> There are lots of contradictions here. Voters don't understand how they can be asked to liberalize hard drug use (and even decriminalize dealing) on the one h

> There are lots of contradictions here. Voters don't understand how they can be asked to liberalize hard drug use (and even decriminalize dealing) on the one hand, and are asked for billions of dollars for drug addiction treatment on the other. And understandably so. It's a textbook example of privatizing the profits, and socializing the costs. It's not enough to tax drugs. Certain products are so harmful, and their harmful use so profitable, that allowing any kind of private profit from it at all is a disaster. (Yes, the most prominent of those are tobacco, alcohol and gambling). Worse, addiction treatment is really expensive and not very effective - even the best addiction treatment programs have high relapse rates. Even the relatively cheap programs that only seek to limit the damage addicts do to themselves and others, can only be defended on humanitarian grounds, not economic ones. Yes, we need to help addicts. Yes, including in purely harm-reduction ways. But we're deluding ourselves if we think this is a solution at all, let alone one we can afford if we let private economic interests profit from addiction without obstacles.