
Why we can’t wage war on drugs - jseliger
http://aeon.co/magazine/living-together/we-cant-wage-war-on-drugs/
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aggieben
I checked out the moment the author drew a kind of strained equivalency
between illegal amphetamines (i.e., meth) and modafinil and _caffeine_.

I'm all for ending the drug war as we know it, but I don't find this kind of
thing helpful. Is a very technical way, he's right: the overall picture of
what drugs _are_ and what they _do_ and why some are judged "bad" and others
not is a nuanced, historically literate view. And almost completely
irrelevant.

Being high on meth is a completely different phenomenon than being stimulated
into wakefulness. The former can cause people to do really stupid and
dangerous things, not to mention the physical destruction it wreaks on the
human body. The two are really incomparable in practice. IMO, policy arguments
out to focus on the ill effects of the "drug war" itself, not the technical
equivalencies between drugs to which most people will not assent (including
me).

~~~
jqm
Dose and scale of usage are kind of important factors here...

If people are chewing coca leaves is that really very different from caffeine?
No, probably not. So then...what if they are doing very small amounts of
cocaine or amphetamines? Is that very different from caffeine?

I'm guessing most of the problem with drugs actually comes very simply from
the abuse of drugs.

~~~
dscrd
Excluding outright poisons (which none of the narcotics are), everything is ok
in moderation. Trouble is, many things are too enticing to keep using
moderately.

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grownseed
This is beautifully written.

"As drugs have swirled into this kaleidoscope of lifestyle and consumer
choices, the identity of the ‘drug user’ has slipped out of view."

This perfectly sums up the situation in my opinion. Many people still,
regrettably, automatically associate drugs with the "classical junkie", while
forgetting that they themselves are drug users, of a kind or another.

Not mentioned in this piece, but I believe there exist escaping habits
incredibly akin to drugs, with effects at least as damaging, or I suppose, as
good too. One only needs to look at chronic social networkers, obsessed
reality TV show watchers or compulsive buyers, to only name a few.

Any attempt at suppressing these behaviors therefore seems utterly pointless,
push on one end and it'll come out of the other.

One might think that helping people realize self-worth and be critical,
through (actual) education, would be the answer, but one may dream...

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paulannesley
I love this: “A cup of tea is psychoactive, but we would only call it a drug
if we wished to make a point.”

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mindstab
If people want to get high, they will find a way. For me, "Jenkem" is the
ultimate argument ender

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenkem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenkem)

Fermented human waste in tupper ware in the sun for a day or two. How can you
fight a war against that?

Instead try some other approach to education, management, and social state
that reduces the number of people who feel driven to this in the first place
perhaps.

~~~
Chinjut
But jenkem was a hoax, as your link tells us...

~~~
x3c
Usage in US was hoax. Jenkem isn't.

