The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
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The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
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Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#2> Then came the 1970s and the drug war. “Oh my goodness, now I have a business,” he thought.
This guy is pretty interesting (and it's disappointing that he didn't do something more constructive with his skills), but this quote stood out the most to me. If you start limiting supply but not curtailing demand (e.g. a drug war), it makes it a lot more profitable to sell. And all that money makes it a lot easier for the sellers to become big and organized and dangerous.
I'm sure it's not that simple, but it really makes me wonder what would happen with widespread legalization.
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#3> Then came the 1970s and the drug war. “Oh my goodness, now I have a business,” he thought. This guy is pretty interesting (and it's disappointing that he didn't do something more constructive with his skills), but this quote stood out the most to me. If you start limiting supply but not curtailing demand (e.g. a drug war), it makes it a lot more profitable to sell. And all that money makes it a lot easier for the s…
With legalization, the drugs would be cleaner and dosing more predictable. We could then focus on helping addicts recover instead of worrying about the legal trouble and violence they might bring to our homes if we try to help them.
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#4what about carfentanil: https://spauldingdecon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/fentan...
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#5Ok, things I didn't know about where I grew up...
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#6> Then came the 1970s and the drug war. “Oh my goodness, now I have a business,” he thought. This guy is pretty interesting (and it's disappointing that he didn't do something more constructive with his skills), but this quote stood out the most to me. If you start limiting supply but not curtailing demand (e.g. a drug war), it makes it a lot more profitable to sell. And all that money makes it a lot easier for the s…
And a drug war also encourages manufacturing and selling drugs that are as potent as possible, like fentanyl. The same happened with Prohibition: the underground market was all hard liquor, not beer.
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#7> Then came the 1970s and the drug war. “Oh my goodness, now I have a business,” he thought. This guy is pretty interesting (and it's disappointing that he didn't do something more constructive with his skills), but this quote stood out the most to me. If you start limiting supply but not curtailing demand (e.g. a drug war), it makes it a lot more profitable to sell. And all that money makes it a lot easier for the s…
It is that simple. Here is a Nobel Prize winning economist agreeing with you:
“See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true.” ― Milton Friedman
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#8> Then came the 1970s and the drug war. “Oh my goodness, now I have a business,” he thought. This guy is pretty interesting (and it's disappointing that he didn't do something more constructive with his skills), but this quote stood out the most to me. If you start limiting supply but not curtailing demand (e.g. a drug war), it makes it a lot more profitable to sell. And all that money makes it a lot easier for the s…
With legalization, the drugs would be cleaner and dosing more predictable. We could then focus on helping addicts recover instead of worrying about the legal trouble and violence they might bring to our homes if we try to help them.
Being in my mid 50's I know lots and lots of people who at one time had problems with drugs and managed to recover from that and go on to lead reasonably happy lives. The ones that were unlucky enough to get arrested have had a lot harder time putting that behind them than the ones that weren't[1].
Being arrested puts you in the situation of Jean Valjean, released from prison, 'free' but not free.
[1 I know someone who was a drug addict and dealing. He got busted. The end result was he had to scramble and sell even more drugs to pay his legal bills. He was successful eventually. But ultimately also because he lived in California.
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#9> Then came the 1970s and the drug war. “Oh my goodness, now I have a business,” he thought. This guy is pretty interesting (and it's disappointing that he didn't do something more constructive with his skills), but this quote stood out the most to me. If you start limiting supply but not curtailing demand (e.g. a drug war), it makes it a lot more profitable to sell. And all that money makes it a lot easier for the s…
With legalization, the drugs would be cleaner and dosing more predictable. We could then focus on helping addicts recover instead of worrying about the legal trouble and violence they might bring to our homes if we try to help them.
So far legalization has not proven to solve the problems of demand or addiction. In the past several years legally available drugs have been the most abused and resulted in significant problems. I am not claiming this as a justification for increased enforcement either.
If you aren't solving for demand you either aren't taking the problem seriously or you have anterior motives to ending drug abuse.
Re: The Walter White of Wichita (2016)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
With legalization, the drugs would be cleaner and dosing more predictable. We could then focus on helping addicts recover instead of worrying about the legal trouble and violence they might bring to our homes if we try to help them.
So far legalization has not proven to solve the problems of demand or addiction. In the past several years legally available drugs have been the most abused and resulted in significant problems. I am not claiming this as a justification for increased enforcement either. If you aren't solving for demand you either aren't taking the problem seriously or you have anterior motives to ending drug abuse.
Solving for demand means something like reversing the trend of disenfranchised people saying "fuck off to everything" [0]. How do you reverse alienation? Well, I can't purport to have the answer to that, but I can say that almost every popular political movement today is selling its own path to such a reversal (which, to be fair, they've been trying to sell for forever).
That said, two possible avenues imo would be to reduce criminal penalties for people who are only hurting themselves, and also to try to make the US healthcare model more efficient - to make it like what seems like every other country already has. Those are two spirals that seem to trap a lot of already-burdened people, that drive them either to misery or living in extremis.
[0] https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/12/06/the-antidot...