

Subu Must Die: How a nation of junkies went cold turkey (2013) - gwern
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113051/georgias-war-drugs-how-its-subutex-addiction-ended

======
bronbron
Interesting. The detour at the end about weed is also kind of weird. Not sure
how I feel about it.

Sure, addiction of any kind is something we should probably investigate and
help treat.

It's still weird to hear what amounts to a "Reefer Madness lite" scare at the
end given that what I took from the article. That is, widespread drug abuse is
almost assuredly a symptom of other problems (unemployment/dim prospects in
the case of Georgia), and that banning harmless drugs (e.g. Subu) will just
lead people to seek dangerous alternatives (e.g. Krokodil).

If the author's point is that we should look from a high level at why
widespread drug usage occurs and how we can make beneficial steps towards
reducing that (like increasing social mobility, as nebulous as that phrase is)
then I'm on board. If it's that we should be concerned about legalized
marijuana because it'll lead to glass pipes littering our parks, I'm less
convinced.

------
kristofferR
The article doesn't really say much about it, but what were the problems with
Subutex that made Georgia start the drug war rampage?

~~~
zaphar
Right or Wrong the Nation of Georgia didn't like being known as a nation of
drug addicts. They were concerned about their international reputation.

When you think about it that reputation does have some pretty far ranging
effects on your relations with other countries so it was a valid concern. The
root cause of the problem wasn't addressed though. They were fixing the wrong
problem.

------
seren
It clarified for me why tourists were recently arrested and imprisoned for
having a few codeine pain relievers in their suitcase.

------
SubuSS
Yeah - as a guy named Subu, that was not a good title to read :)

