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Comment by graypegg | Hacker News Reader

Quite smart. From the headline I thought this was going to be officially sanctioned sources of drugs. (Drugs must pass thru some quality-control system set up by the government before being sold?) Which is clearly just the “high end” market, and the cheap many-times-cut drugs sold on the black market remain on the “low end” side.

Rather, it seems like this is setting up testing for CONSUMERS, that can come in, and ask if their sample meets new standards set by the government for the drug they want tested. A bit more formal than the music festival drug test tent.

The English title here on HN is kind of confusing. “Germany wants to introduce free analysis of drugs nationwide“ might be better than “quality control” (which implies factory production to me)

(Reading a translation, so take my opinion with a grain of bath-salts)

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From what I understood of the article, they're not introducing any "free analysis", they want to lift the ban on labs already doing these tests.

I’m not sure if that’s the case. I just saw the news about the state of berlin performing this free analysis with the only condition to attend a talk about safe consumption

Agreed. Anecdotally, my buddy's wife had a really bad experience, because her weed was laced with something. This is the main reason I would love to see some regulation of drug trade ( edit: some clarification may needed; legalize and then ensure it is clean and it is what it says on the container ).

Not that it is panacea. Anecdotally, IL has legalized weed and edibles are extremely inconsistent in terms of what they contain ( it says it should x, but it can easily be 2x or .05x -- it is infuriating given really high tax on those ).

Still, I believe it is a step forward.

Assuming that 'IL' means US-Illinois, not sure if Israel has legalized.

On the case of US-IL, the problem is that there's no competition (after 3 YEARS), because of the obvious corruption in the process from the beginning. But I wholly expected this considering how Illinois politics works. I live in a central Illinois college town (2 full Universities) and we have 2 dispensaries, both owned by the same company. A comparable city in Colorado, Boulder has 8.

Sounds interesting but not sure if it holds under scrutiny. How does this work to shrink the black market? It feels to me that it would just help boost it.

The goal here is not to shrink the black market. It's harm reduction.

I see that but

I see that but they have to consider all the consequences. Harm reduction on its own is nice but a big problem with drugs is organized crime.

Plus, I don't believe that harm reduction without rehab efforts is good because it simply encourages addicts to keep using. I think it needs to be combined with another effort to help get addicts clean.

> , I don't believe that harm reduction without rehab efforts is good because it simply encourages addicts to keep using.

This is serious misunderstanding. Less than 50% of users are addicts. Usage of LSD, Magic shrooms and MDMA is usually for occasional entertainment, like at raves and festivals. People don't get addicted to shooms, and people dont generally consume 'party drugs' alone at home.

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