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This sounds reasonable, but is oversimplified. OD deaths are up by a factor of three since the feds cracked down on cheap vicodin and oxy. The drug war has als

by elipsey 11y ago

This sounds reasonable, but is oversimplified. OD deaths are up by a factor of three since the feds cracked down on cheap vicodin and oxy. The drug war has also killed huge numbers of people in other countries, harmed civil liberties at home, and cost a lot of actual dollars. I think it doesn't look like agood deal unless you omit some of those costs. Friedman addresses this point better than I can. You might enjoy this debate on drug criminalization between Friedman and the former governer Pete Wilson of CA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIznGX7sCqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIznGX7sCqQ

67726e 11y ago
Heroin is cheap, pills are high in price. Folks move from pills to heroin and OD. Your point supports the parent claim perfectly.
- elipsey 11y ago
  >>Folks move from pills to heroin and OD I think you have that backwards, and most people go the other direction. Here's a pretty good documentary in which users describe their experiences: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/chasing-heroin/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/chasing-heroin/ It seems to be quite common to become addicted to legally perscribed opiod analgesics, and move to black market drugs when access is limited. Also, pills are cheap when you get them from a doctor. Heroin is cheap compared to black market pills. Which comparison are we making? I think demand for opiods from addicts is somewhat inelastic; this is why so many people start by getting addicted to inexpensive legally perscribed pills, and then end up doing crime to pay for herion, which I believe costs $200/gram or something similar (depending on location, dilution, etc.), where a serious user can easily do a gram a day. If simply making the price go up was going to help that person, we wouldn't have this problem. If anything, this is an argument for making people who aren't addicts yet pay a huge amount out of pocket for legally perscribed pain killers, which is an interesting, but probably infeasible idea. Returning to the big picture though, we're making black market opiods expensive as hard as we can, and OD deaths have still trippled in the last few years. It's not working, and even if it were, I don't think the external costs are this are morally acceptable.

by elipsey 11y ago

67726e 11y ago

Heroin is cheap, pills are high in price. Folks move from pills to heroin and OD. Your point supports the parent claim perfectly.

elipsey 11y ago
>>Folks move from pills to heroin and OD I think you have that backwards, and most people go the other direction. Here's a pretty good documentary in which users describe their experiences: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/chasing-heroin/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/chasing-heroin/ It seems to be quite common to become addicted to legally perscribed opiod analgesics, and move to black market drugs when access is limited. Also, pills are cheap when you get them from a doctor. Heroin is cheap compared to black market pills. Which comparison are we making? I think demand for opiods from addicts is somewhat inelastic; this is why so many people start by getting addicted to inexpensive legally perscribed pills, and then end up doing crime to pay for herion, which I believe costs $200/gram or something similar (depending on location, dilution, etc.), where a serious user can easily do a gram a day. If simply making the price go up was going to help that person, we wouldn't have this problem. If anything, this is an argument for making people who aren't addicts yet pay a huge amount out of pocket for legally perscribed pain killers, which is an interesting, but probably infeasible idea. Returning to the big picture though, we're making black market opiods expensive as hard as we can, and OD deaths have still trippled in the last few years. It's not working, and even if it were, I don't think the external costs are this are morally acceptable.