Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

drugpolicy.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 242 posts

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#11

Post by BoorishBears »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

> Unless we as a society take a stand on some of these issues, we will be in deep trouble in a few years.

You say that like there isn't a mental health epidemic already going on right now that's being ignored. Solve that and we're 99.9% of the solving your doomsday scenario...

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#12

Post by kolbe »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

I think it's very juvenile to equate legality with encouragement.

[edit below]

> Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment.

I find it to be much better than the alternative where we make a choice with no experimental data, and instead of a small test small test sample being impacted by the decision, we have an entire country impacted by it. I really don't understand the hesitancy among some HN participates to experimentation in political decisions. In theory, people here all have jobs where the products and changes they ship are thoroughly tested and justified with experimentation. Medicine experiments with peoples lives all the time. To me, it's no different with laws. If we want good ones, don't just dive all-in based on some feel-goody sentiments: justify it with data.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#13

Post by apsec112 »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

There's a huge gulf between saying "X is fine to eat" and "we will put you in jail for owning X". Drinking bleach is a horrible idea, but is completely legal, and nobody wants to put bleach owners in jail.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#14

Post by count »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

Why these drugs, and not caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, refined sugar, and others? Where does personal responsibility come into your thinking?

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#15

Post by notJim »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #5

I really hope this leads to more research on the effect of psychedelics on treatment-resistant depression. People with depression suffer unimaginable anguish every day - we owe it to them to give them the best treatment options possible.

Oregon also legalized research into psychedelics, but that was a separate measure. I think it will take longer to get off the ground, because a committee needs to be established to figure out how to conduct the research.

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#16

Post by abhorrence »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

Everything you’ve said about marijuana applies to the alcohol industry. I’m not sure if you’re suggesting marijuana should continue to be outlawed, but if that’s what you believe, do you also believe we should outlaw alcohol?

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#17

Post by anewaccount2021 »

rjbwork wrote: post #10
imperio59 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

>The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let these lobbies profit off the back of addicts and their families and their ruined lives. Nah, the next obvious step is to legalize them and have pure supplies of known purity and dosage distributed by the government at near-cost + tax to exclusively fund social programs and rehab. There's no need to bring profit into it. Prohibition doesn't work. We've seen it t…

Why would anyone enter rehab if the government is providing free, high-quality drugs?

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#19

Post by cptskippy »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

If your concern for the legalization of drugs is businesses exploiting people, maybe the focus should be on preventing businesses from exploiting people and not limiting people's autonomy to make decisions about their own lives?

Re: Drug decriminalization in Oregon begins today

#20

Post by lambda_obrien »

imperio59 wrote: post #6
kolbe wrote: post #3

Say what you will about your opinion of what the results of this will be, it does create an experiment for us to learn with. I think one of the great tragedies of politics is that we do not experiment enough, so when ones like this pop up naturally, it'll give us great data.

Experimenting with people's lives is not a responsible way to experiment. No one is denying these drugs are harmful, yet Oregon is basically saying "go ahead, it's fine, use these drugs". Seeing what is happening with the Marijuana lobbies coming in and putting in billions in lobbying should scare everybody. We have big tobacco to look at for where this leads. The next obvious step is to legalize all drugs, and let t…

> No one is denying these drugs are harmful

Everything is harmful when used incorrectly, but useful when used correctly. I for one think these drugs are not inherently harmful, everything has a use. Why should doctors get to be a gatekeeper of my health if I choose to self medicate?

Post reply on HN