What does your ideal drug world look like in 2050?

[FlyingDutchman342]

What will life be like for drug users in 2050?

Are all drugs decriminalised by then or even legal?

Will there be more harm reduction facilities?

Will drugs be as accepted in society as alcohol is today?

What's your opinion?


Most posts i found mostly focused on which new drugs will appear. In this thread I want to discuss your expectations of an ideal world in the future:
http://bluelight.org/vb/threads/204...ure-of-drugs-look-like?highlight=drugs+future
http://bluelight.org/vb/threads/301219-Drugs-of-the-Far-Future?highlight=drugs+future

 

[Pickledlemons]

All drugs are legalized worldwide. you can get a product of standardized quality from the pharmacy. Governments treat addiction as a mental health problem and have state funded rehabs. This is the safest and cheapest way.

 

[mp44god]

^This. Prisons will only be populated with violent offenders, drug usage and distribution won't be stigmatized, and worst case, looked at as a petty misdemeanor offense that won't stay with your whole life and ostracize you from the workforce and society. Psychedelics will be looked at as first-line treatment for certain mental disorders, and SSRI'S and other traditional pharmaceuticals will take a backseat.

 

[Jabberwocky]

When you guys say all drugs legalized do you mean available over the counter or on prescription?

 

[Pickledlemons]

When you guys say all drugs legalized do you mean available over the counter or on prescription?

OTC. Its the only way to provide a safe product to addicts. Safe as in free of dangerous adulterants and consistent purity.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I'm definitely on the side over all drugs to be legalized and OTC, I think it would have major benefits. However sometimes I really think it could cause a lot of damage to people with addictive personalities. If I could go and buy a G of coke at the pharmacy I would most likely be a daily user again. There would have be systems in place to limit supply to people but I imagine that wouldn't be hard to get around.

 

[JessFR]

My idea is all the major drugs are legal to buy, but can't be advertised. And all points of sale have to provide information for drug abuse help. I'd likely only be OK with them being sold at licensed pharmacies. But this is just off the top of my head, I reserve the right to revise this if I change my mind after more thought.

 

[aihfl]

OTC. As has been pointed out, not only will this keep drugs safe in terms of purity, but also steer people away from dangerous RCs. I don't really see much of a point in limiting quantity either. We don't limit how much alcohol one can buy, so limiting the quantity of drugs one can buy would be hypocritical since alcohol abuse is far more of a widespread problem than drug abuse. Governments will be flush from all the tax revenue. It's a win-win all around, but I do agree with no advertising and if my lottery tickets encourage people with a gambling habit to seek help, again, it would be hypocritical for drugs not to have it, too.

 

[Jabberwocky]

OTC. As has been pointed out, not only will this keep drugs safe in terms of purity, but also steer people away from dangerous RCs. I don't really see much of a point in limiting quantity either. We don't limit how much alcohol one can buy, so limiting the quantity of drugs one can buy would be hypocritical since alcohol abuse is far more of a widespread problem than drug abuse. Governments will be flush from all the tax revenue. It's a win-win all around, but I do agree with no advertising and if my lottery tickets encourage people with a gambling habit to seek help, again, it would be hypocritical for drugs not to have it, too.

Very good points. I alcohol and gambling in mind as well. As for alcohol abuse being a far widespread problem I agree however do you think this would change with drugs being legal therefore less stigma attached and more widespread use as they become more part of society as alcohol is.

 

[FlyingDutchman342]

I also agree that OTC drugs without advertising are a great idea. IMO, this wouldn't cause users to increase their daily dose. They would probably take the same amount, but face less adverse consequences (health, financial situation). Prohibition doesn't work, drugs are available almost everywhere and if people were scared away by treating substances as illegal drugs, there wouldn't be so many users today.
Legalisation also wouldn't cause people who aren't interested in heroin or are afraid of it to go to a pharmacy and buy dope. The same happend with alcohol prohibition, people who already liked alcohol continued drinking. The only differences were increased price and legal consequences...

 

[Pickledlemons]

I also agree that OTC drugs without advertising are a great idea. IMO, this wouldn't cause users to increase their daily dose. They would probably take the same amount, but face less adverse consequences (health, financial situation). Prohibition doesn't work, drugs are available almost everywhere and if people were scared away by treating substances as illegal drugs, there wouldn't be so many users today.
Legalisation also wouldn't cause people who aren't interested in heroin or are afraid of it to go to a pharmacy and buy dope. The same happend with alcohol prohibition, people who already liked alcohol continued drinking. The only differences were increased price and legal consequences...

In some cases, with cannabis, legality actually decreased users. I think it has to do with it no longer having the 'rebellious' feeling. Some people do drugs just because they aren't supposed to.

 

[aihfl]

The same happend with alcohol prohibition, people who already liked alcohol continued drinking. The only differences were increased price and legal consequences...

