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Comment by burlesona | Hacker News Reader

I’m not sure I understand how legalization would help. There’s nothing stopping access or use of these drugs now. Honest question: is any place enforcing drug laws against heroin, and is it making things worse somehow?

Intuitively it seems to me like the opposite would be better, if you could not get heroin you couldn’t get addicted to it. But my minimal understanding is it’s too easy to make for enforcement to be practical.

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Legalization opens the door for constructive treatment and therapy options to step in, e.g. injection sites where users can inject safely with clean needles while being exposed to opportunities for treatment. Users have a higher likelihood of accepting help at places like this, versus something like drug court.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...

To be fair, you don't need legalization for that, just decriminalisation of use, like Portugal did, and which had pretty good outcomes.

Correct, decriminalization is the answer, NOT legalization. Handing out free needles to addicts while suggesting that they stop is never going to get an addict off their drug.

Free needles is actually part of multiple successful treatment programs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin-assisted_treatment

Of course, this is in a controlled fashion, and doesn't require legalization.

I think a slightly less risky version of legalization would be to legalize selling buprenorphine/naltrexone (Suboxone) and extended-release methylphenidate under-the-counter at pharmacies without a prescription.

If they cant get heroine , they will find something else. People need drugs. That's how kingdoms have blossomed.

That's funny. The cities have most homeless are the places where Marijuana be legalized states: SF(California) and Seattle (Washington).

lol I think if you try hard enough you can think of other features of these cities that might be to blame.

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