I can't believe this is real. This is insane to me.
As far as I know this wasn't a serious business, it was more or less a stunt to make a point. But that point needed making; and far from being insane I believe it's the only rational way to handle drugs.
Believe it or not but in my home country of Germany, several members of both the medical profession and law enforcement have seriously proposed the re-legalization of drugs. I'm deliberately saying re-legalization because not much more than a century ago, any 'respectable' person could legally acquire various drugs at pharmacies and this wasn't regarded as some massive problem that was gonna be the end of society as we know it. Heck, the Sears catalogue sold handy little morphine injection kits.
The drug problem is largely a drug policy problem.
Yes there will always be a proportion of addicts, there were addicts back in the day too of course. The difference was there were far less of them (counterintuitive, I know), they weren't generally dying all over the place as they had access to a pure product of predictable potency, they also weren't automatically pushed into the role of social pariah. There's no reason on earth why even a dependent habit should cost you your health and your job and your last shred of dignity, apart from the fact that as a user you're a criminal by default who's paying inflated black market prices, and has to chase after his supply all the livelong day. This leaves neither the opportunity nor the inclination for a regulated life.
The fact remains committed users will get their shit one way or another, and most users (including those of so-called hard drugs) statistically do not become addicts. While individuals with zero interest in drugs are not suddenly going to smoke crack cocaine just because it's legally available. Those with problematic using habits would at least be in much better health and could be helped more readily without all the added legal and social problems.
I don't want coke sold at the nearest kiosk, no. That would be irresponsible. I don't support the 'free market' model for any substance including the currently legal ones (if it was up to me there'd be no advertising for alcohol). I DO however think all going substances ought to be available legally and in as safe a form as possible to those who wish to consume them. (Via specialist licensed drug shops with strict regulations and pharmacy-trained staff.)
For one, the only way to prevent any and all addiction is to curb any and all drug use, and this cannot realistically be done. Even the most draconian measures historically enacted (death penalty for opium smokers for instance) have never achieved this. For another I believe it to be wrong to punish someone for what is essentially a victimless crime. The only person I can directly harm with my drug consumption is myself, and we do not otherwise penalize and criminalize damage to the self.
vpd.ca
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