2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: CBS poll: 51% of Millennials voting either Republican or Libertarian (white women only 49%) [View all]Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I'm coming to the opinion that, from a public health and safety perspective, nothing could possibly be worse than prohibition. And philosophically (this is where the libertarians make the slightest sliver of sense) I still stand by the idea, as a sort of baseline starting point, that a consenting adult should be able to do whatever the fuck he or she wants with his or her own body and nervous system, as long as he or she isn't directly harming or endangering anyone else.
Ah, you say, what about people who drive under the influence or neglect their kids? Well, neglecting kids or driving under the influence are, themselves, separate actionable crimes and should be treated as such. Absolutely.
But actual hard drug use, I think, or more specifically hard drug addiction, should be treated as a public health issue and not a law enforcement one. And statistically, what many people don't realize, is that even the super-dangerous addictive drugs like heroin, not everyone who uses them becomes an addict. Now, I admit I have real trouble envisioning heroin or meth being available at the 7-11. But I think we need to at least stop treating possession of amounts for personal use as a prison-worthy offense, or maybe even as a crime at all. The resources would be far better funneled into treatment on demand for those who do have problems.
I also think we're way overdue for treating the issue of "drugs" like a mature and sensible species, and not knee-jerking black and white all over the issue. All "drugs" are not created equal. Psychedelics are a very different animal from opiates, etc. I think our society actually has a need for the sort of transformative growth experiences which can be facilitated by certain psychedelics, as well as ritualized contexts for those experiences. But that's probably a Terrence McKenna conversation for a different day.