Legalize All Drugs, Part 2
I shall continue the argument I began yesterday.
7) Prohibition of drugs causes more harms that it attempts to resolve. People OD, in part, because of ignorance about impurities in the drug or ignorance of high content of the drug—i.e., a person does not know the smack s/he is running up (shooting) is nearly pure and not the usual substance cut by 50 or 60 percent lactose. In the system I propose, the FDA would have oversight of manufacture and sale. Drugs would state on packaging what they contain.
8) Crime would go down. Inherently, by legalizing so many acts currently illegal, the number of “crimes” on the books and therefore committed would go down. Also, though, people would be much less likely to resort to criminal activity to support addictions. I the cost of heroin drops 80 to 90 percent, addicts will be more able to support their habits without resorting to crimes of theft, as an example.
9) Diseases such as HIV and hepatitis are spread more readily when drugs are illegal. Users cannot obtain needles readily and so re-use or share needles. If drugs were legal, we could make sure needles were cheap.
What are the “cons” to all the “pros” I have listed? Tomorrow I will post these straw man arguments. Readers should feel free to post arguments against the position I have taken.