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> You think there's a large amount of potential drug users who will suddenly start abusing as soon as drugs are legalised? The opiod crisis already is quite s

> You think there's a large amount of potential drug users who will suddenly start abusing as soon as drugs are legalised? The opiod crisis already is quite severe. And yet most opioids are illegal. I doubt making them legal will decrease usage. Also, if they were legal, big pharma companies would see them as business opportunities. Things could get ugly fast.

TallGuyShort 9y ago
I'm not following any of the logic here. Big pharma companies are already making a killing on a significant portion of the opioid addiction epidemic. They're legally (but perhaps irresponsibly) prescribed by a doctor, and either become abused by the intended patient or subsequently depart from those legal channels. The opioid crisis isn't the only crisis. America hovers around being the 1st or 2nd worst incarceration rate in the world, and it's predominantly non-violent drug offenses. Friend of mine just lost a job offer they had provisionally because of a tiny marijuana possession charge from years ago, and that's happened to them over and over again. If your best argument in favor of continuing to ruin people lives over something so petty is "big pharma will make money off of opioids", I call bullshit. edit: I would also argue that in your analogy, there is almost no water built up behind that dam, and getting rid of the dam would hardly be noticeable downstream. We can't even keep drugs out of prisons very well. I live in a town that hasn't had a single case of violent crime in 13 years, and yet I know exactly where I could go and buy some heroin right this very minute if I wanted to. I know where in the Bay Area I could buy some meth if I wanted to. And these are locations that have been repeatedly raided by the cops, but the selling of drugs at those locations doesn't stop, because someone else who recently finished their sentence will just take over while the person who got busted servers theirs. I was in a concert venue last night with cops, and weed, everywhere. Freaking out about the weed, but no one caring about people having 6 or 7 beers and then getting in their cars to drive home drunk at 1am. The dam makes zero sense to me.
castis 9y ago
decriminalization is not legalization.

TallGuyShort 9y ago

I'm not following any of the logic here. Big pharma companies are already making a killing on a significant portion of the opioid addiction epidemic. They're legally (but perhaps irresponsibly) prescribed by a doctor, and either become abused by the intended patient or subsequently depart from those legal channels. The opioid crisis isn't the only crisis. America hovers around being the 1st or 2nd worst incarceration rate in the world, and it's predominantly non-violent drug offenses. Friend of mine just lost a job offer they had provisionally because of a tiny marijuana possession charge from years ago, and that's happened to them over and over again. If your best argument in favor of continuing to ruin people lives over something so petty is "big pharma will make money off of opioids", I call bullshit. edit: I would also argue that in your analogy, there is almost no water built up behind that dam, and getting rid of the dam would hardly be noticeable downstream. We can't even keep drugs out of prisons very well. I live in a town that hasn't had a single case of violent crime in 13 years, and yet I know exactly where I could go and buy some heroin right this very minute if I wanted to. I know where in the Bay Area I could buy some meth if I wanted to. And these are locations that have been repeatedly raided by the cops, but the selling of drugs at those locations doesn't stop, because someone else who recently finished their sentence will just take over while the person who got busted servers theirs. I was in a concert venue last night with cops, and weed, everywhere. Freaking out about the weed, but no one caring about people having 6 or 7 beers and then getting in their cars to drive home drunk at 1am. The dam makes zero sense to me.

castis 9y ago

decriminalization is not legalization.