7 ms·
> This looks like a good way to spark real-life violence in what is otherwise a remarkably safe way to exchange drugs. The drug war is the antithetical to harm
by drawkbox 7y ago
> This looks like a good way to spark real-life violence in what is otherwise a remarkably safe way to exchange drugs.
The drug war is the antithetical to harm reduction and safety in production and use. The only solution to the drug war is decriminalization, legalization and improved health systems for harm reduction.
Most of the issue with the drug war and overdoses is in direct relation to drug illegality. Users get badly produced products, mixed with harsher drugs like fentanyl that are cheaper or people can't get them help due to the criminality of the policy. Drugs can be dangerous, the drug war and illegality makes them more dangerous and obliterates harm reduction. The hard line approach leads to more dangerous synthetics that only exist due to the illegality of the substances they are analogs to. Anyone taking drugs that is addicted and needs help, should get help, not felonies and put in a building with violent criminals, adding to problems problems doesn't solve anything.
Not only that, the drug war has diverted funds to mafias/cartels that have built them to the size of nation states, making the whole thing extra violent when it is mostly just a non-violent end result. We learned nothing from alcohol prohibition.
The drug war also makes respecting law and order a joke when drugs like marijuana, LSD, psilocybin and more are treated harshly, these are safe drugs with very low toxicity [1], lower than caffeine, aspirin and nicotine, and keep people from harsher substances.
Ultimately the drug war is a war on people and plants, that is part of a drug dark age we are in, that will look quite silly in retrospect from the future, same way alcohol prohibition looks today.
Alcohol is a drug, it is dangerous, but also fun, as long as there is harm reduction and information about it and it is produced safely. When alcohol was illegal, all of that, including production which led to explosions and production of deadly batches, was more dangerous being illegal than legal. It is also safer with the legal market running it rather than the mafia, the reverse is true in other illegal drugs.
Harm reduction, decriminalization, legalization and bringing a regulated market in will make all substances safer, markets around them efficiently work safety into the system when is has enough market value as there is liability that pushes producers to make safe products and information about harm reduction.
It is time to throw in the towel on the war on people and the human condition, then turn to a human/health/market focused solution rather than authoritarian enforcement solution. End the drug prohibition dark age. We need a Right to Body amendment that ends this prohibition and future attempts.
[1] https://imgur.com/gallery/Bkl9QeN https://imgur.com/gallery/Bkl9QeN
- beenBoutIT 7y agoI agree with what you're saying but that chart isn't accurate at all. GHB isnt toxic except at massive doses, it metabolizes into water and carbon dioxide and is a first-line prescription treatment for narcolepsy.
- nothrabannosir 7y agoReally? Wikipedia lists: > single doses over 7000 mg often causing life-threatening respiratory depression, and higher doses still inducing bradycardia and cardiac arrest. — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid As far as I know the danger with depressants is not necessarily poisoning but also cardiac and respiratory arrest. Do you know what the LD50 of GHB is meant to be? I can’t find it.
- beenBoutIT 7y agoThe typical nightly dose for adults is 6-9g and it doesn't cause respiratory depression. Wikipedia isn't a good source on its own. https://www.xyremhcp.com/xyrem-dosing-and-titrating-adults https://www.xyremhcp.com/xyrem-dosing-and-titrating-adults
- et2o 7y agoReplying to the other commentor: The very first listing on the box warning for Xyrem is respiratory depression.
- beenBoutIT 7y agoThe warning has to do with bad combinations. Sedatives/alcohol/etc mixed with GHB can cause respiratory depression and death. On its own 'GHB slows and deepens respiration (causing no net effect on blood gasses) and it slows heart rate'. https://life-enhancement.com/pages/the-truth-about-ghb-steven-fowkes-testifies-to-the-california-state-legislature-committee https://life-enhancement.com/pages/the-truth-about-ghb-steve...