Comment by kenjackson 2 days ago
I actually think more people would use if it were legal. Maybe not immediately but over time it would become more normalized. Regular joe character in tv shows would just use heroine. It would be available at college parties next to kegs. Etc…. And heroine companies (now that it’s legal) would find ways to market their drugs even if direct advertising isn’t legal.
I've been saying the same thing for years. Everything should be legal, prohibition just causes more problems. We learned this lesson with alcohol already.
Making it legal we could have things sold over the counter in pharmacies with proper age checks, we could even require further checks like before you can purchase heroin you need to go through a process where it is explained how it works, what a reasonable dose is, what side effects are, how addictive it is etc.
Same with other stuff. Most drugs are quite safe and harmless if done by people who know what they're doing. Of course self destructive people and morons would still harm themselves but honestly I'm not too worried about that. They will always find ways to harm themselves.
At least drug users wouldn't be funding cartels and warlords etc.
Sure. Alcohol does too. We made it illegal, it only worsened problems.
It’s a balance sheet and you can’t just look at the debits and not the credits.
I already addressed this. Drugs are currently illegal and yet millions of people are destroying their lives with drugs right now. So clearly, prohibition does not solve this problem. I could buy heroin right now, on a a Sunday when most stores are closed in my country, within an hour. The only difference is I wouldn't know if it was cut with fentanyl and other adulterants, they wouldn't care about selling to youth, etc.
It can be legal and tightly controlled at the same time. Here in my European country it's perfectly legal to prescribe opiates but after 3rd prescription (regardless of what opiate it was) a patient has to go for mandatory psychiatric evaluation. This has put potential opiate abuser on the radar in a meaningful way. Legalisation doesn't mean free for all just like alcohol.
You don't understand human psychology very well then.
I don’t think that’s true of heroin to a large extent, but I do think it would be true of cocaine, psychedelics, and other drugs. But regardless, I think the overall effect would be net harm mitigation given all the downsides of making it illegal. Funding violent crime at home and abroad, stigmatizing it and deterring treatment, overdoses from unsafe supply, etc. It’s entirely possible that more people would use it and it would still result in less harm to society.