smuggled in?
However I suspect the drug dealers won’t just disappear, but move on to other substances. Hopefully the market for those will be smaller but I have no idea. Thinking of synthetic drugs.
And for the most part, synthetic drugs are a reaction to prohibition, either to stay ahead of substances that have been scheduled as illegal or to provide drugs that can be made in-region to avoid the risk of smuggling. There is little organic demand for such drugs, and it would be much safer if people had access to pure forms of their drug of choice, i.e. cocaine and heroin
We really need to be able to explore these compounds and their pharmacodynamics, they can teach us so much about the brain
Isn't crack made from cocaine? Didn't crack destroy many communities, neighborhoods, cities, families, etc...? Aren't we as a society still struggling with the long term effects of this crisis?
What's to stop a similar kind of crisis if cocaine was legalized? Why wouldn't a significant number of users turn to its more formidable (my assumption) and potent form if cocaine was legalized?
Just to clarify, I'm not arguing that cocaine shouldn't be legalized, just genuinely curious.
In general the negative effects of most any drug are best fought with education, regulation, and treatment, not prohibition. Cocaine and crack were illegal in the 80s and 90s when the crack epidemic raged, so obviously legal status was not preventing such crises in the first place. The important factors there were more around support of impoverished communities than tepid laws that serve only to further the cycle of social disruption caused by petty arrests and adversarial tension between police and downtrodden communities and the empowerment of gangs by creating a thriving black market.
The struggles we’re having related to crack or other drugs are related to a great many things aside from the drug itself, prohibition itself causing some of the largest problems on a global scale. What if Mexico could have cocaine as a legitimate export? Would we have violent cartels or legitimate businesses that improve the community (though surely they’d also leach as businesses are wont to do, but surely less violently than illegal organizations)? I’d posit the latter, though the transition from one to the other won’t be smooth.
I didn't mean to imply that it would. But from what I "know", crack is very easy to "cook" from cocaine, and is much more potent and addictive in this form. Throw cocaine in the microwave, something, something, and you have crack... So what's to stop anyone with a microwave from producing their own crack from legally regulated and obtained cocaine, and why would they want to do that instead of just using the cocaine as is? Were you suggesting that bc it's purer crack (nothing added to increase potency or mass), it's not an issue?
I also understand how crack was weaponized against certain communities, minorities, vulnerable and "undesirable" groups of citizens...
but again, I just wonder why and if individuals would start to synthesize their own crack if cocaine was legalized.
So what happened to crack? That's a fair question. It's much less commonly used today than 30 years ago. My impression is that the American legal changes probably had some influence in suppressing it. Laws which make it much cheaper and safer to hold cocaine rather than crack obviously dis-incentivize producing the freebase form until the final consumer. And a new user is unlikely to go through the hassle of attempting to perfect cooking crack with their first gram of coke. So a simple influence there about the method of consuming the drug may have done a lot of the work. Here in Canada, we had no legal changes in the 80s/90s during the so-called crack epidemic. (We treat crack cocaine like cocaine, legally.) Crack's use waxed and waned with its popularity in American culture. The crack epidemic is also part of a much larger story about North American urban decay and shifting economic patterns. The conditions that gave birth to it are no longer true, so one wouldn't expect it to necessarily repeat.
At least not in the same form. The epidemic of cheap inhaled stimulant abuse you are worried about is arguably happening right now with methamphetamine, anyway.
It is not the same thing. Drugs are still illegal in Portugal, and trafficking is a crime, but personal use is not a criminal offense anymore. If you get caught, you can get fined, especially if you are uncooperative, but you won't face a criminal trial and you won't go to jail. But more importantly, they can suggest treatment options if you are addicted.
You won't get safe unadulterated drugs but you can get testing kits. In festivals, you can find booths where they will check your drugs for free.
I don't know how I feel about legalizing all drugs. Heroin is nasty stuff, even if you get the good one, and I would rather not encourage using stimulants stronger than caffeine in our overworked society.
> Coca-Cola includes a coca leaf extract as an ingredient prepared by a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey. The facility, which had been known as the Maywood Chemical Works, was purchased by Stepan in 1959. The plant is the only commercial entity in the United States authorized by the Drug Enforcement Administration to import coca leaves, which come primarily from Peru via the National Coca Company. Approximately 100 metric tons of dried coca leaf are imported each year. The cocaine-free extract is sold to The Coca-Cola Company for use in soft drinks, while the cocaine is sold to Mallinckrodt, a pharmaceutical firm, for medicinal purposes.