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Comment by paulhauggis | Hacker News Reader

"I like to believe we're a culture that's willing to help people move past their mistakes to become productive members of society. I want to move the reality closer to that belief."

If you truly believe this, then you wouldn't want to have drug addicts in the first place. Making it easy to start very addicting drugs in the first place (like heroin) with little to no consequences means we will most likely have more addicts.

If you look at the stats on Portugal, lifetime addictions increased after drugs were de-criminalized. Legalizing it will make it even worse because it won't have any negative stigma.

It's very telling when a community that is supposed to be about honesty down votes me because they don't believe in my opinion. Without an honest discussion with all view points, your issues will never get solved.

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Does the real data from Portugal mean nothing to you? Every drug stat is down after legalizing and treating.

I really don't understand why people are so willing to punish others (and pay dearly to do it), but not to help, even if it is cheaper and more efficacious.

Did you read what I said? The drug stats are not down. It's created more addicts.

Why? Because when drugs are legalized/decriminalized, more people are willing to try it (which makes sense).

"I really don't understand why people are so willing to punish others"

Sorry, but drugs are a personal choice. If you can't accept the consequences that come along with it, you shouldn't be ingesting mind-altering or addictive drugs.

It's just that simple. I'm not even taking about putting people in jail or having harsher drug laws, just not having my tax dollars pay for their medical expenses.

"It's made more addicts"

Or maybe existing addicts feel more comfortable being identified now that they aren't going to jail?

"drugs are a personal choice"

In the US, drugs are not a personal choice. I'm fine with you saying you don't want to pay for treatment of drug users, but why are so many of those same people (I don't know if you are in this category) so willing to pay to incarcerate them, which has been shown to have much, much higher costs, both in terms of actual dollars and in term of social costs?

The fact that I can go to jail for a small amount of weed says drugs are absolutely not a personal choice. But you are right, they should be.

> "The drug stats are not down. It's created more addicts."

This isn't really correct, certainly not the way you've stated it. The data you're probably thinking of point to a slight rise in "lifetime use". Almost all of that is cannabis use. The only significant effect shown by the data is that there has been a ~5% rise in the number of people who regularly use cannabis, and are expected to continue in the future.

Twisting this into "created more addicts" is a bit tabloid, don't you think?

I would rather deal with more addicts who aren't afraid to seek help, and who have help available, than read about another massacre. Or kids being branded as criminals because of a stupid mistake. The addicts would end up dead or in a bad place if the object of the addiction is criminalized. A thousand addicts who can seek help is better than ten addicts who are driven deeper into poverty and crime.

" A thousand addicts who can seek help is better than ten addicts who are driven deeper into poverty and crime."

a thousand people who wouldn't have tried drugs in the first place to get addicted is better than 10 addicts who wanted to use drugs because it feels good.

Just a technical point here. Most people who get addicted to opiates start with prescription drugs. Heroin is a lot harder to get than Tylenol with codeine or vicodin. Also, the typical opiate abuse is by non addicts who mix alcohol and the opiate.

The irony of the community down voting this is fantastic!

What's ironic about it? You posted incorrect information and were accordingly downvoted.

The irony of the community down voting this is fantastic!

These two comments don't contribute to the discussion, hence these two will get down voted. If you want to contribute, contribute, but posting comments like these don't further intelligent discussion.

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