Heroin Problem?

[eok]

Originally Posted by JaxRhapsody

I'd hate to see heroin legal. I lost a friend to it in April and I refuse to lose any more. I still can't believe it, and she's always in my head.

Since it's presently illegal, and that doesn't solve the problem, we're obviously focusing on the wrong issue. We need a way to very strongly motivate people not to use heroin at all, ever. Keeping it illegal, does not, in itself, accomplish that.

[Turtle50]

Knowing that the majority of heroin users are masking severe physical and emotional pain then it seems logical that researching and providing new pain relief methods and creating more awareness and prevention of physical and sexual abuse of children and domestic violence would help reduce demand for drugs. Making mental health services readily available to victims and giving people hope such as decent jobs with fair wages would help too. I still can't fathom how concentration camps came up as an option unless the writer has no experience with drug addiction or trauma victims or human compassion.

[double6's]

legalize all of it..attrition will take care of the rest..including the drug cartels..

[ScottsdaleMark]

Originally Posted by double6's

legalize all of it..attrition will take care of the rest..including the drug cartels..

What's interesting about that, though, is that the legalization of marijuana in some states has not removed the cartel presence from those states.

Before, the hard part was on the supply side. So they fought with the government and other gangs largely just to bring the product to market.

Now, in places where it's legal, they encounter less government resistance at the local level (they still deal with it at the borders and in transit to the local market, I agree), but since there is plenty of supply due to legal shops, they just compete with the government based on price.

Remember their drugs are largely "made in Mexico" or "made in China" or so forth, whereas the legal shops are "made in the USA" and it's a lot cheaper to make things, including drugs, in poorer countries and then import it. So they can undercut the legal shops, they obviously don't pay any taxes, and they find that the legal shops are creating a rapidly expanding population of drug users for them to whom they can market their lower-priced product.

If the government-sanctioned shops offer any drug for X dollars a dose, the cartels will just offer the same drug for less. Even if it's, say, 25 vs 20 dollars...a significant percentage of people are going to want to save five dollars, and since legalization propositions generally have weakened enforcement mechanisms, there's no real risk to them for purchasing it illegally.

Think of it like the people who sell cigarettes without the correct tax stamps. You only get in trouble if they catch you on the supply side...as a buyer of illegal cigarettes, you buy them and throw away the box or whatever and no one can ever prove you bought them without a tax stamp. You know what I mean?

[anonymouswho]

The reason for the heroin problem is our lawmakers. Check out this study from the University of Campbellsville...

Analyzing Criminal Justice and Drug Abuse in Kentucky

Basically, they made it harder to obtain prescription pain pills, so people moved on to a cheaper, easier to obtain alternative...heroin.

Legal cannabis has actually taken a big hit on the cartels, so they started producing higher quality heroin and pushing it on states that have prescription problems...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...g-war-couldnt/

The states that have legal cannabis are not dealing with this problem. The number one reason medicinal cannabis is recommended is for chronic pain, so it is replacing the massive pill problems...

http://time.com/4404697/marijuana-opioid-epidemic/

Not only that, but cannabis is recommended by the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids as an actual treatment for opioid addiction...

Opioid Addiction Being Treated With Medical Marijuana in Massachusetts - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids - Where Families Find Answers

The fact is, it's impossible to die from cannabis and it is not physically addictive. If people could use as much herb as they need to help them with their chronic pain and to overcome withdrawal from addiction, thousands of lives could be saved.