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The hard drugs have ugly consequences for their users, and for their society as a whole. Look at how the Japanese in WWII legalized all drugs in China, and made

The hard drugs have ugly consequences for their users, and for their society as a whole. Look at how the Japanese in WWII legalized all drugs in China, and made heroin, in particular, cheap and easily available; they wanted to corrode the substance of Chinese civil society, and they did.

tracker1 10y ago
On the flip side, this drug and marajuana have marginal negative affects beyond being reactionally impared, which being very tired can also do. Are they going to outlaw being awake for more than 20 hours next?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
mcbits 10y ago
My rule of thumb is, "would I rather be in a room full of people on X (a variable, not the drug) or a room full of people on beer?" If the answer is X, which it almost always is, then I would rather make X more legally and socially acceptable than beer.
ajmurmann 10y ago
Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and they seem to be doing very well with it and have very few drug overdose related deaths. They have [3 deaths per million citizens](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-dies-from-a-drug-overdose-in-portugal/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-h...). I wouldn't be surprised if we had more drug enforcement related deaths in the US.
- cshimmin 10y ago
  Portugal is also a _much_ smaller country, with less wealth inequality and systematic racial/socioeconomic divisions related to crime, poverty, drug use, etc. I'm not saying we shouldn't relax the drug laws in the US, but I don't think it's fair to assume that just because it works in Portugal it would work just as well here.
  - tormeh 10y ago
    Yes, but now you have to show why it won't work in the US.
chillacy 10y ago
Turns out jailing addicts, even those addicted to hard drugs, has ugly consequences for its users and society as a whole too.

tracker1 10y ago

On the flip side, this drug and marajuana have marginal negative affects beyond being reactionally impared, which being very tired can also do. Are they going to outlaw being awake for more than 20 hours next?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

mcbits 10y ago

My rule of thumb is, "would I rather be in a room full of people on X (a variable, not the drug) or a room full of people on beer?" If the answer is X, which it almost always is, then I would rather make X more legally and socially acceptable than beer.

ajmurmann 10y ago

Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and they seem to be doing very well with it and have very few drug overdose related deaths. They have [3 deaths per million citizens](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-dies-from-a-drug-overdose-in-portugal/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-h...). I wouldn't be surprised if we had more drug enforcement related deaths in the US.

cshimmin 10y ago
Portugal is also a _much_ smaller country, with less wealth inequality and systematic racial/socioeconomic divisions related to crime, poverty, drug use, etc. I'm not saying we shouldn't relax the drug laws in the US, but I don't think it's fair to assume that just because it works in Portugal it would work just as well here.
- tormeh 10y ago
  Yes, but now you have to show why it won't work in the US.

chillacy 10y ago

Turns out jailing addicts, even those addicted to hard drugs, has ugly consequences for its users and society as a whole too.