9 ms·
I'm not sure where you are getting your estimate that 10-20% of the population would be addicted to morphine if most drugs were legalized in the USA today. If
by touchofevil 10y ago
I'm not sure where you are getting your estimate that 10-20% of the population would be addicted to morphine if most drugs were legalized in the USA today. If you look at the stats on Portugal, you'll see that drug use and drug related deaths have declined since the country legalized all drugs[1].
Also, morphine was only invented around 1818 and its addictive properties were not understood until much later[2]. For example, "...initially morphine was also marketed as a non-addictive cure for addiction to both alcohol and opium..." That was happening in 1853, nearly 40 years after the invention of morphine.
In the article you linked to, the author states that many of the morphine addicts of the 1900s were people in rural communities who were sold "elixirs" by traveling "doctors" and these potions were often 50% morphine. Which causes the author to state: "...if you look at drug addiction in 1900, what's the number one way in which it is different than drug addiction today? Answer: Almost all addiction at the turn of the century was accidental."
If drugs were legalized, consumers would not be getting accidentally addicted to morphine as they were in the 1900s, because they would be able to know for certain what drugs they were buying and ingesting.
[1] https://mic.com/articles/110344/14-years-after-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening#.ldEGEaPU2 https://mic.com/articles/110344/14-years-after-portugal-decr...
[2] http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/09/invented-morphine/ http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/09/invented-mor...
- mirimir 10y ago10-20% is my estimate. 50% morphine is only about three times opium potency. I'm talking legalized, not just decriminalized. I doubt that there are any morphine sodas for sale in Portugal. With viral Facebook promotion featuring tunes from Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.
- touchofevil 10y agoI assume that the same rules that prevent cigarettes from being advertised would also apply to legalized drugs.
- mirimir 10y agoThey don't apply very effectively to big pharma, do they?
- touchofevil 10y agoBig pharma is allowed to run ads b/c they aren't advertising recreational drugs which is different from cigarettes and the proposed recreational drugs we are discussing.
- mirimir 10y agoThose ads about erectile dysfunction seem pretty recreational to me.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y agoThe idea that smoking cigarettes is a form of recreation seems comical to me. But then, as a non-smoking Australian... Have you seen our cigarette packaging?
- mirimir 10y agoHey, try it, you'll like it ;) I smoked hand-rolled Sobranie Turkish/Virginia blend when I could afford it, and whatever I could afford, otherwise. For about 20 years. Nicotine isn't exactly recreational, but it does take the edge off that "too much coffee" feeling. Especially if you've been working more than several hours. And it does sharpen the mind, sort of orthogonal to caffeine. I've had some profound insights after coffee and a cigarette. On the other hand, there's the fact that quitting is very hard. Harder than opiates. Harder than benzodiazepines. And the long-term health effects, of course, are horrible.
- mirimir 10y agoAddiction is always accidental. The first one's free, as they say.