4 ms·

I think if you’re going to decriminalize drugs, you need to be very tough on public use

superkuh 3y ago
One of the hardest most damaging drugs there is, alcohol, is legal and allowed in public and semi-public private property in all 50 states. Drinking solvents is not really much of a step above huffing them yet we as a society tolerate it. And that's good. Because it's their body and their choice.
- atestu 3y ago
  no it's not. Very few public places in the US allow alcohol consumption.
  - superkuh 3y ago
    I think we need to define public a bit more. In, say, a baseball stadium you're in public, right? And you can drink alcohol.
- n8cpdx 3y ago
  Not really. Open use isn’t allowed in Portland. Due to a quirk in state law, Portland can enforce a prohibition on drinking in public (outside of OLCC regulated establishments) but cannot enforce a prohibition on smoking or shooting up meth or fentanyl in public.
elil17 3y ago
Why?
- astrange 3y ago
  If you make public space bad, people won't use it. A big problem with American leftism is that it's all young people whose primary goal is looking cool. They think drug users are cool and police are uncool. So if you complain that some guy is smoking crack on the subway, they'll yell at you because they think the act of watching the guy smoke crack is giving them street cred and will get them laid because they're not like those boring suburbanites. But what it actually means is parents are going to drive everywhere and not take the subway.
  - elil17 3y ago
    I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of leftism. It's not that smoking crack is "cool," it's that the person smoking crack is a human being, deserving of dignity, who doesn't deserve to be thrown in prison. Of course that person shouldn't be allowed to smoke crack in an indoor public place, but is the solution really to take away all their freedom? I certainly don't think so.
    - astrange 3y ago
      I believe one case of this I saw this year (which was in the UK, and actually did result in them being arrested) had a bunch of people claim the specific subway-crack-smoking guy was both cool and being oppressed, and then it made the news and he turned out to be a domestic abuser. Not the most recent time I've seen this argument though - that would be yesterday, about Philadelphia I think. People who do drugs in an enclosed space in public are doing an antisocial act and as such are the type of people willing to do other antisocial acts. It's different from simply being homeless.
      - elil17 3y ago
        That's a weird thing to call cool and whoever was saying that was cool was wrong, of course. If someone is a domestic abuser who smokes crack on the subway, I think they should go to prison for domestic abuse and be kicked off the subway for smoking crack on the subway. I do hate that people smoke on the Philadelphia subway, although it's mostly cigarettes and not crack in my experience. I think those people should be kicked off the subway. I just don't think that's the sort of thing someone she ould go to jail for.

One of the hardest most damaging drugs there is, alcohol, is legal and allowed in public and semi-public private property in all 50 states. Drinking solvents is not really much of a step above huffing them yet we as a society tolerate it. And that's good. Because it's their body and their choice.

atestu 3y ago
no it's not. Very few public places in the US allow alcohol consumption.
- superkuh 3y ago
  I think we need to define public a bit more. In, say, a baseball stadium you're in public, right? And you can drink alcohol.
n8cpdx 3y ago
Not really. Open use isn’t allowed in Portland. Due to a quirk in state law, Portland can enforce a prohibition on drinking in public (outside of OLCC regulated establishments) but cannot enforce a prohibition on smoking or shooting up meth or fentanyl in public.

elil17 3y ago

Why?

astrange 3y ago
If you make public space bad, people won't use it. A big problem with American leftism is that it's all young people whose primary goal is looking cool. They think drug users are cool and police are uncool. So if you complain that some guy is smoking crack on the subway, they'll yell at you because they think the act of watching the guy smoke crack is giving them street cred and will get them laid because they're not like those boring suburbanites. But what it actually means is parents are going to drive everywhere and not take the subway.
- elil17 3y ago
  I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of leftism. It's not that smoking crack is "cool," it's that the person smoking crack is a human being, deserving of dignity, who doesn't deserve to be thrown in prison. Of course that person shouldn't be allowed to smoke crack in an indoor public place, but is the solution really to take away all their freedom? I certainly don't think so.
  - astrange 3y ago
    I believe one case of this I saw this year (which was in the UK, and actually did result in them being arrested) had a bunch of people claim the specific subway-crack-smoking guy was both cool and being oppressed, and then it made the news and he turned out to be a domestic abuser. Not the most recent time I've seen this argument though - that would be yesterday, about Philadelphia I think. People who do drugs in an enclosed space in public are doing an antisocial act and as such are the type of people willing to do other antisocial acts. It's different from simply being homeless.
    - elil17 3y ago
      That's a weird thing to call cool and whoever was saying that was cool was wrong, of course. If someone is a domestic abuser who smokes crack on the subway, I think they should go to prison for domestic abuse and be kicked off the subway for smoking crack on the subway. I do hate that people smoke on the Philadelphia subway, although it's mostly cigarettes and not crack in my experience. I think those people should be kicked off the subway. I just don't think that's the sort of thing someone she ould go to jail for.