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Comment by wz1000 | Hacker News Reader

Most of the issues that afflict drug users stem from their illegality.

1. Drugs are frequently adulterated because of lack of any regulation. Adulterants are responsible for most of the side effects of heroin use. The only side effect of pure heroin is constipation.

2. Again, purity of drugs varies a lot, so there is no proper information available about dosages. This leads to overdoses.

3. Drug users are denied jobs and treatment, so they cannot get their lives on track even if they want to.

4. Money from drug sales is entirely in black, and is used to fuel further illegal activity.

5. Drug users don't have access to clean needles and safe paraphernalia, which leads to spread of blood-borne diseases and injuries.

All of these problems simply go away with legalization and regulation.

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That's a very cherry-picked list of problems.

* Drugs are addictive and expensive. Not all of this expense is due to costs of avoiding enforcement. This can and does drive users to poverty, which has its own correlation with crime outside of drug enforcement itself

* Not all overdosing is due to "no proper information available about dosages". I'd wager that few overdoses are from first-time users, so the overdoser has some information about their own previous dosages at the very least.

> Drug users are denied jobs and treatment, so they cannot get their lives on track even if they want to.

If the only problem with drugs is that they are illegal, why do they need treatment? Can we agree that an addict that wants treatment would need it whether the drug is legal or not? And that some people don't do it, or can't afford it, regardless of its legality (see: alcohol)?

I'm pro-legalisation, but you're hardly making a good case here by picking strawmen and showing how easy it is to beat them down.

> Not all overdosing is due to "no proper information available about dosages". I'd wager that few overdoses are from first-time users, so the overdoser has some information about their own previous dosages at the very least

The purity of drugs varies a lot, and a couple of missed steps of dilution and adulteration can easily lead to overdoses.

> If the only problem with drugs is that they are illegal, why do they need treatment? Can we agree that an addict that wants treatment would need it whether the drug is legal or not? And that some people don't do it, or can't afford it, regardless of its legality (see: alcohol)?

I didn't say all, I said "most" of the problem with drugs is that they are illegal.

The problem is that the current system does absolutely nothing to combat the problems both you and I mention. It is a huge waste of money, time, life and resources. Sticking addicts who need treatment in jail does nothing to solve the problem.

Legalization, harm-reduction and proper education seems to be the way to go. Current "abstinence-only" drug education simply doesn't cut it. Informing users about both the risks and benefits of drug use in an unbiased, non-judgemental way would be much more effective.

All this doesn't even take into account the philosophical argument that an adult should be free to put whatever they want into their own bodies. You can't stop people from making poor life decisions.

I'm pretty sure that you can still deny someone a job for being a drug user, even if the drugs are legal. In fact, several of those things aren't solved merely by legalization and regulation. Overdoses happen on legal, regulated drugs all the time. A lot of drug related complications are due to mixing substances, which is not solved by legalization or regulation. Clean needles and paraphernalia are not necessarily "solved' by regulation or legalization, clean needles are available right now in any drug store.

Overdoses would certainly be reduced by a large extent by legalization.

Also, drug education that is more rational and nuanced than "drugs are evil and will ruin your life" will go a long way in preventing the kinds you problems you talk about.

Illicit drugs are the minority of overdoses[1], so I don't see how your logic follows. If anything, they might increase.

1. http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/overdose/facts....

Overdoses would certainly be reduced by a large extent by legalization.

Not sure that's true. Look at all the deaths due to overdoses of prescription opiates. These drugs are pure, the exact dose, etc and people still take too much and die.

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