• snooggums@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    A lot of people who are against drug use want them to be illegal and dangerous to use. Someone overdosing from buying drugs illegally is a preferable outcome for them because they think it will discourage people from buying illegal drugs.

    They want the drugs to be both illegal and dangerous.

    In reality making them legal and regulated decreases use and is safer for those that do, which doesn’t work for people who think suffering is the goal.

    • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s horrible circular logic.

      Q: why is the drug illegal?
      A: because it’s dangerous.

      Q: why is it dangerous?
      A: because it’s illegal.

      • frostbiker@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Q: why is it dangerous?

        A: because it’s illegal.

        Plenty of street drugs are addictive and dangerous even in their pure form. See for example the opiate crisis where many people started their addiction with pharmacologically pure prescription opiates.

        • MacroCyclo@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          While true, a large majority of the overdoses in the last decade are due to street drugs not being pure. The clean drugs will kill you eventually, the street drugs will kill you today.

          • frostbiker@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            The clean drugs will kill you eventually, the street drugs will kill you today.

            The most common way people die of heroin/opiate overdose happens when they have reduced/stopped their consumption for a while and then something happens in their lives that makes them go back to it. On the first time they use it again, they overdose because they have lost some of their tolerance.

            This very common path to overdose will happen whether the drug was pure or not. The root cause is that there is fairly narrow band of dosage in which you get high but don’t stop breathing altogether.

            Providing pharma grade hard drugs isn’t the panacea that some people believe. Nuance is necessary. I haven’t even touched on the very real downsides of living next to a clinic that provides services for people addicted to drugs.

            • SheerDumbLuck@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              I live next to one such clinic in a huge city. It sure beats having neighbours OD in your backyard or shoot up on the sidewalk. There was a small vocal minority worried about their law and order who tried to shut down the site, and hundreds of neighbours showed up to tell them to pound sand.

              Safe supply is healthcare. The people accessing safe supply and safe injection sites are much more likely to be getting help.

  • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Hmm, a guaranteed pure version of a drug that people will take anyway, in precisely known quantities, whilst raising revenue for the government (and forcing most drug dealers to change jobs)?

    What a great idea. Watch it take off almost nowhere.

  • Aurix@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is known for a long time, but the mindset ofntoo many is these people do not deserve to live, if they do or are something deviating from norms. It is about rare illnesses, neurodivergence and lifestyle choices and unfortunately everywhere.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That mindset comes from somewhere. Drug addicts make for an easy, politically expedient target. It doesn’t just happen, and fighting that mindset means calling out the people creating scapegoats.

  • psvrh@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Here’s the Canadian solution: how about we just not enforce existing drug laws, but also not spend money on safe supply or treatment.

    That way all the crime happens where poor people live, and rich people can just pay less taxes! Win-win!

  • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    No shit fucking morons. Grow up. I have to watch these traps and killers profit off fiends all while useless cops watch them while the whole thing goes down. Fuck America all the way to hell and deeper.

  • tret@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    This is really hard for me to get behind. On the one hand I can get behind the compassion and safety aspect. Addicts have a sickness and shouldn’t be treated as criminals who have no value and are disposable. On the other hand, I have personal experience with just how much damage an addict does to those around them. Enabling them to do that damage and victimize the very people who love and once trusted them with everything feels wrong.

    • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m not convinced that safe and legal drug taking will enable addicts any more than they’re already so.

      Also there are many recreational drug takers who don’t harm society.

      • tret@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Sure, I don’t think this will enable them more than any other source. I guess in my case with the difficulties I’ve experienced, the pain my kids and I are still experiencing, any source of the substance at the root of it is hard to accept.

        • Fifteen_Two@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          It’s not the substance though, it’s the structures around them. I suppose when you have personal experice with the harms of drugs, as directly as you are describing, it would become difficult to care about that distinction though.

          • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            You can’t remove the substance from the equation entirely like that. Yes there are a lot of other problems too, but pretending meth or fentanyl or whatever isn’t harmful on its own is not helping.

            Remember the drugs are usually the catalyst that get people on the street. People can hold it together right up until they become addicted, then the substance makes everything worse.

            • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I’m not an addict yet. But I’m addicted to the street. I can’t say your statement is a constant truth. My addiction to the street is based off adrenaline, not trap sold drugs. I’ve never done more than weed and mushrooms - a long time ago.

              The streets about freedom, people aren’t necessarily there for drugs. But drugs play a huge role in how people into the freedom of street life survive. If you’re selling drugs you can be free. The fiends are pawns and used like cattle for cash. It’s really twisted and fucked up and I often wonder why people push so hard for trendy political change but aren’t willing to bring it to street thugs. Some people even make their money killing. The amount of shit I’ve gathered from having one foot in the street… I guarantee there is no such thing as law an order in America. Unless maybe you have money your might see some of that traditional American image.

        • Not_mikey@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Would you rather that source be providing clean drugs and the money going towards drug education and addiction prevention programs, or filled with God knows what and the money going towards guns for a gang or cartel.

          The demand is and will always be there. Better the supply come from an organ we can regulate then a crime syndicate.

          • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Oh but I’m a precious American and that stuff doesn’t happen even though murder is on the news everyday and the gang do bNes from the neighboring states. /S

            I’m about gang up just to slaughter a trap. Those clowns deserve death. I grew up around losers like that. They do kill and get away with it. Cops don’t even listen. America is dead as fuck. I’d rather so some other country bulldoze this place.

    • adderaline@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      ugh. i barely want to respond to this, but “deserve” in this context is wild. substance abuse is a medical condition, not a moral failing. its disproportionately affects people who are poor, mentally ill, or otherwise disadvantaged, and many unhoused people start doing drugs while on the street, because if fucking sucks to be living on the street.

      the actual utility of “locking people up” as a response to drug abuse is not positive. prisons are miserable places, and people often aren’t given the kind of care they need to get clean and stay clean, and relapse when they get out, because their circumstances haven’t improved. as it turns out, locking people in a cage for years does little to address the underlying issues that cause substance abuse. nobody “deserves” prison. its ineffective generally, and particularly ineffective at actually getting people off of drugs. all it does is punish people who are suffering.