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I can certainly intellectually understand why society has banned this. But don't you see that opiates only make people do these horrible things because they're
by adrusi 10y ago
I can certainly intellectually understand why society has banned this.
But don't you see that opiates only make people do these horrible things because they're banned!? Opiates don't turn people into devastatingly manipulative thieves, they turn them into people who will do anything to get opiates. If you changed two things, junkies would be no more likely to engage in destructive behaviors like theft than alcholic or smokers. Those two things are making opiates cheap and easy to get (regulate them like cigarettes, say), and eliminating the employment stigma. Opiates aren't great for productivity, but they are much less of an impairment than alcohol, and alcoholics are almost always functional unless they also suffer mental health issues. Opiates slow down thoughts and movements somewhat, and they make you feel really good, but they don't make you stupid or rash like alcohol.
That's not to say that there wouldn't be problems with opiates. You'd probably have as many people on opiates on the road as we currently have drunk drivers (again, they probably wouldn't be as bad, because while opiates slow reaction times and reduce alertness, they don't make the user think they can do things they can't). And junkies would probably still squander their potential to an extent, and mothers of brilliant children who take up opiates instead of going to college might be devastated. But I think most of the new addicts that would be created by legalization would be people who would otherwise become alcoholics, people just looking for an escape, and society prefering clean opiates over alcohol would do wonders for public health.
- vonklaus 10y agoI understand this more than most. The solution that fits best with my experience and ideology is probably a combination of a few things. Just to caveat, this is a thought experiment and while a lot has been done, there is so much friction it is absurd. I would like to see heroin decriminalized with specific designated zones (cities/towns) which fully supply and allow heroin use. If you are caught with heroin outside of a zone you must pay a fine. If you can't pay you are offered rehab or transportation to the administration zone. Zones provide free narcotics and needles, ect and have adjacent treatment and medical facilities. This experiment has been run and was somewhat successful. The thought process in my above statement is that broke heroin users can not interact with society. If a user wants to simply do heroin, there can be a designated development/town that allows it. If a user is outside of the zone, they must have the money to pay a fine (stay well) or they need to go to rehab or a place that allows drugs. That way, normal people can interact and many users can function in society. If they can not they will be supplied with drugs outside of society until they regain financial independence or make the decision to enter treatment. However, since this is impossible, I do not expect a legit solution to ever be implemented and thus am not sure where I land. So I would support efforts that compromise in a similar way to my above solution, but really not worth thinking much about as the gov (in US) has not even legally recognized recreational marijuana.