I'm not sure if the opiate overdoes epidemic is a clear strike against legalization, but it is surely a cautionary tale about supporting a system of all drugs being open sale of unlimited quantities and unlimited advertising. I support some form of drug legalization but, unlike food that is controlled for content but not much else, legal drugs will need more regulation.
Putting aside the more libertarian approach to legalization where hard drugs are left to the market and profits are made off of their sale, there are other options.
For instance, where drug use is legal, manufacture is illegal, and addicts are able to get free doses while under the supervision of medical staff. The free availability undercuts any potential black market, supervision severely reduces the potential for overdose, and the medical staff is able to have a regular conversation with the patient about options for getting clean.
Moreover, by turning drug use into a medical and welfare issue, it's my belief that it will prevent addiction by removing the "romance" of hard drug use for first time users.
Marijuana is a totally different story, it's benign enough that market legalization works just fine. But for opiates and amphetamines and the like, you need a very different approach.
That said, the opiate epidemic has shown that we have a problem of overprescription that stems from the pharmaceutical industry, and that's something we'd have to address if we were ever to move towards this approach.
It has been transmuted into hyper addictive nutritionless junk and it’s marketed with all the strength of humanity’s brightest, with no regard to the legions who now suffer obesity related disability, diabetes, etc.
When that same marketing machine gets its hands on marijuana, I’m sure it’ll make the world suffer.
And if you think to use alcohol as a counter example, think twice because the USA regulates it harder than most. GB is closer to laissez faire, and their alcoholism rates’ increase resembles our obesity.
So what? Nothing is worse than the prison system. Literally, nothing. Risk of death by overdose does not justify shoveling people into the horrific US correctional system.
> tens of thousands of people will die every year via ingestion of legal drugs unless some kind of intervention is made to remove their access to those drugs.
Thousands of deaths per year? That's your justification for giving the prison system more chum? (500k per year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_ra... )
I don't mean to be emotional, but: I'm curious if you've ever known anyone who spent time in prison, and have heard their candid description of it.
It's on you to make the case that "saving a drug user's life" is achieved by sending them to the worst place on earth.
I mean, everyone knows you can overdose. So that makes it a conscious choice, and we should preserve people's ability to make an informed choice to put themselves in danger.
Well, a base jumper is, well, dead when the parachute fails. You maybe need someone to scrape the remains off the ground, but that's it.
Drug addictions and ODs, as well as the side effects from criminalization (prison/judicial costs, drug related crime) end up costing a boatload of money, plus a highly aggressive user of coke, meth or multiple drugs is often enough a public danger.
Addiction changes the brain, there may have been a day when they made a choice but soon it was made for them.
Several of my former classmates have died from heroin/fentanyl. They were looking for help, they were trying to get clean, they were good kids. It destroyed their families and has put enormous strain on our police and ems.
Talk about legalization, fine, but "let them die" is just callous.
You know what? I am too. If you spoke to me years ago, I'd say much of the danger from opiates comes from not knowing what dose you're taking. Much of the crime comes from the price (due to it being black market). Much of the crime comes from addicts who can't afford their fix (due to the price) or rival dealer (who can't settle disputes in the courts).
Now I think maybe a decriminalization for hard drugs would be better. Purchasing / possessing is not criminalized (or subject to a small fine, like smoking a joint in public is treated in weed-legal states.
(I'm also in support of the states that have ramped up their age to buy tobacco to 21)
Everywhere else you don't hear about "opioid epidemic"
It's surprisingly hard to OD with a clean supply, measured dosing, and emergency services on site. I don't think that clean, supervised drug use is actually any more dangerous than say... skydiving or bungee-jumping.
(It's actually hard to fatally OD with just one vaguely sober person an nasal naloxone, but that's more specific to opiates.)
With additional data, government can be more proactive in preventing addiction in the first place.
It seems to be the case that some opioid addicts transition from using prescribed medication to illegally obtained medication, which is sometimes illegally produced and adulterated with other drugs. So, it seems that legalizing the recreational use of opiates would enable people to use the "authentic" version of the drug, which is safer.
On the other hand, there are tons of overdoses from prescribed opiates, which are legally obtained; and the overdoses are increasing. Contra my earlier belief, it seems that as access to opiates became easy and legal (via prescriptions), the number of addicts increased dramatically.
This seems to be a situation in which tens of thousands of people will die every year via ingestion of legal drugs unless some kind of intervention is made to remove their access to those drugs. It's hard to see how legalization or decriminalization would make a big difference.