Portugal tried this approach and in practice it did not work very well ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/07/portugal-dru... ). The Netherlands are also going back on this.
Portugal is great. Don’t let someone who works for Bezos tell you otherwise.
That’s what SF struggles with. You need to provide addicts with a free, safe supply to stabilize the situation and prevent addicts from committing crimes to pay for their habit. Most illicit drugs are dirt cheap to produce. This would cost us a pittance. Then you need to provide support. Detox and maintenance drugs like suboxone. You need mental and physical healthcare. You need environments recovering addicts can live in, and then need to have a future. This means they need to be able to work. This is a big part. When felons can’t find work, things seem hopeless and they are very likely to relapse. We do everything we can in this country to set addicts up for failure. I honestly believe policy makers and law enforcement officials think the only good addict is a dead one. And we need a lot more research. I believe eventually, we can medically solve compulsive behaviors, but the incentives aren’t there right now.
And yes, all this would cost a lot of money. But we already pay and insane amount of money to not solve this problem. Law Enforcement consumes billions and billions. Billions of not trillions of dollars are funneled into the pockets of drug dealers. All the money lost due to adjacent criminal activity. And all the medical costs because we don’t help these people until it so bad that they are in crisis. Not to mention, you shouldn’t just ignore an epidemic because it is hard or expensive.
The problem in America is that we don’t want to address it. We don’t like to help people with “ugly” medical problems. We only like the good patients. Anyone with a disease that causes adverse social behaviors need to “help themselves”. Or at least they shouldn’t be allowed to be visible, even if it means they have to die.
This is the missing step in the Portugal model.
Want free drugs? The government will provide that if you demonstrate addiction with a drug test, and be willing to tell the police where you got the drugs. For plausible deniability, perhaps only 10% of addicts are actually asked.
Drug dealers can't compete with free. Drug addicts will eventually cave and get the supply. Vigorously prosecute the property crimes addicts use to get high.
Once the drug dealers are out of a job, you can start tagging the drugs so they appear as government-issued on the drug test, and start tapering the supply for everyone.
You will probably never get to zero that way, but you can eradicate most of the crime at a fraction of the cost of the current policing and healthcare support methods.
I know you can get quite a serious charge (in other countries) and make out okay in NL. You could kill someone and be working a good job on the outside in 2-10 years.