61–70 of 110 posts
Why not make trafficking the big F an offense punishable with lethal injection? Seems just.
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Oregon tried it, and it failed. So no, not they way they did it. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/oregon-governor-signs-...
Oregon legalized it and then skipped doing any of the other stuff that was advertised as coming with it, like free addiction treatment, social programs, etc. It's a 'we've done nothing and we're all out of ideas' approach consistent with the state's approach to homelessness at various levels, where agencies won't even spend the money they already have because they don't even know roughly how many homeless people ther…
So drug traffickers mix the fentanyl with baking soda, tramadol, starch, whatever cheap additive they can get their hands on. Each trafficker adds more, to make the product nonlethal, but mostly to increase bulk, and increase profit. Unfortunately, they use blenders, kitchen mixers, and their bare hands. They don’t invest in pharmaceutical grade equipment.
The mix is very uneven, so when an addict takes a hit, he or she may either get no buzz at all, get a nice high, or die of an overdose. Each hit is like Russian roulette.
If only drug traffickers had better equipment, and quality controls. The way things are today, when you buy illegal drugs you don’t know what the hell you’re getting.
Do you think legalising safer drugs, like Heroin, would be a sensible step? [Edit: I do] I advocate legalising Opium straight away. I think Heroin is a step further than required. How many people have to die from synthetic opiate overdose? The obvious public health measure is to legalise the much safer natural alternatives.
Legalize it in what manner? Fentanyl is legal - it’s used by hospitals all over the country. Should you be able to buy opium at the corner store? I’m not sure that would be good for almost anyone given the dependence you build on it very quickly. What’s the Bull case for more people having easy access to opium products ?
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In college I worked in a hospital where one of the nurses was abusing fentanyl by taking the 'waste' and ordering doses for patients and not administering it. Eventually people caught on and confronted her, she offered to take a toxicology test to prove her innocence so they drew her blood. She was completely coherent, you would have a hard time knowing that she was the least bit altered, but she had something like 5…
I’m incredibly fat (300 lbs) but they never have problems knocking me out with a light dose because I have zero experience with recreational drugs or alcohol. They need to up the dosage substantially for heavy weed users. Intellectually I would love to know how it affects her. Does she require ever-increasing doses? Did the first time put her to sleep? Is her driving impaired? So many questions…
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Oregon decriminalized simple possession by end users. You would still need to purchase the drugs from the exact illicit supply chain the DEA is profiling here, so it's no surprise it didn't solve the overdose crisis. Under legalization you could buy an exact dose from a licensed supplier.
I’m not sure legalization would change much: fentanyl is so popular as a street drug because it is so cheap. Providing a much more expensive alternative isn’t going to suck away demand from the illicit version
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Just because a drug doesn't kill you physically, doesn't mean it doesn't harm you in other deeply profound ways. Related: Nuggets[1] 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUngLgGRJpo
Opiates, and many classes of illegal drugs, do very little harm. Addiction is the main feature, and if the substance has no artificial scarcity, addiction is easy to manage. There is no basis on harm reduction for the drug policies being pursued in most of the world
But opiates taken over a relatively short time can and often do greatly impair CNS neurotransmitter systems and downstream behaviors—-in some cases causing almost irremediable dysfunction. This happens to a sizable subpopulation of humans; more than 10% of physician-prescribed oxycontin users. Genetics and social context modulate vulnerability.
This is definitely not “little harm”.
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I’m not sure legalization would change much: fentanyl is so popular as a street drug because it is so cheap. Providing a much more expensive alternative isn’t going to suck away demand from the illicit version
These are not intrinsically expensive chemicals. A small charity could give it away for free. I would wager dysfunctional drug addicts don't value their time too highly, and wouldn't be put out by having to talk to someone every day to get their fix. Meanwhile it's a great place to push interventions. It's obvious fundamentalist prohibition is straight up not working.
At best what we can achieve is what Portugal achieved, which is mixed success that no one is really happy about.
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When you legalize something you get more of it. Gotta be mindful of that.
More drugs? Why is that bad?
The problem is that fentanyl is very strong, and drug traffickers have very poor quality controls. The LD50 is 0.03 mg/kg in monkeys, so if humans are like monkeys, a 70 kg human has a 50% chance of dying after ingesting 2 mg of fentanyl. A 1 mg pill of pure fentanyl would be very tiny. So drug traffickers mix the fentanyl with baking soda, tramadol, starch, whatever cheap additive they can get their hands on. Each t…