Absolutely. And like our current situation with drugs, drinking was a risky proposition during Prohibition because of the possibility of adulterants in illegally produced liquor. Who knows how many people went blind or even died from toxic chemicals in their liquor.

 

[FlyingDutchman342]

In some cases, with cannabis, legality actually decreased users. I think it has to do with it no longer having the 'rebellious' feeling. Some people do drugs just because they aren't supposed to.

The Netherlands are a good example of this. Here, cannabis products were de facto decriminalised back in the 80s. Today, most young people don't really care about weed anymore and usage rates are much lower than in Germany/France/UK (where it's enforced harshly). The same is true for shroom truffles that are available in shops.
Legalised drugs aren't mysterious or interesting anymore, so many Dutch teens prefer MDMA.

 

[FlyingDutchman342]

Absolutely. And like our current situation with drugs, drinking was a risky proposition during Prohibition because of the possibility of adulterants in illegally produced liquor. Who knows how many people went blind or even died from toxic chemicals in their liquor.

Right! And on top of that, the mafia wouldn't have existed without huge profits from alcohol smuggling.

 

[4meSM]

I agree with the idea that most of the harm is caused by the fact that drugs are illegal. But I don't know if everything should be OTC.
Before we can discuss such scenario, we need lots of (real) drug education.
Also where do we draw the line? There're thounsands of psychoactive drugs... Like, should every fentanyl analog be OTC? I don't think so.

 

[belligerent drunk]

Also where do we draw the line? There're thounsands of psychoactive drugs... Like, should every fentanyl analog be OTC? I don't think so.

And why not? Responsible fentanyl use, as in you don't fuck up the dosage and know how to handle yer shit, is as safe as heroin. Also, do you think a typical opioid user would opt for fentanyl or friends when they have perfectly nice 99% diamorphine that they can buy? I only see fentanyl enthusiasts opting for these options, and in that case they probably know what they're doing.

I see this type of double standard thinking often from real drug users regarding legalization a la yeah we can have amphetamine, but certainly not meth! And honestly it baffles me. The same logical reasoning that says the non-demonized drug (in this case amp or H) should be legal, goes also for the demonized one (meth or fent). How does the illegal status help in the case of fent or meth? It doesn't. Education on responsible use and HR do.

And before somebody says that some drugs must be legal, but not OTC... How exactly do you imagine that system working? Do you think one needs to go to a drug specialist and explain why they want to use fent for example, before they get a "script"? That's ridiculous.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

In 2050 we’ll have 25g secobarbital tablets available.

Single marijuana buds longer than a whale’s penis

And everyone will be beaten by their alcoholic parents.

I take one gram and then I just am.
I take one gram and then I don’t give a damn.

 

[4meSM]

@belligerent drunk

I get what you're saying and yeah in theory people should be able to decide what to put in their bodies.

I do strongly believe that we need more education before we make extremely potent drugs available to anyone at any dose by simply going to your local pharmacy. The world is not a perfect place man and not everyone has the same access to information, at least not yet.

Even in rich countries you see tons of people overdosing on paracetamol which is a relatively safe drug.
And I don't think those people knew what they were doing, most of them were in pain or whatever and thought that taking a handful of pills would work better than sticking to the recommended dosage (which is understandable). I'm pretty positive that no reasonable person would do such thing if they knew that liver failure is a real possibility beyond a certain dosage.

I mentioned fentanyl analogs as an example of a very potent and potentially lethal class of drugs for anyone that doesn't know what they're doing.
I'm not trying to demonize some drugs, maybe I didn't express myself correctly, I'm just saying some drugs require more caution than others.
Alcohol is legal and very integrated into western culture yet people still end up in the hospital because they didn't think that drinking a bottle of vodka was that dangerous. (Overall still better than going blind or whatever after drinking contaminated alcohol, or getting shot by some mafia/cartel guys)


Prohibition is not the solution for obvious reasons, for example it makes every one of those problems way worse.


Society would have to change quite a lot anyways if we get to the point where every single known psychoactive drug is OTC.
I imagine it would be a difficult thing to implement, since we'd have to have quality standards for every single drug and a bunch of other bureaucratic stuff.

I'm really not against the idea perse, it depends on how we implement it (I imagine it would probably happen gradually).
I'm open minded about it, I just know things aren't as simple as we often think, specially if we're talking about a global issue.

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

How about some nanobots that can be programmed to deliver specific drugs directly when and where desired. No need to wait for metabolism or BBB crossing necessarily.

Or how about when we finally augment our brains with tech. Then maybe all you need is a specific code to have your drug experience of choice.

2050 probably isn't far enough in the future though

 

[herbavore]

^This. Prisons will only be populated with violent offenders, drug usage and distribution won't be stigmatized, and worst case, looked at as a petty misdemeanor offense that won't stay with your whole life and ostracize you from the workforce and society. Psychedelics will be looked at as first-line treatment for certain mental disorders, and SSRI'S and other traditional pharmaceuticals will take a backseat.

Yes!