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If dealers pull drugs that cause deaths, could we make progress in the War on Drugs by having government agents sneak poison into the illegal drug supply? The

by csense 8y ago

If dealers pull drugs that cause deaths, could we make progress in the War on Drugs by having government agents sneak poison into the illegal drug supply? The idea here is that dealers would stop selling drug after drug as the death toll mounts. If they chose to keep selling, the deaths would presumably make the drugs easier to trace. I'm not sure if it would be legal or ethical for the government to do this. But they did it to alcohol during Prohibition.

tfha 8y ago
"could we make progress in the way on drugs by killing drug users?" No, that would not be progress
slavik81 8y ago
The point of making opiods illegal in the first place was to protect drug users from themselves. From that perspective, it seems counter-productive to murder them.
_Nat_ 8y ago
In general, you can write off pretty much any idea that involves poisoning children as unethical. That death tolls from the [opioid crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic) have been rising is a problem that people've been trying to mitigate, not further. It is a bit strange to consider that we still do poison alcohol to prevent, say, people from drinking mouthwash (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol): > Denatured alcohol, also called methylated spirit (in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom) or denatured rectified spirit, is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, bad-tasting, foul-smelling, or nauseating to discourage recreational consumption. Unfortunately, despite a widespread cultural understanding that it's dangerous to consume denatured alcohols like mouthwash, some folks still do (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogate_alcohol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogate_alcohol): > Surrogate alcohol is a term for any substance containing ethanol that is intentionally consumed by humans but is not meant for human consumption. [...] Most people turn to these as a last resort either out of desperation, being underaged or being unable to afford consumable alcoholic beverages (with homeless alcoholics) or due to lack of access to drinking ethanol (for example with prison inmates and individuals in psychiatric wards).

by csense 8y ago

tfha 8y ago

"could we make progress in the way on drugs by killing drug users?" No, that would not be progress

slavik81 8y ago

The point of making opiods illegal in the first place was to protect drug users from themselves. From that perspective, it seems counter-productive to murder them.

_Nat_ 8y ago

In general, you can write off pretty much any idea that involves poisoning children as unethical. That death tolls from the [opioid crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic) have been rising is a problem that people've been trying to mitigate, not further. It is a bit strange to consider that we still do poison alcohol to prevent, say, people from drinking mouthwash (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol): > Denatured alcohol, also called methylated spirit (in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom) or denatured rectified spirit, is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, bad-tasting, foul-smelling, or nauseating to discourage recreational consumption. Unfortunately, despite a widespread cultural understanding that it's dangerous to consume denatured alcohols like mouthwash, some folks still do (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogate_alcohol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogate_alcohol): > Surrogate alcohol is a term for any substance containing ethanol that is intentionally consumed by humans but is not meant for human consumption. [...] Most people turn to these as a last resort either out of desperation, being underaged or being unable to afford consumable alcoholic beverages (with homeless alcoholics) or due to lack of access to drinking ethanol (for example with prison inmates and individuals in psychiatric wards).