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I agree that the war on drugs was a failure. But is your position that whatever people want to do, you should not try to prevent it? What are your positions o
by supernova87a 6y ago
I agree that the war on drugs was a failure.
But is your position that whatever people want to do, you should not try to prevent it? What are your positions on applying that logic to carbon emissions, letting people work for less than minimum wage, companies putting out products that people buy willingly but are non-repairable?
Should government step out of those areas too? People want to do all those things.
- crispyporkbites 6y agoThose things have large negative externalities that the individual doesn’t pay for. Drugs don’t really have that- unless you make them high cost and illegal.
- ip26 6y agoThat isn't quite true, addiction has a high social cost. Hurts relationships, breaks families apart, and increases national medical spending.
- intricatedetail 6y agoSome drugs do cause problems like alcohol, but for other drugs issues come from legal status rather than drugs themselves. I know plenty of people who take cannabis multiple times a day and they have great lives.
- anonAndOn 6y agoIf you think medical spending is high (pun intended), you should see what incarceration costs, perhaps 10x as much.[0] [0]https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-abuse-treatment-criminal-justice-populations-research-based-guide/providing-drug-abuse-treatment-to-offenders-worth-financial-investment https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-abuse...
- refurb 6y agoAlcohol has massive externalities and it’s legal.
- tomatocracy 6y agoMany things in life and in politics are not a case of “good” vs “bad” but of “bad” vs “worse”. I think it’s quite acceptable to think that legalisation might be the least worst policy there is even for hard drugs. Yes it will have negative effects but they may be less bad on aggregate than the alternative. The same may well be true for the other examples you cite (I tend to personally believe not but it doesn’t mean it’s not a balancing act or that I’m right) - but I suspect that a lot of these things are also all likely to have quite a lot of local situational differences in determining which is worse.
- intricatedetail 6y agoYour example is wrong. I am talking about natural instincts. Any intelligent specie seeks for ways to alter their consciousness (or whatever close they have). Google about dolphins getting high...
- hwillis 6y ago> But is your position that whatever people want to do, you should not try to prevent it? ?? This does not resemble the way anyone has been talking about these issues. You're being downvoted because you're projecting an extreme binary that does not resemble reality. Programs like DARE are not on the ballot and are presumably still well-supported. People aren't convincing each other that drugs have no negative impact. Alcohol being legal doesn't mean nobody tries to prevent its use or abuse. Alcohol and tobacco are still legal despite both causing more deaths and harm than all other drugs combined: https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/alcohol-facts-and-statistics#:~:text=Alcohol%2DRelated%20Deaths https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sh...
- vips7L 6y ago> But is your position that whatever people want to do, you should not try to prevent it? Are you asking what our opinion on freedom is?