
All Drugs Should Be Legalized Immediately, Says Harvard Prof - tzury
http://www.businessinsider.com/all-drugs-should-be-legalized-immediately-says-harvard-prof-2010-10
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kls
While I agree with the sentiment, I don't know that heroin, crack, or crystal-
meth should be included in the lot of legalized drugs. They border on poisons,
and their existences are due solely to the drug war. Chemical modification to
make the base more potent for smuggling and then cut on location have driven
the trade to formulate stronger product per-gram so that it can be easily
transported. In doing so they have become near poisonous products.

If we take opium and Heroin for example Heroin abuse was not ramped until the
availability of opium and laudanum where no longer available. Opium, despite
the fear mongering, is a relatively safe product with few deaths attributed to
it, it was also the drug of choice among opiate abusers until it's abolishment
at which point Heroin became the primary substance of choice due to
availability. The same can be applied to the coca leaf and crack.

We should legalize the natural forms of these drugs and we will see the market
for the expensive hard stuff dry up.

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revdinosaur
I think that _not_ including these forms of the drugs you mentioned will
entirely defeat the purpose of legalizing all drugs in one fell swoop. Aside
from their scary chemical properties, you should take into consideration that
the people who are addicted to these drugs are often driven to desperate
situations because of their illegal status and resulting cost. Having known
several heroin addicts, it is not realistic that they would reduce their
intake to opium willingly even if that meant they are within legal rights to
do so. The same goes for cocaine; many people graduate beyond the use of
cocaine to crack because simple powdered cocaine fails to fulfill their need
or because their nasal cavities are too damaged to suffice.

What I am saying is that I believe your idea of waiting for the market for
processed drugs to "dry up" will inevitably mean creating a class of drug
users who will continue to be persecuted until they presumably die out. This
seems remarkably inhumane.

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chopsueyar
_many people graduate beyond the use of cocaine to crack_

Cocaine is a gateway drug to crack?

According to this NSDUH study
(<http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k9NSDUH/2k9Results.htm>):

In, 2009, there were 617,000 people, aged 12 years or older, who used cocaine
for the first time. During that same period, 94,000 tried crack for the first
time.

If many people 'graduate' beyond the use of cocaine, I would expect I larger
number of first-time crack smokers.

~~~
revdinosaur
True, I simply based this off of the addicts that I have known. It is totally
anecdotal, but from the time I spent with them the consensus was that powdered
coke was no longer desirable to snort after long periods of time and so they
would move onto smoking it. It wasn't very long before many of them switched
directly to crack. I suppose if I ran in different circles I would have seen
people switch to injecting instead.

