And that's definitively where novel analogs of pharmaceuticals, ordered in bulk from dodgy Chinese suppliers, fall.
We are talking about making chemicals illegal as soon as they are discovered, or even before they are discovered. There's no way to know what legal uses they might have if no one gets to use them.
Due to this kind of stigma it's taken decades for people to accept that ketamine is one of the safest and most effective forms of treatment for depression, for example, while many migraine sufferers report that low doses of psychedelics are an effective treatment - something very dear to me as a sufferer of migraines, although unfortunately I haven't found that these work for me. Psychedelics are also a potential treatment for depression that needs further research. Then there's THC, an amazing drug for chronic pain sufferers and cancer patients, again mired in stigma because it's "illegal".
Sadly because reactionary politics it's taken decades to start to get legitimate testing done on these.
> dodgy... suppliers
Yes, when something is made illegal that's the only way to get hold of it.
I'm not terribly worried that we miss out on the "personal research" of recreational users.
> then you can seek permission to do that in an organised manner.
And how do you think that people suffering from <migraine> (insert illness of choice) will go about that? Wait a few years until a regulatory body approves their case, all while suffering from <migraine>? What if the regulatory body desidea that only people with degrees in chemistry (but not molecular biology) are allowed to do such research?
Such a bureaucratic processes are textbook examples really bad policy that pushes people to black markets. But certain northern European countries just love that approach, I know.
To add a less convincing, but imo just as important point: It's insane to think that an individual should need to justify their use to the government before ingesting a substance for medical purposes(or any purpose, for that matter) just because it has psychoactive properties, which we've decided is an inherently bad thing for some reason
Should people be allowed to try cyanide-containing apricot kernels to treat their cancers too? Maybe?
But don't you agree then that we should at least do something about those who make tons of money on such unproven cures, and spend a good chunk on it too convince more desperate people to give it a try?
Unproven, or disproven?
I think we're one the same page when it comes to the government informing people of what is state of the art in research is, what is unkown, and what is bogus and disproven - but not when it comes to restricting access to people to (unproven) cures that might work for them.
There are a number of drugs whose highly beneficial side effects were only discovered after people took them for other reasons.
I have never said that. Were it up to me, we would do our damndest to eliminate the profit motive in the production of those drugs also, like alcohol and tobacco, which for cultural reasons it's not practical to just ban.
I don't think the scientific method pushes people to black markets. I understand the "do something!!" impulse on behalf of people who suffer from things like migraines, but these people are especially important to protect from people with a profit motive hawking miracle cures.
Why would people who profit from life-wrecking recreational drugs be any less cynical than apricot-kernel cancer cure profiteers? I can understand that desperate people fall for such people's PR and want to try anything, but I will not let the cynical profiteers weaponize those desperate people to bypass the scientific standards for approving potentially dangerous drugs.
Another chemical branded as a date rape drug is GHB, but it is also popular as a recreational drug. Again, not something you can say possession of implies some intention to commit rape.
It's also probably a regular event that young people experience blackout for the first time, haven't been taught about blackout, and assume they must have been fed something more sinister than alcohol.
Alcohol is treated much better than its danger would suggest, for cultural reasons (that most people, use it recreationally, and often in high prestige contexts). If you want more restrictions on alcohol, especially restrictions on profiting from it, I'm all on your side. But I think it's a bad argument to be nicer to importers of novel drug analogs.