The harmfulness of drugs and the law

[Sentience]

Mods, feel free to move or duplicate this if it is better somewhere else.



So what exactly is the harmfulness of drugs? In a previous post I proposed that there are essentially 3 ways that drugs can cause harm.

1. Harm to society inflicted by violent drug cartels and gangs.
2. Harm to society caused by users operating in an altered state of consciousness.
3. Harm to the user from the harmful effects of the drug itself.


Out of all of these #1 causes the most harm to society. Violent gangs actually is a serious problem and I would almost say that we should support the DEA and local law enforcement in clamping down on them.

#2 is horribly exaggerated.....Alcohol is legal and causes more problem than weed or mushrooms or mescaline or even coke or heroin....Unless somebody has children or they are walking around in public or on the job, #2 isnt a strong argument for arresting somebody if they are n their own home.

#3 Is also exaggerated. However, harm to users does occur. Drug prevention is largely ineffective and drug punishment is even less effective. The best remedy for number 3 is a combination of harm reduction (like this site) and free rehab programs and safe houses/exchange programs. 'Tough on crime' has failed. We should look at eastern/northern europe...they have blatant drug problems as well, and have not succeeded in eradicating drug use either but they HAVE done a good job as reducing deaths and disease transmission and done pretty well at keeping the drugs in their areas and reducing crime by providing drug treatment for people going through WDs. The safe houses are helpful to society and not just to the drug users.


This led me to think of a 4th source of harm....the law.

In my opinion, the greatest amount of harm inflicted because of drugs is not inflicted by the drug cartels or by the users but by law enforcement. Putting people in prison for decades of their life, tearing up families, ruining careers, subjecting people to hostile and dangerous environments where they can be stabbed or raped with a high risk of disease transmission....Its horrible and cruel. Most of these people are not violent criminals. Many were not a nuisance to society at all but were students who like to party at a rave, or maybe hooked their friends up with a pill or wanted to experiment with psychedelics in college or maybe just wanted to treat their health condition with medical marijuana.....How is putting these people in prison, depriving children of their mother or father, ruining these peoples lives and essentially torturing them, how is that helping society?


So this got me thinking.....If law enforcement is one of the biggest if not THE biggest source of drug related harm, isnt figuring out legal issues in the nature of harm reduction? Without encouraging people to break the law or doing anything which would produce a 'conspiracy', isnt keeping people safe from the second most harmful outcome of drugs important?

 

[megawoof]

you raise sum interesting points and i agree with alot of what you say but as sumone addicted to hard drugs i recall that saying i think on mtv once i pay my taxes why cant i have it sum drugs do alot of harm even a scheduled 1v drug midzaloam could of put me in jail for alongtime the other night i did 2amps 30mgs i have a very high tolerance to it been abusing it for years i woke up in middle of night in twlight zone thought it was a good idea to get sum fags from 24hr shop got in my brand new z4 bmw drove there got fags got to my road then rapped the car round tree dont even remember anything about it was very upset next day about car but when i come out of haze what a total moron id been even thou it werent intentional i could of killed sumone hurt sumone killed myself or hurt myself it just goes to show when you on drugs which arent prescribed for you n stuff how things can become horrible i just thank my blessings i hit a tree and didnt affect a human being due to my reckless behaviour oh yeah smashed the remaining amps away as i cant be trusted obvisously

 

[bjv07]

I believe that most drugs should be legal. If someone works and pays taxes, why not let them endulge every once in a while? Probably the only drugs I think should remain illegal is Heroin, crack, cocaine, and Meth. Others may disagree with me. I do however feel that if drugs were legalized , you would have to regulate them like alcohol, with an age limit and not allowing poeple to work/drive on them. I really despise poeple who drive under the influence because I have a friend who was killed by a drunk driver who was on his 3rd DWI in less than a year and who shouldn't have been driving because he had a revolked liscence. If alcohol and nicotine are legal then why can't other drugs be legal. Those two drugs probably kill more people every year than all other major drugs combined. Legalizing drugs free up alot of jail space, stop families from being torn apart over a possession of Marijauana charge, save countries a lot of money, along with other benefits.

 

[Sentience]

I am not saying that we should encourage the use of meth or heroin or even that it should be legal....what I am saying is that imprisonment is not the best way of dealing with low end users or even people who only sell small quantities just to hook their friends up (as opposed to slinging it on the sidewalk for profit for a gang).

What I would advocate instead is rehab and treatment programs....perhaps locking them up for a very short time..but the purpose of my approach is to give people time to dry out and then get help and treatment....This does not require mandatory minimum sentencing of years or decades....It requires weeks, or at MOST months, and then outpatient treatment.

The current approach is not about helping people dry out. Its about punishing people so terribly that people are afraid to do them...This fails. People are not afraid because most people dont get caught. Those who are addicted generally are not afraid of the law. Fear does not work. This approach is an absolute failure and only serves to create drug cartels that increases the influence of violent gangs. A decade in prison is obviously longer than it takes to help somebody dry out.....At this point the harm from the punishment is greater than the harm from the drug.

The current approach of 'tough on crime' for non-violent drug offenses is like cutting your childs leg off for running into the street...Yes, it will keep them from running into the street again and in theory might save their life, but most likely they were not going to get hit if you just warned them more gently or gave them a light spanking but now they are cripled for life because of your cruelty......The current drug laws exibit a level of creulty perhaps even worse than cutting off a leg for running into the street....I would rather have my leg cut off than be separated from my wife and daughter for decades for personal use of a controlled substance (on my own time when somebody else is watching my family....If I was neglecting my child then I deserve to go to prison). It is cruel and unjust, and those who support such draconian injustice can barely even be considered human....and should be treated accordingly.

And this point even ignores the fact that people are often INTRODUCED to new drugs in prison when there is nothing else to do. It is