3 ms·

I'm not sure why you think anyone who disagrees with you hasn't done any reading on the topic. I based that inference not on the fact that you disagreed with m

I'm not sure why you think anyone who disagrees with you hasn't done any reading on the topic. I based that inference not on the fact that you disagreed with me; but on the quality of the arguments you were making. If you spend even a little time around a junkie it's not hard to see the logic behind making addictive substances illegal. I've personally known several heroin users, and have lived in neighborhoods that were chock full of them (in fact, quite famously so). Enough to know that (unless they choose to tell you), the vast majority of the time you'd have no idea they were using. It is in fact exactly these experiences which led me to study the problem more closely. So on balance I'd recommend looking at data and published studies, not just ones subjective experiences when interacting casually with (the most visible, worst case) users.

gozur88 10y ago
>I based that inference not on the fact that you disagreed with me; but on the quality of the arguments you were making. Oddly enough, I was thinking the same thing about your arguments. >I've personally known several heroin users, and have lived in neighborhoods that were chock full of them (in fact, quite famously so). Enough to know that (unless they choose to tell you), the vast majority of the time you'd have no idea they were using. Well, let me put it this way. I would rather have heroin be illegal than come home from work every day wondering if I would have a stereo to listen to. I wish I could live in a place where heroin users are normal people who inject a drug instead of the ones I've run across who would sell their own mothers for a dime bag.
- beat 10y ago
  If heroin was legal (and affordable), you wouldn't be worrying about your stereo. Your stereo is in danger because heroin is illegal - because it's expensive, and because you've already pushed users into criminal status, so what's one more crime? If you want to reduce property crime associated with drug addiction, legalization is absolutely the most effective path.
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  I would rather have heroin be illegal than come home from work every day wondering if I would have a stereo to listen to. Where you and I differ is on the fact that not only does that very rarely happen these days;† to the extent that it does, you're completely neglecting the possibility that there just might be a correlation between the factors that would drive someone to do that (namely, the astronomically inflated street price, as already mentioned; and the fact that these people are already forced to come into contact with criminal elements just to maintain their metabolism), and the illegal status of these substances. I wish I could live in a place where heroin users are normal people who inject a drug instead of the ones I've run across who would sell their own mothers for a dime bag. Again, where we differ is that you're consistently focusing on the extremal cases, and not the average cases. And on top of that, neglecting the factors that cause people to slip from "average" to "extremal" -- among which, in the view of people who have worked in this area very patiently for many years the illegal status of these substances is generally seen to be one of the major, if not the most significant contributing factor. †If it ever did happen as often as we like to believe it did in the 1970s.

gozur88 10y ago

>I based that inference not on the fact that you disagreed with me; but on the quality of the arguments you were making. Oddly enough, I was thinking the same thing about your arguments. >I've personally known several heroin users, and have lived in neighborhoods that were chock full of them (in fact, quite famously so). Enough to know that (unless they choose to tell you), the vast majority of the time you'd have no idea they were using. Well, let me put it this way. I would rather have heroin be illegal than come home from work every day wondering if I would have a stereo to listen to. I wish I could live in a place where heroin users are normal people who inject a drug instead of the ones I've run across who would sell their own mothers for a dime bag.

beat 10y ago
If heroin was legal (and affordable), you wouldn't be worrying about your stereo. Your stereo is in danger because heroin is illegal - because it's expensive, and because you've already pushed users into criminal status, so what's one more crime? If you want to reduce property crime associated with drug addiction, legalization is absolutely the most effective path.
kafkaesq 10y ago
I would rather have heroin be illegal than come home from work every day wondering if I would have a stereo to listen to. Where you and I differ is on the fact that not only does that very rarely happen these days;† to the extent that it does, you're completely neglecting the possibility that there just might be a correlation between the factors that would drive someone to do that (namely, the astronomically inflated street price, as already mentioned; and the fact that these people are already forced to come into contact with criminal elements just to maintain their metabolism), and the illegal status of these substances. I wish I could live in a place where heroin users are normal people who inject a drug instead of the ones I've run across who would sell their own mothers for a dime bag. Again, where we differ is that you're consistently focusing on the extremal cases, and not the average cases. And on top of that, neglecting the factors that cause people to slip from "average" to "extremal" -- among which, in the view of people who have worked in this area very patiently for many years the illegal status of these substances is generally seen to be one of the major, if not the most significant contributing factor. †If it ever did happen as often as we like to believe it did in the 1970s.