Let's talk about the War on Drugs

[Remix]

Some things cannot be denied as fact. The laws of thermodynamics are just four of them. The war on drugs is another. However, unlike the laws of thermodynamics it's undeniably not working. Imprisoning addicts and low level drug pushers - who make up 80% of people imprisoned for drug related offenses - is not going to solve the problem. It's an expensive waste of resources. Furthermore, since the drug laws in the USA are completely fucking ******ed, people who committed more serious crimes are released early to make room in overcrowded prisons for more junkies and low level pushers.

However, just because I think that the laws are ******ed doesn't mean I believe stuff like Heroin should be legal. I can say with absolute certainty that I know how dangerous it is and that it is not something that should be freely available to anyone and everyone. I vehemently oppose the legalisation of anything harder than weed (which I am openly indifferent about).

What I am in favour of however, is harm reduction and medicalisation. The former is very simple. It's about reducing the dangers of addiction for the addicts. Things needle exchanges (taking in and disposing of used needles and syringes and distributing sterile ones) to stop the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other such blood borne diseases and distributing Naloxone (an opiate blocker) which can save the life of someone who ODs on Heroin, or any other opiate.

Medicalisation is taking the supply of drugs out of the street and into a controlled medical environment. Addicts are supplied with calculated quantities of pharmaceutical grade drugs which they can take in a clean area where medical professionals can intervene if anything goes wrong. This would ideally be free for the addicts, as this adds an incentive for addicts to enter treatment rather than paying for their high. On the surface this might sound insane, paying for addicts to shoot up. However, if you think about it for longer it's not for two reasons.

1) If addicts aren't paying for their drugs, they have no incentive to commit crimes in order to fund their addiction. This reduction in drug related crime means that less money is spent trying, and incarcerating drug addicts, which eases the strain on prisons and the tax payer. Switzerland, who have a programme exactly like this made savings of double the cost of the drugs due to not having to pay to keep addicts locked up. This rather nifty graph sums it up nicely.

2) If addicts are getting their drugs from government sources, they aren't getting it from drug runners. One of the biggest problems or law enforcement is that no matter how hard they try, vast quantities of illegal drugs are going to make it across borders and onto the streets of every country. The drug cartels are too big, powerful and determined to be stopped with blunt force. For every coke factory in Columbia burned down, another will be built. For every shipment of Heroin intercepted on the Afghan/Iranian border seized, another six won't be.

However, if the government steps in to meet the demand for illegal drugs, this becomes a non-issue. The market for the drugs drasticly shrinks, and the profitability of supplying drugs illegally drops like a stone, potentially making it uneconomical to continue their activities.

In short, the only sure fire way to win the war on drugs is to give addicts drugs.

What is your stance on the War on Drugs?

Do you consider law enforcement to be the most effective way to deal with drug addicts, and drug related crime?

If not, what do you think should be done with drug addicts?

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I tend to agree with you. A big problem you're going to face is that a lot of pot smokers don't want weed "medicalized". They don't see it as medicine; it's a drug, and some of us simply do it for fun, clarity for artistic purposes, etc. Taking things out of Federal control and placing them into a medical industry wholly string-pulled by the Fed is...well, it's kind of pointless. Telling me how much and what kind and for what price I can smoke week is just as, if not more offensive that telling me its a federal crime to do so in the first place. I don't think the problem lies in legalization, but rather in decriminalization. Take the power completely out of the hands of the government and the medical industry, and back into the free market where things like that belong. The state/fed law clash right now is absolutely stupid. I just moved to Oregon, and we have state laws that allow the drug, but an all-encompassing federal law telling us we can't. The drug raids are getting pretty bad too; another reason a LOT of people are upset with Obama after promising to end federal raids on marijuana and then actually using the fed to increase raids... Get weed the hell out of the system, period.

Outside of that I completely agree with you. While I don't know that the federal government should have total control over anythign you do with your body, I also don't know if I want things like Heroine legalized and on the market. That's the problem with society's view of weed - teachers and D.A.R.E. advocates teach children it's just as bad as hard drugs. It's a dangerous and manipulative line, because now there's a line we can't cross. If they decriminalize weed, where is the new line? How long before the Angel Dust users come out to get their fix legalized? That won't happen, because it's a destructive closet drug - not something over 50% of adults in America advocate - but that's the social perspective on it.

But absolutely, more aid needs to be out there. I hear what you're saying about the government getting rid of drug trafficking by legalizing and moderating the system themselves. There are a lot of drugs that come out of Mexico; most of the weed normal consumers used is USA-grown though. That is, if you know what you're buying. The government isn't going to touch anything harder with a 10-foot poll in terms of regulation. Do I think junkies and drug users should be in jail? Maybe, but at the very least the crimes are ridiculously insane. When murderers and rapists are getting less time than drug dealers, we have a problem in the system. Of course, every once in a long while you get the big drug lords that do indeed deserve to be locked up. But nobody buying or selling weed, hell nobody smoking weed should be in the prison system. The amount of people in jail for victim-less crimes in this country is just ******ed. A waste of money and resources, and an even bigger waste of those men and women's lives.