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A comment on What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’s opioid crisis?. Parent comment

Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by JumpCrisscross on Sunday April 09, 2023 @09:48PM (#35508355)
> Is this true? Congress made heroin illegal in 1924, 99 years ago, and the “heroin epidemic” didn’t really start until maybe 2010

Yes [1].

Law-abiding Americans became addicted to prescription opioids (wave 1). We clamped down on their distribution, particularly prescription, and left those addicted with no legal choices. They turned to heroin (wave 2). So we clamped down on its distribution, particularly import, and so got concentrated (easier to ship) and synthetic (no unique precursors) fentanyl (wave 3).

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html

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Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by voidfunc on Monday April 10, 2023 @01:03AM (#35509335)
You may not agree with the solution chosen but it seems as a society we've decided on death as the long term strategy. Eventually these addicts will simply die off.
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Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by marssaxman on Monday April 10, 2023 @01:16AM (#35509400)
New addicts will keep coming along, of course, until we stop making people so miserable that addiction feels preferable to ordinary existence.
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Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by imtringued on Monday April 10, 2023 @02:36AM (#35509736)
Drug clinics work just fine, why go with the expensive option?
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Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by jutrewag on Monday April 10, 2023 @05:23AM (#35510539)
Even if you subscribe to this notion, you’re ignoring the billions it costs for emergency services so this addict can “die off”.
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Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by Narretz on Monday April 10, 2023 @06:57AM (#35510977)
If you grow up in a community of drug users, chances are high you'll become one yourself
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Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by panarchy on Monday April 10, 2023 @09:52AM (#35512299)
I'm sure having some of your family die off because everyone else seemingly deemed them as a worthless junkie whose only use is dying before they take up too much resource won't drive others to be miserable and start consuming drugs...
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Re:What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’... by Sparkyte on Monday April 10, 2023 @02:03AM (#35509589)
Thing is drug abusers will turn to the next thing and the next thing. You can only get abusers clean if you take them through a system that enables it. Decriminalizing doesn't improve it either. Like any drug there will be new inventions and flavors circulating.

Criminalization of drugs, but not of all substances is a must. Alcohol and marajuana are certainly okay. But again criminalization is the only way to ensure people get the attention they need. We just need to change the way we jail people.

In Thailand you get two options go to jail or go to a temple and get clean.

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