I think it depends a little on what you mean by legalization.
Decriminalization, as far as I’m aware, is all that has been seriously tried for hard drugs. That leaves the illegal industry in tact, and continues all the issues that can come with it. I am 100% behind the legalization of drugs, I just think that the real societal improvement comes with increased healthcare availability for addicts, such as needle exchanges, purity testing, and addiction recovery services.
Fully legalizing hard drugs comes with its own minefield, too. Cigarettes are powerfully addictive, and companies have exploited their legal status to make them ubiquitous. They intentionally market them to children and use product placement to ensure that smoking is seen as “cool”. I can only imagine how things would go if companies like that were in the methamphetamine business.
And to an extent, they are. I am part of the generation that was pumped full of Ritalin to “fix” attention issues in children, and many of those kids have experienced a continuation of the addictive behavior that was introduced to them in a doctors office. The intersection of capitalism and biochemical addiction is a gross industry of exploitation.
I am a recovering heroin addict (17 years clean), so I am no stranger to the problems of addiction, enforcement, and healthcare. I definitely believe that removing the prohibition on drugs is the first place to start if we want to improve the problem. I just also know how fundamentally powerful hard drugs can be, and without an accessible off ramp for addiction as well as available materials to stay safe while you’re addicted, the life problems that come with drug abuse are likely to continue in one form or another.
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
And where are legalized cigarettes now? And this isn’t happening with marijuana with all the “it’s not bad, you can’t OD from it, it’s not addictive” talking points? Take it from someone who it adversely affects and who knows people who have been addicted. It can ruin your life and the withdrawals are a whole different ballgame as they’re more mental than physical and can last for months or even years.
One of the biggest reasons for the decline in ciggarette use, and what is often paired with calls for legalization, is education and treatment. Using taxes from the legalized product, taxed similarly, to invest in education and treatment as well as regulating production so that dosages are consistent and it avoids diluted product that can be cut with other, more dangerous dosed drugs like fentanyl. In so doing, creating a safer market and driving people towards safer practices and understanding, it reduces drug related crimes as a black market no longer needs to exist.
You have the same answer here
Drug addiction is almost always a symptom of something else. People take the shortcut of placing all the problems caused by the drug, but if it weren’t one, it would be another. Systemic abuse, undiagnosed mental illness, etc. The off ramp needs to be education and assistance programs, treating people with empathy, using the funding from decriminalization (and the funds clawed back from the wasted efforts on “the war on drugs.”)
But, we live under capitalism. Better to drip feed expensive medications, expensive rehab, and criminalize drug use so that for-profit prisons can have a steady supply of slave labor. Lack of education and support also ties well to reoffense. The point of prisons we weretold is reformation and the indivudual would return to society. Naaahh, private prisons need that slave labor, let’s criminalize homelessness as we push to replace labor with AI!