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Comment by knodi123 | Hacker News Reader

Before government policy shifts enough to transition the DEA to that role, there will be full legalization. Once we're that liberal, you'll be buying your molly/heroin in regulated pharmacies, not from sketchy dealers who are willing to let you inject rat poison.

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You're right, of course. As policies, harm reduction can't coexist with harsh enforcement.

I think some college campuses try to walk the line with under age drinking. A quick search shows Purdue has a policy that grants students amnesty in the event of alcohol poisonings [1]. I don't know if anyone has run numbers to see the net effects of such a policy.

I imagine that it removes some of the teeth, but if the negative aspects associated with drinking decline, then it seems like a good basis for arguing that similar policies should be applied to harder drugs, even if they remain illegal.

[1] http://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/article_2c255e7c-a2a4-5...

My father is actually director of campus security at a large private college. He's as conservative as they come, but you probably wouldn't be shocked to learn that people in that position genuinely care about kids and just want them to not die. Dad supports harm reduction in regards to binge drinking and marijuana use, through gritted teeth, while a vein throbs and he curses about stupid kids trying to get themselves killed.

But he says it's hard to keep a hardline policy when you've seen a drunk underage kid die because they crawled under a bush to "sleep it off" in subzero temperatures, because they were too drunk to get home, but afraid to use the blue emergency phone and risk getting caught.

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