Msimon,
I have been thinking... (yeah when the hell did that happen?
).
Maybe you do have a point with the whole drug war thing.
We are not that different in the way we think, please correct me, if I am wrong:
-We both want to get rid of the criminals and protect the victims/addicts.
-We both do not want to have the addicts/victims treated as criminals. They are not criminals. So we are on the same page here.
However, I focus on reducing the number of drug addicts (victims) and you focus on reducing the number of drug criminals.
I also see reducing the number of drug crime as only a partial win. The crime will then simply shift to something else (prostitution, or new designer drugs that are not covered by the new laws whatever else comes along). Also some designer drugs can be too dangerous to legalize.
Still, I am willing to talk this out.
I am pretty much OK with an approach as they have it in Portugal.
That is perfectly fine. I do like that the drug users/addicts are not criminalized. However this allone does not give you anything that you want (get rid of the drug associated crime).
I would even condone if the government handed out the drugs for a very low price (always underbidding the criminals, no matter how low the street price gets) but under the condition that it happens under medical supervision. Addicts would have to get their drugs from a medical doctor, or a clinic of some sorts. This would guarantee hygienic conditions to counteract diseases associated with drug abuse(e.g. HIV and Hepatitis, methmouth, etc) it would also get rid of used needles lying around in children's sandboxes in parks, or public toilets and stuff like that. It would also make sure that the addicts do not overdose, since the amounts made available to them would be limited to save doses. The medical supervision could also come with a psychological observation and the offer of psychological suppport. If these people really are just "selfmedicating" then this sure should be very welcome by them. The other benefit would be a large source of information on the potential negative effects of drug abuse on the brain. Maybe there would even be the possibility to find treatments that counteract such negative effects. I know that you have studies that deny such negative effects, or that put them on the same level with alcohol, etc, etc, but I have seen studies that say otherwise and I do not trust this at all. Messing with the brain is not good. Drugs mess with the brain. So we should look into this really well.
Anyway, my proposed approach would not be entirely without problems either.
I can see several problematic scenarios with this and it would take a while and more than one brain to sort these out. But lets first try to come to a common ground on the basic approach
What do you think about this proposal? Would this be a compromise that you could accept?
Where would you see potential problems with this?
