Meanwhile, Oregon.
There is no limit to the things those who profit from the activities will do to achieve their goals, including erroding our constitutional right to privacy and pursuit of happiness.
RIP America.
1. This assumes it’s impossible to disincentivize drug usage via really harsh penalties enforced by state power. But look at China, where they have very little drug usage, due to extremely harsh penalties, and extreme social stigma. Individuals don’t get “mind expanding” or therapeutic benefits of drugs, but at least the society is not paying the cost of externalities of drug usage (see San Francisco’s Tenderloin).
2. Not all who do drugs are rational individuals with full information about what might happen if a chemical dependency is established. There are people pressured into drug usage by both legal mechanisms (Purdue Pharma) and illegal mechanisms (e.g a pimp creating a prostitute by forcing a drug addiction on that person). So the implication that there’s no bad actors, and it’s just the state enforcing draconian measures, misses very real cases of bad actors who should be stopped and punished. A legal system that pursues and removes bad actors can help society.
From what I've read over the years, there actually is notable drug use in China for instance among factory workers.[1][2][3]
Also I'm sure lots of people on HN who are more intimately familiar with the Tenderloin can opine better than I but from what I understand, drug usage in Tenderloin is more of a symptom - not the core problem. Similarly, the drugs being used openly in Tenderloin are not the ones that individuals normally tout as "mind expanding" or therapeutic.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30359871/ [2] http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-06/26/c_138175718.htm [3] https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2015/0503/Break...
How do you know these are the reasons?
That's not the case though. China has lots of drugs, probably more than the US. Many of the powder based drugs in the US are made in China. When you go on a business trip there they flaunt all sorts of things from prostitution to drugs. As long as you're rich it's no problem.
>Not all who do drugs are rational individuals with full information about what might happen if a chemical dependency is established.
This is why in a perfect world we have to take a test to take certain drugs. It could be handled at the dmv. Once you're certified you can buy a specific quantity based on being an informed actor. It's how we handle other dangerous activities.
And yet China is where literal tons of drugs like fentanyl and its derivatives are manufactured illicitly and shipped around the world.
2. so what? do we fix their lack of information but allowing the DEA to publish (demonstrably false and misleading) propaganda under a guise of 'think of the children'? To assume that the DEA themselves aren't seceptible to bad actors is downright naive, dangerous even. All evidence points to the fact that our drug policy has failed to mitigate any of the social costs related to drugs, and in most cases, has increased social burden.