4 ms·

The problem you elide is that switching from A to B, as the US has done, can take a lot of time. In the transition, you drive the usage of illegal drugs throug

The problem you elide is that switching from A to B, as the US has done, can take a lot of time. In the transition, you drive the usage of illegal drugs through the roof and spike the number of deaths. It's possible that these behaviors, once prevalent, take generations to switch out of, by which time, it's entirely possible that our formulation of drugs will be better. So even if B would be better now, it's possible that our transition from A to B is pointless (the problem would have solved itself in the same time) and leads to a worse outcome than just remaining with plan A. This kind of secondary analysis is usually totally missing from these debates, but is what is actually driving the harm of the opioid crisis.

brianwawok 10y ago
For sure, this is true about almost any kind of debate like this. One view is to say that you may need to have short term struggles to get to a long term better place. Which may be true, but it also depends if the new long term place is actually a better place - or did you do a lot of short term struggles for nothing?
joshjje 10y ago
Not to mention that that increase in illegal market usage gives more fuel to the fire for people to believe or be led to believe that more of the same restrictions are necessary, a self fulfilling prophecy almost. Of course its not that simple, but seems to be what happens.