Sunday Discussion - Drugs!

Initiated by:
• Ceit

Details

With what we know is coming this month, we might be tempted to indulge in some extra chemical calming. In some cases, it's clearly a good thing, but in others it's just a coping mechanism, and not a very good one. Those of us of a certain age and geographic origin will remember afterschool specials and Just Say No! activities. Other countries had their own drug control policies. All of them had their arguments that just sounded like common sense, but they also saw real world failure. Some studies even indicate that children who were inundated with Just Say No messaging were MORE likely to say yes than those who hadn't received any, let's say, warnings. The trend in the last couple of decades has been one of more tolerance and decriminalization: https://adf.org.au/talking-about-drugs/law/decriminalisation/overview-decriminalisation-legalisation/ https://www.npr.org/2021/06/18/1007022652/oregons-pioneering-drug-decriminalization-experiment-is-now-facing-the-hard-test https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02617-X/fulltext https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/11/what-is-drug-decriminalization-and-is-it-working Of course, even though an all-out war on drugs was an arrogant waste of money and lives, that is not to say that we shouldn't have concerns. Even the disgraced Louis CK has a warning to give: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la4VsJ4XZBk While I usually come down on the side of decriminalization, or even legalization, I acknowledge the problems that exist with even controlled drug use. When drugs are effective, especially at pain killing, they are also addictive. For some reason, we seem to go overboard promoting the safety of new painkillers, only to find that they are even more addictive than the ones we've banned or put under strict control (cough, cough *fentanyl* cough). As a side effect of our long-standing war on drugs, there is a well-developed network of drug trafficking. If drugs were suddenly not as profitable, we cannot assume that network will just cease to exist. Plenty of other things can be trafficked, and the people involved at the top are dedicated to earning that trafficking money. Finally, there is one drug that I don't support ever finding itself in the good graces of the law - meth. Not only is it destructive to its users, but the whole process of creation leaves toxic waste dumps and general environmental hazards behind. For all the social damage heroin, opium, and yes even alcohol can cause, you don't normally need a hazmat suit to clean up after them.