5 ms·

I think this is a tough issue, I'm not sure what to think On the one hand: yeah, people dying from tainted/misdosed drugs is 100% preventable, and it's really

I think this is a tough issue, I'm not sure what to think On the one hand: yeah, people dying from tainted/misdosed drugs is 100% preventable, and it's really unforgivable that we lose so many people something like that. Cocaine, apart from IV use, is relatively safe in an acute sense (unlike opiates). On the other hand: hard drugs have manifestly negative consequences on society that don't seem to just a result of enforcement. Hardly anybody ever pawned all of their belongings for weed, but you hear a lot of stories when it comes to cocaine. It seems likely that if cocaine was as easy to access as weed is in legal states, we'd see a spike in use, and that would have a very negative impact on some % that gets exposed. There's also kind of an implication that if something is legal, then the government endorses it. It's going to be tough for the state to look at news reports of overdoses and cocaine-related crime (even if it's relatively infrequent) and say "yeah, it's bad, but we think it's worth the tradeoff for society, tough luck if it's the wrong call for you." IMO, the right tradeoff is probably to have enforcement that's mostly focused on dealers and rehabilitation for users with issues, and whatever harm reduction measures are feasible.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> seems likely that if cocaine was as easy to access as weed is in legal states There is daylight between prohibition and ubiquitous access. (It’s largely unexplored policy space.) Legal weed doesn’t mean every corner gets a joint shop. Legal cocaine shouldn’t mean Whole Foods coke subscriptions marketed by Instagram to minors.
criddell 4y ago
> There's also kind of an implication that if something is legal, then the government endorses it. I don't think that's necessarily true. Tobacco is legal and clearly not endorsed by the government (at least not where I live).
- capitalsigma 4y ago
  Social harms caused by tobacco are much less visible than things like "someone stole my catalytic converter for drug money." Also, yeah, cigarettes are bad, but we're talking about something that kills you in the span of 4-5 decades vs something that can wreck lives in a span of months. I'm also not saying that it's good for people to think "legal = safe," I'm just saying that it is in fact what people often think, and it would cause a lot of bad PR to lean heavily into legalization while that perception is still around.
merely-unlikely 4y ago
> There's also kind of an implication that if something is legal, then the government endorses it. If we want to live in a free society, this shouldn't be the standard

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> seems likely that if cocaine was as easy to access as weed is in legal states There is daylight between prohibition and ubiquitous access. (It’s largely unexplored policy space.) Legal weed doesn’t mean every corner gets a joint shop. Legal cocaine shouldn’t mean Whole Foods coke subscriptions marketed by Instagram to minors.

criddell 4y ago

> There's also kind of an implication that if something is legal, then the government endorses it. I don't think that's necessarily true. Tobacco is legal and clearly not endorsed by the government (at least not where I live).

capitalsigma 4y ago
Social harms caused by tobacco are much less visible than things like "someone stole my catalytic converter for drug money." Also, yeah, cigarettes are bad, but we're talking about something that kills you in the span of 4-5 decades vs something that can wreck lives in a span of months. I'm also not saying that it's good for people to think "legal = safe," I'm just saying that it is in fact what people often think, and it would cause a lot of bad PR to lean heavily into legalization while that perception is still around.

merely-unlikely 4y ago

> There's also kind of an implication that if something is legal, then the government endorses it. If we want to live in a free society, this shouldn't be the standard