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| So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly. Like for alcohol, I doubt that would work. Some substances are simply hard t
by quchen 6y ago
| So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly.
Like for alcohol, I doubt that would work. Some substances are simply hard to use responsibly, some offer unique ways of escapism (especially during a lockdown), many people lack restraint. I don’t imagine the number of people dependent on substances would go down, it would probably just diversify. In the end, I think it’s very hard to predict societal outcome of such a big decision. To name a few – confused parents, drug tourism, self-medication instead of going to doctors.
In any case, we don’t have to go fully legal-as-broccoli drugs. We could start by decriminalization for well-defined amounts, by legalizing drug checking, by educating instead of fearmongering. But since we replaced the worst imaginable state representative for drugs with the second worst imaginable state representative for drugs, I doubt anything will happen here soon.
| Either we find (all) drugs bad, or we stop being such liars in regards to this.
It’s not that people are liars, most just don’t know that alcohol is among the hardest drugs out there, and fear the unknown.
- pasabagi 6y agoI think alcohol works better as a counter-argument. In Germany, it is not only legal, but it is also legal to sell in 'bubblegum flavour party boxes', obviously aimed at children. It is legal to sell at checkout, so after a recovering alcoholic is tired out by all the shopping they can be tempted by a little bottle of vodka or whatever. Despite this, and a social culture that revolves around drinking, the vast majority manage to avoid serious alcohol problems. This essentially shows how responsible people are - even with a culture that makes it very easy to start, and very difficult to quit, most people manage to maintain a reasonable distance from an extremely addictive drug. If you follow this argument along, I think if you legalized drugs, but also put some restrictions on their use (for instance, not allowing supermarkets to sell them, not allowing child-branded stuff, etc) - there's no reason to imagine the situation would not improve vis-a-vis the current one. All this said, my preferred drug policy (for all drugs, including alcohol) would be something like a ban on their public use and sale. As somebody who used to take a lot of drugs, I have no illusions about the destabilizing influence they can have on people's lives. Alcohol is well known for being a force multiplier for pre-existing misery or mental instabillity, and I think even mild drugs, like weed, work in the same way.
- cnity 6y agoThis makes the assumption that the usage patterns for all drugs matches alcohol. It's more likely that alcohol simply really is not that addictive or harmful (compared to "harder" drugs like meth or cocaine).
- vMPQonVtAjLWmr 6y agohttps://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11660210 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11660210