If all drugs were legal, would the market phase some out?

[treezy z]

i was thinking if all drugs were legal, the market would phase some out.

list ones you think the market would get rid of, and why.

personally i think crack and meth.
no respectable retail outlet (i'm thinking the pharmacies would be the first places equipped to sell drugs) would want to deal with a large percentage of users of these substances, too much of a hastle.
powder cocaine would still be sold, so home cooking would be an option.
meth i think the vendors would provide regular amphetamines (mixed salts or dex-amphetamine) because they're harder to stay awake a week+ on, and thus harder to go nuts on.
meth you'd have to get off the street or a specialized meth outlet, if someone was willing to deal with the hassle of opening one.

also naturally dangerous stuff like krokodil, pma would disappear.

and nasty feeling "legal highs" like amanita muscaria and LSA would be harder to get, due to supply and demand.

 

[MrPorter]

I imagine there would be legal specialists that would continue to sell research chems, meth (it's easy to make remember) and the more obscure ones because people still consider them viable options for drugs. However, they really would be specialist because why choose ALD-52 over LSD for example, would people choose Methylone or MDMA? (I actually like them equally, for different things). I still think there would be a small market for underground drug production (note there's still underground ethanol production entering supermarket supplies, can't find source but I remember reading about methanol reported several times in DiTM) so PMA would still exist simply because it's far cheaper to produce.

 

[bunge]

^
This.

Also, methamphetamine is already sold as a prescription medicine (Desoxyn).

 

[treezy z]

^prescription isn't different, dose per day/month is limited to a small amount of meth.

 

[omnipresenthuman]

I feel like with education plus having all drugs legalized would steer most people away from strong stimulants like coke and meth...but then again, maybe not...opiates just need to be managed correctly and not abused; once the illegality stigma is gone, that should help education, at least if you're optimistic

and hopefully ALL the synthetic/legal fake substances out there will be gone fast from the shelves...

 

[opi8]

also naturally dangerous stuff like krokodil, pma would disappear.

There's nothing wrong with "krokodil", in fact it was once sold by a pharm company. The propaganda stories with the horror pictures are all because of the poor home synth and all the shit that was never properly removed.

 

[bunge]

^prescription isn't different, dose per day/month is limited to a small amount of meth.

Erm...i didnt say it was any different... Im unsure what your point is.lol

@Opi8, krockodil is the poor home synth version of desomorphine, so the poster wasnt wrong in calling krockodil dangerous.

Desomorphine however is quite a safe and effective drug thats very useful in emergency medicine because of its strong opiate aginist oroperties and relatively short duration of effect.

 

[treezy z]

i meant to say it IS different.

 

[bunge]

^
Ah, no worries, I get you now.lol
Id argue that the drug is still methamphetamine regardless of what form it comes in.

Obviously street meth will have more possible harms then pharmaceutical meth, impurities, lack of control over dosage or potentcy of the substance etc.

Heroin is a good example of this, if you look at diamorphine (heroin) use in chronic (often terminal) pain patients and compare that to a street user, using the drug for a high. The difference isnt the drug but the pattern of use.
In my eyes meth is no different to diamorphine in this respect.
The drug is the same drug regardless, the difference in harms is due to pattern of use.

 

[treezy z]

^i'm just speaking about how the dosage per month wouldn't allow someone to get all geeked up and delusional even if they ran through the whole script at once, most likely.

 

[bunge]

^prescription isn't different, dose per day/month is limited to a small amount of meth.

Again, I would say that it depends.on pattern of use.

If the user takes the drug as prescribed then the risk of possible harms is relatively low.

However...what if the user decides to start I.v-ing their script? I think shit would get pretty crazy pretty quickly.
This is why pattern of use is more important then the form the drug comes in.

Im not completely disagreed with your point.
I just think im maybe thinking a little deeper into the issue then you.

 

[lolwhatzdrugs]

I don't think the market would phase out any drugs of abuse.

They're drugs of abuse because people like them! If they were all legal, I can't see any vanishing (except like black tar-> to pure diamorphine hcl) with slang type drugs moved into standardized dosages and names. Crack would merely become the freebase of cocaine. Methamp is here legally now d-l as prescription, and you can buy the l- steroisomer at walgreens OTC.

 

[miscbrahh]

drug market would probably have cycles where things go up and down in popularity

maybe some of the obscure psychs? and synthetic weed

 

[lolwhatzdrugs]

drug market would probably have cycles where things go up and down in popularity

maybe some of the obscure psychs? and synthetic weed

Probably the most likely. Synth noids are generally more powerful and have more deleterious effects when compared to good old ganja! The only one I took I enjoyed slightly was JWH122, and then it was instabanned. The AMH (I think?) made my hearing become muffled, where I couldn't hear anything, and went to normal afterwards, one of the oddest side effects. There is no synth noid I would ever choose over a good calming strain of bud.

As for the obscure psychs, I'm sure it depends on which ones. A whole TIHKAL and PIHKAL produced obscure, but many loved psychedelics, but more dangerous when compared to psilocin or even LSD (especially those crazy substituted amphetamine psychs) .

 

[One Thousand Words]

It would really depend on the skills of the advertising executives. If they can get people to drink shit like Loko or bud lite they will get people to buy datura.

Meth would still be popular just as cheap vodka and lite beer are sold in the same bottle shops.

 

[rujex]

Probably there would be a lot of combination drugs, such as the Dexamyl that was available till the late 70s. Maybe they would market ready to use injectable speedball solutions.

If its just for the industry. Why should they care about the addictive potential of the drugs they market. Dead customers cant buy stuff, but if it dont kills fast and just gets them hooked up on the drugs, its a great deal for the industry. Like the tobacco industry. An addicted customer is a good and very reliable customer. When the brits marketed opium in china, it was a really great deal for them. If all drugs would be legal there would be competition and prices would decrease. Almost everybody would be able to buy easily the stuff he needs to serve his addiction. I guess the industry would research the safest to use and most addicting stuff.

 

[f33lg00d]

and nasty feeling "legal highs" like amanita muscaria and LSA would be harder to get, due to supply and demand.

I don't think amanitas feel nasty at all. I assume nobody would want fentanyl if you could buy heroin or opium.

 

[The Dope Man]

I don't think amanitas feel nasty at all. I assume nobody would want fentanyl if you could buy heroin or opium.

wrong. some people lovvee fent. I never understood it myself but I have bddies the would take fent over fire dope any day.

 

[f33lg00d]

wrong. some people lovvee fent. I never understood it myself but I have bddies the would take fent over fire dope any day.

Really? That's weird I'd rather have hydrocodone then fent... To each his own I suppose

 

[downfallin]

I think alot of drugs like ssris would disappear as we freely experimented to find safer better ways to help depression and anxiety. Street drugs would loose the extreme cut and no more nasty shoe polish bbq sauce and vinegar tar going around.