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Well if it were done properly purity and dosage could be monitored along with people's condition leading to less fatalities and overall harm. Along with, as you
by mythrwy 8y ago
Well if it were done properly purity and dosage could be monitored along with people's condition leading to less fatalities and overall harm. Along with, as you say, removing the criminal element.
Obviously a free for all probably isn't a great idea. But that's kind of what we have now isn't it? With the added bonus of jailing a few randos from time to time and absolutely no control over any of it.
I realize these drugs are dangerous and addictive. Not sure there is an easy answer. If we really could ban them, sure, that would be great, but are we willing to do what it takes to do that? No, people would scream bloody murder, our society isn't set up for that kind of liberty infringement. But apparently it isn't set up for compassionate rational approaches either, so we will continue to pump money into swat teams and other half assed authoritative wack a mole measures which seem unlikely to ever really fix the problem.
Meanwhile society as a whole suffers a plague of junkie fallout and likely winds up paying much more than they would would with a compassionate rational approach.
I feel like I need to say, taking these kind of things in the first place is a bad idea imo, but people are doing it. So what do we do?
- Nasrudith 8y agoI think one good answer for a stop gap is physicians being allowed to perscribe anything with only outright malpractice as a limit without any imposed tautologies. A physician could say perscribe heroin to help an addict taper off or even to someone new and ask why they want to start and offer healthier doses while still being permitted to dispense according to judgement. For terminal patients or chronic pain cases near suicide it may legitimately be the best option in their case. Medicine is all about "normally it would be a bad idea (amputation) but because the alternative (certainly fatal sepsis pre-antibiotics) is even worse we are doing it". It would be a radical idea and put more pressure on doctors as a social system admittedly but it could be ideal for practicing medicine without dogmatic insistences codified into law despite evidence being increasingly clear they are wrong.
- DanBC 8y ago> I think one good answer for a stop gap is physicians being allowed to perscribe anything with only outright malpractice as a limit without any imposed tautologies. You know how the US crisis started, right?
- schrodinger 8y agoThat’s how people inadvertently became hooked. The parent is talking about new patients that are already hooked. It’s a different story; you don’t stop being an addict once you’re hooked because your doctor won’t prescribe it.
- DanBC 8y agoSure, but it demonstrates the problem of "let doctors prescribe whatever they want". Addicts are not helped by ever increasing doses of prescribed opioid medication. There's an argument to be made for maintainance doses until they're ready to stop, and then medically assisted detox, but neither of those are doctors prescribing with no controls.