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This sounds like the right thing to do. But in practice, a lot is going to depend on how the legal system deals with "dealers". When you say "drug dealer", mos
by jakobegger 9y ago
This sounds like the right thing to do. But in practice, a lot is going to depend on how the legal system deals with "dealers".
When you say "drug dealer", most people think of some gangster type who makes a lot of money by exploiting poor addicts. But that's not the reality.
If you use drugs, and you don't have a job, selling a bit of the stuff is the most obvious way to make some money. So a lot of drug users will become drug dealers as well. I think that these people need help as well; putting them in jail doesn't help anyone.
But it can get even worse. Imagine that you are a drug user, and you need some drugs. So you ask a friend, who is also a drug user, if they have any left, and if you can buy it off of them. Boom, they're a dealer now as well.
So in reality, a large part of drug users are going to be drug dealers as well. If you decriminalise drug use, but keep prison sentences for dealing, a lot will hinge on the question what makes someone a dealer.
- nubbins 9y agoThis seems like an error in the law if there is no minimum quantity or any other kind of test for who is a "dealer". I sold some speakers once but that doesn't make me a Hi-fi dealer.
- runeks 9y agoThe error in the law would be if selling some speakers once is okay, but opening a hi-fi store is punishable with jail time. If we agree that consuming drugs is fine, then why are we simultaneously trying to put dealers and distributors in jail? What’s the point?
- simonh 9y agoPlease read the article or read up on the Portuguese model, it makes points like this clear. Using drugs is not considered fine, it is still subject to psychological evaluations, warnings and escalating sanctions such as fines and passport confiscation aside from medical treatment. It’s treated as an administrative infraction, like a speeding ticket or a parking fine and not a criminal offence. The other aspect not mentioned in the article is that in Portugal dealing in ‘paraphrenalia’ is not an offence. This is important because it allows charities and clinics to provide clean needles, dramatically reducing drug related infections. Aside from these policies greatly reducing drug use overall, it’s this change that is responsible for a magnified effect in reducing the infection and death rates.
- jrs95 9y agoAt least around where I am, the police tend to threaten these people with extreme penalties when arrested in order to get them to give up their supplier in exchange for a much lighter sentence. So decriminalizing small time dealing will make it more difficult to prosecute the people who really are the gangster types.
- LeoNatan25 9y agoIf drugs are legalized—truly legalized—the need for “gangster types” diminishes and all that is left is supply and demand.
- jrs95 9y agoThis is true, and I think there are a lot of ways in which that would improve things. Has anyone really taken it this far though?
- eru 9y agoThe US has: there were lots of criminal types in the alcohol business in the 1930s. Now there are virtually gone.
- megaman22 9y agoSeriously, without prohibition in the first place, so much of the police/industrial complex never would have come into existence.
- eecc 9y agoYou’re conflating. It’s “military/industrial complex” as Eisenhower called it. You’re probably referring to the “prison industrial complex”, the influential lobby of private prisons.
- jrs95 9y agoWhile this is true, it's not good enough to just assume that drugs are the same as alcohol because alcohol is a drug.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoI don't think I've ever met a drug dealer who wasn't getting high off their own supply (whatever supply that might be). Most dealers are basically dealing to pay for their own habits.
- JackFr 9y ago> If you use drugs, and you don't have a job, selling a bit of the stuff is the most obvious way to make some money. That's interesting - it points to something special about drugs. Most people I know without jobs eat, but they're not inclined to become grocers to make a little on the side. It seems there's some scarcity introduced because dealing is illegal. The unintended consequence of legalization might be the elimination of the casual dealer.
- qz_ 9y agoI don't know about this. Weed is semi-legal in The Netherlands but people who deal "on the side" are still very common.
- xocyabencl 9y agoAre the "on the side" dealers selling the same stuff as the semi-legal dealers? Why does anyone not use the semi-legal dealers?
- phreeza 9y agoProbably something to do with the transaction costs and margins that can be achieved.