To make a better world, legalise drugs | Hacker News Reader

To make a better world, legalise drugs

newscientist.com

18 pointscwan17 comments

This is one of those truths that is so painfully and blindingly self-evident that "God-fearing" people everywhere will fight it to their last breath.

I think there's a huge start up opportunity here, to found a science-based country.

One nation, under Evidence...

A/B testing shows that the market prefers demagoguery and melodrama over evidence.

I'd say that this is almost consensus opinion among educated people under 60, at least for cannabis.

Don't worry guys, we just need the baby boomers to die.

Sadly, what is the consensus by uneducated people under 60? Right wing organizations are not only constituted by old educated people.

And if that was true, the message for my country, Colombia, is hang in there? The amount of violence that is fulled by the illegal drugs is awful. Every day something horrifying is discovered.

Edit: my rebuttal could be seeing as rash. But is just a very frustrating situation with not clear hope in sight.

Young right-wingers I've met (and I understand this sample to be anecdotal) are mainly concerned with keeping the size of government small and taxes low. I've not met a single person under 35 who thinks that cannabis prohibition is a good idea. Granted, most of these people have a college degree, but I'd say that's also a good indicator of whether they vote and participate in the democratic process.

I think that, unfortunately for Colombia, cocaine will be illegal in the United States indefinitely. I actually think that what's happening in South America is the best argument against drug prohibition, but you don't get to Congress or the White House arguing for policies that are good for South America.

Religious conservatives are plentiful, and I doubt their concerns are limited to those you have mentioned, whether they are young or old.

Actually, my anecdotal sample is mostly people who attend church.

Not all churches are alike, but "religious conservative" would be an accurate descriptor for many of my friends.

"And if that was true, the message for my country, Colombia, is hang in there? The amount of violence that is fulled by the illegal drugs is awful. Every day something horrifying is discovered."

Why do the pro-drug people call people that have legitimate reasons why drugs should be outlawed "uneducated"? Blaming the violence on the law is equivalent to blaming a rape victim for looking the wrong way. It's the same reasoning many Islamic laws have for punishing women.

This article just isn't talking about making pot legal, it talks about some of the harder stuff legal as well. Take a look at some of the slums of the United States where you can find drugs on any corner. Heroine addicts will do anything to get their next fix. This may include stealing, robbing, and violence. When this happens, guess who will be to blame? yep, the government and other companies for allowing it to happen.

Hell, cigarette companies are STILL being successfully sued in US courts when it has been well known it causes cancer for > 50 years.

also, do you actually think the illegal drug trade will stop if everything was legal? The dealers will STILL be in business becase they will not want to be taxed (and sell illegally to get around it). Many drug dealers now sell legal drugs.

Violence will not be stopped, it will only be shifted to other illegal activities.

I believe old educated libertarians don't believe in the drug wars, or any wars for that matter.

Under 60 is correct, but that includes the baby boomers. We just need the "greatest generation" (as they're called) to die. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/15/marijuana-legalizat...

It's easy to make that pronouncement from a nice white-bread neighborhood in the suburbs. But try living among the underclass for a little while. They need a hell of a lot more authority in their lives than you do.

Right now, Britain is managing to fall apart due to mismanagement of alcohol: http://whiskeys-place.blogspot.com/2009/09/uks-cultural-coll...

I don't have the answers. But we've been spending and spending and spending social capital for decades. The cultural rug has been pulled out from everyone's feet. People interested in having a normal family have a harder time of it than they used to. Drug legalization will make those problems worse, not better.

"But try living among the underclass for a little while. They need a hell of a lot more authority in their lives than you do."

That is unbelievably condescending. Sure, there are plenty of people who repeatedly make bad decisions. How on earth is the solution to force them to do the right thing by threatening imprisonment? When that fails, how is imprisonment better than the harm they were causing themselves? What happens when you're wrong about what is right for those poor, incompetent people?

Advise people all you want, but if you want to force people to do things because you think it's better for them, that makes you a Bad Person. Governments are supposed to protect freedom, so if you find yourself suggesting restricting the freedom of people in order to protect them from themselves, you've probably made a logical error somewhere.

Yes, you do have the answers, although you can't assume they're correct: the article cites studies.

This is exactly the point of doing Science (or at least sociological pseudo-science):

Opinions Are Worthless.

The scientific management of society has a checkered history.

By definition, if it's not working and you keep doing it, then what you're doing is not scientific management.

Management by people claiming to manage scientifically, and management by scientists (not just of society, but anything) both certainly do have checkered histories, though, yes.

The real barrier to science-based government is really the choice of objectives (i.e. what to optimize - GDP is OK but there has to be something better).

Thankfully, the scientific method has proven itself quite adept at leaping into a domain where the important questions aren't even known. So maybe there's hope yet.

But citing your own blog article, the current management of society is doing a terrible job.

What is your suggested approach, throwing darts at Post-It notes?

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