4 ms·
The limitations of this theory are playing out in the Bay Area (where enforcement is so lax drugs are in effect decriminalized) in real time. There are absolute
by jjfoooo4 5y ago
The limitations of this theory are playing out in the Bay Area (where enforcement is so lax drugs are in effect decriminalized) in real time. There are absolutely large negative externalities from drug addiction, independent of the enforcement regime.
- freeone3000 5y agoLax enforcement is not the same thing as decriminalization -- and decriminalization in a small area is not the same as legalization. If the import to that area is still under control, then you're still going to have the smuggling problems and all of its attendant apparatus, the drug concentration problems (small items are easier to smuggle, so more potent drugs are smuggled more often), the purity problems, and so on. And increasing enforcement does not actually reduce the number of addicts, it simply moves these addicts to prison, which is worse for not only the addict, but now for society that must pay for their sentence. Forty years of drug enforcement has not stopped the drug trade. Should we give it another forty, or try something else?