If recreational drugs were legalised...

[intravenous]

Is making people better what we really want to do, for the health of all of us? (Interesting thought, that one. Perhaps better off in Philosophy !)

So you're suggesting focusing research into drugs to get us high instead of those to help the sick as a form of eugenics? Not all drugs are life-savers anyway, some merely make life easier for those who actually need them, like chronic pain sufferers and the like. If we don't give these people their medication they're still going to live, just not as well as they could. I guess we could just leave them in agony until they just shoot themselves though

I'd talk some more but well, I need to go score. The junkie in me wins over the psuedo-intellectual anyday, ahah.

 

[mulberryman]

Not all drugs are life-savers anyway, some merely make life easier for those who actually need them, like chronic pain sufferers and the like. If we don't give these people their medication they're still going to live, just not as well as they could.

Very good point. It can be argued that recreational drug use is just that, people self-medicating, trying to live with less pain, weither it be physical, mental, or emotional. In many cases thay may not be using the correct drugs, and addiction and other adverse effects are a definite concern, but recreational use can be done intelligently and responsibly as well. The very word recreation means to re create a sense of happiness. As more drugs were legalized, the knowledge of them becomes more available as to the risks and how to use them correctly to minimize those risks.

 

[rnd.id.]

The irony here is that anti-depressants are essentially useless for depression unless they are recreational.

I disagree. Aren't you confounding euphoria/reinforcement with actual anti-depressant effects? (Not that I think there is anything wrong with euphoria.) For me, my anti-depressant does actually reduce depression in some subtle hard-to-describe way, though it has zero recreational potential for most people. Sure they're not perfect and don't work for everyone, but I wouldn't call them "useless".

What do you mean by saying SNRIs are "toxic"? Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all judging you for your benzo use and if it works for you long-term, great - but I don't think the comparison of S(N)RIs to benzos and opioids holds. Yes, I will probably have withdrawal symptoms if I stop sertraline, but I probably won't have cravings for it afterwards.

@intravenous: There are diminishing returns; adding yet another researcher to an urgent thing might not do as much good as adding the first researcher to something less important. Also, forcing research in a specific direction is not so great IMHO, I think we should let people research what fascinates them. By the "saving lives now has absolute priority" logic, we wouldn't have worked on, for example, basic physics, which has indirect applications that have saved many lives.