Re:Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs
by jmyeet on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @07:58PM
(#36964998)
The so-called "War on Drugs" was an objective and abject failure. It merely created the carceral state leading to the US having the highest per-capita incarceration rate of any country in the world. With 4% of the world's population, the US has 25% of the world's prisoners.
It's not that decriminalizing drugs hasn't worked. It's just now you see it. Previously it was hidden in remote prisons where the drugs were often brought in by the staff.
The point here is you need to fix the underlying reasons why people use drugs. Those reasons vary. Many heroin users start off with a valid prescription for opiate painkillers. The US prescribes opiates at a prodigious rate. Doctors are given golf trips to prescribe Oxycontin to enrich the Sacklers, creating the next generation of heroin junkie.
A lot of it is escapism and self-medication too. Untreated mental health issues, homelessness, hopeless conditions, etc.
In short, the drug isssue cannot be separated from material conditions, from having basic needs met. So when people cannot afford food or shelter, we as a society are making a choice to prioritize profits for a very few at the expensive of spreading misery and death to many people. Putting them in prison merely hides those problems from view.
It's not that decriminalizing drugs hasn't worked. It's just now you see it. Previously it was hidden in remote prisons where the drugs were often brought in by the staff.
The point here is you need to fix the underlying reasons why people use drugs. Those reasons vary. Many heroin users start off with a valid prescription for opiate painkillers. The US prescribes opiates at a prodigious rate. Doctors are given golf trips to prescribe Oxycontin to enrich the Sacklers, creating the next generation of heroin junkie.
A lot of it is escapism and self-medication too. Untreated mental health issues, homelessness, hopeless conditions, etc.
In short, the drug isssue cannot be separated from material conditions, from having basic needs met. So when people cannot afford food or shelter, we as a society are making a choice to prioritize profits for a very few at the expensive of spreading misery and death to many people. Putting them in prison merely hides those problems from view.