Legalization of hard drugs doesn't work long term. If you provide all resources to people to enjoy opiates - they will have no incentive to quit. Why is this utopian view so persistent?
Many people, including myself, quit smoking normal cigarettes although it was highly addictive, because it was bad for health, not because of legality or cost. Of course opiates are a very different beast, but the point is that if someone wants to get drugs they will succeed, period. Expecting them to disappear just because they are made illegal is 100% fantasy. Legalizing drugs would move their production and sale in the open and more regulated markets, with less risks of them being made by improvised chemists in their basement, plus lower costs and much less involvement by organized crime which once prices drop would move to more lucrative businesses. remember what happened in the US when alcohol was banned: people searching for drinks would still find where to buy them, but it was organized crime that started making profits out of the ban.
Are you suggesting there should be no controlled chemicals? No pharmacist?
>Expecting them to disappear just because they are made illegal is 100% fantasy.
What if the expectation is for fewer people to use less of them due to higher hurdles?
No, that was not my point.
> What if the expectation is for fewer people to use less of them due to higher hurdles?
That's the very reason why "first dose is free". Many people are sucked into drugs consumption either for fun at parties or because they're lured into substances by "friends". Unfortunately, once they're dependent it's too late to put obstacles on their way.
This is what I advocate for. Probably way more killed by regulation here than saved. I recall accompanying someone in Mexico who had to get their life saving asthma medication in one of those unregulated pharmacies that don't ask questions, because they can't afford to see a doctor to get a prescription.
And alcohol can be used in quite a benign way. Good reason to think opioids would see an even larger decline as they are high impact and unlikely to be openly consumed for group socialization the way alcohol is.
You can argue for legalization but it is a fallacy to believe that prohibiting something is bad if you can't eliminate it 100%.
Yes, not _everyone_ will stop using opiates if they’re made legal. THAT'S THE POINT - more users will quit when provided resources and the ones who don’t quit are better off than they were before while they work toward sobriety if they choose.
It is hard enough to treat alcohol addiction, and that makes people feel awful. I am skeptical about broadly treating opiate addiction, which surely makes people feel much better than being high on alcohol.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-portugals-dru...
I don't think legality is the main thing incentivizing people to quit.
Today, virtually all of the ‘oxycontin’ that is used recreationally is actually fentanyl and binders that looks like an oxycontin. Unless it’s in a prescription bottle (and even then,) it’s almost certainly fentanyl.
> In 2023, DEA seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. The 2023 seizures are equivalent to more than 381 million lethal doses of fentanyl. [0]
If they seized 80 million, just imagine how many weren’t seized.
[0]https://www.dea.gov/onepill#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20DEA%20sei....
Why is that a problem exactly?
Also people quit smoking and drinking all the time, has nothing to do with it being legal.
So?
Then again, ideally the government would be hard at working making society nice enough to live in that people don't turn to opiates...