4 ms·
Counterpoint, N=1: I've been off and on many of the drugs listed in the article, I found a permutation that works for me, and my life is amazing.
by throwaway9271 4y ago
Counterpoint, N=1: I've been off and on many of the drugs listed in the article, I found a permutation that works for me, and my life is amazing.
- eurasiantiger 4y agoWhat if someone’s permutation is cocaine? Would you consider that a valid treatment?
- krageon 4y agoIf you function well and are happy, why not?
- eurasiantiger 4y agoBecause production and trafficking kills tens of thousands of people every year and corrupts all nations from top to bottom? Because cocaine laboratories in South American jungles routinely dump hazardous waste in the soil and the rivers? Because rainforests are cleared to plant coca? Because local farmers are forced to plant coca instead of food crops?
- vogt 4y agoOkay, so you shifted the goalpost of context from being about the effect of drugs on the brain to the greater societal effects of X drug needing Y things to happen to exist. Why not throw in animal testing in pharmaceuticals as well? Of course all of that about cocaine is true, but what the hell part of that is germane to this conversation?
- eurasiantiger 4y agoWell, for starters, it is societally insane to outlaw some substances and allow others to be monopolized.
- vogt 4y agoSo since that is true of nearly every society on earth, does that make the world societally insane or sane?
- eurasiantiger 4y agoIt is only true due to the United Nations general convention on narcotics and other similar deals, which are in effect in an attempt to limit smuggling to the US, to increase the revenue of US pharmaceutical companies, and considering the 60’s-70’s political motivations of Nixon and Reagan, to reap huge profits off the now illicit drug trade. Drugs were made illegal because ”they were thought to be dangerous to the establishment” in the form of African-American and civil liberties activists, both of which were easy to label stereotypical drug users with a bout of fictitious press. Another political reason was the historically open international trade which did end up with the Opium Wars in China — but that precedent was used as a propaganda tool first and foremost, since the real reason for the war was not opium, but Great Britain’s heavy-handed imperialist approach to trade. The irony is that these conventions are enforced with a similarly heavy hand and with equally imperialist policy behind it.
- parkingrift 4y agoSounds like the answer then is to legalize it from top to bottom. Regulate it like any other legitimate business.
- mbg721 4y agoWhat's Caesar's line in the series "Rome"? Something like "I don't approve of what you did, but I cannot punish you, because it would be unpopular with the men. And I cannot do nothing, because it would make me appear weak. Therefore, I must reward you."
- aaaaaaaaata 4y agoColombia is legalizing, should be interesting to see how that changes the market.