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Comment by pocksuppet | Hacker News Reader

What's wrong with both? Why can't we have public benches, and also not arrest drug users if they are sitting on the benches and smoking?

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Because sitting on benches quickly turns into living on benches. Then the drug dealers move in, because there's a ready customer base of drug users.

Then the productive members of society move out.

So basically the problem is that productive members of society and drug dealers are incapable of existing near to each other?

Why is that?

I pass by some drug dealers sometimes on the way to work. I don't see the problem. Occasionally I get asked if I want to buy some drugs. I don't want to buy drugs so nothing else happens.

> [why are] productive members of society and drug dealers incapable of existing near to each other?

Drug dealers are criminals. Criminals commit other crimes and attract other criminals and crime. For example, rival drug dealers who want to take their spot and use violence.

Seems like something decriminalizing drugs would solve then.

This only solves one problem (you don't get thrown in jail for using drugs), but there are other problems. Drug dealers and gangs still exist. The drug user doesn't know what he is actually buying. Overdoses are easy to do since you don't actually know what you bought.

The way to solve these issues is legalization and regulation.

So the problem is that someone who does one crime is a criminal and being a criminal means someone does every crime? For example, someone who removes DRM from a video game is a criminal, and therefore he also shoots people, so we have to put DRM removers in jail to decrease shooting deaths?

I have to admit, I'm not really following the logic there.

When you argue in bad faith like this you shouldn’t be surprised nobody takes you seriously.

Because you made a strawman out of their point. Reasonable people avoid drug markets for good reason.

Drug crimes and non-drug crimes (assault, robbery, x/y/z) commonly cluster[1], and citizens with working risk estimation skills move on and cede the space.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2719901/

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