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Re: US Wants Web Drug Regulation

Posted by Adam on January 5, 2000, at 10:45:56

In reply to Re: US Wants Web Drug Regulation, posted by Scott L. Schofield on January 5, 2000, at 8:34:18

>
> Please don’t take this too personally, but I can’t believe what I’m reading.
>
> To me, these rationalizations are nothing more than a defeatist’s attempt to disown a problem. It is my opinion that this represents the posture of a coward. “Don’t bother to fight against something for which there is no guarantee of success.”
>
> Let’s just abolish all regulations regarding the distribution and registration of handguns. After all, people who want them bad enough can already get them very easily on the street. Supply and demand, right?
>
One major difference between handguns and drugs: The former at best is used to hurt other people, the latter at worst is used to hurt oneself. Handguns are legally purchasable at Wal-Mart in the U.S. (my God-given right, goshdarnit) but, for instance, LSD isn't. This makes NO sense to me.

> I am certainly no student of microeconomics. However, I would like to see your professor take a leisurely stroll through the South Bronx to see the results of the availability of crack and heroin. Let him see the young adults sprawled out and nodding in an ally. Let him see the gutted abandoned buildings, the filth, and the people who live in it. Why is the squalor of these neighbors perpetuated? Where does all their money go? What sorts of jobs are available to young adults who are no more educated than a fourth-grader? Who in their right mind would open up a business in such a neighborhood where his store would be robbed at gunpoint once a week to support the drug habits of these grade-school dropouts. Would access to a cheaper supply of these same drugs prevent all of this?

The main issue presented by economists, if I remember correctly, is that the terrible conditions you describe above would exist regardless of how easy drugs are to get, and how much they cost. This is what is meant by "inelasticity". Legalization only seems defeatest if one ignores the intractability of the problem of drug abuse, which may have as much to do with socioeconimics as they do with the properties of the chemical. It would seem more poor minorities in the Bronx are succumbing to drugs than rich white folks in Westchester County. Does something different happen when one or the other smokes crack? Or does the problem transcend physiology? I'll bet everything it does. Rather than blame drugs for social ills (a convenient scapegoat for do-nothing politicians in search of a hot-button issue) and punishing the people who use them , how about spending more time on ending the social injustices that put the poor and disenfranchised at such a high risk for self-destructive behavior?
>
> > …legalize all drugs and tax them as much as the market could stand…
>
> I find this the most offensive of all the considerations offered as an argument to legalize all drugs.
> It disgusts me.
>
But the same is done for alcohol and cigarettes, which are highly addictive and kill millions of people every year. It is disgusting on the surface, but the reality is some people will use them no matter what. If what the economists say is true (and nothing I can think of historically contradicts this assumption), so long as such profoundly inelastic demand exists for such things, the supply will follow. One is defeatest when they quit without a fight. One is pragmatic when they choose their battles carefully. Waging a war against supply is futile. However, influencing demand might work. For instance, cigarette usage has declined in this country primarily because years of education on the dangers of smoking have made an impact.

> > Legalize, regulate, and educate. It's the only practical way to deal with psychoactive substances
>
> 1. Legalize
>
> I agree that there are drugs that would probably be advantageous to legalize, especially the ones that I want.
>
> 2. regulate
>
> You have already argued that the regulations that currently exist can’t be enforced.
> What kind of enforceable regulations did you have in mind?
>
Perhaps laws similar to those used for the currently acceptible drugs like tobacco and alcohol. Not a big stretch, really. Take the ATF and change its name.

> 3. educate
>
> Wishful thinking.
>
This attitude could also be construed as defeatist. It's true that human behavior gives us little hope for curing our vices, but not no hope. I beleive the vast majority of human beings would use drugs only recreationally or not at all if they had self-esteem and knowledge. Sadly, too many people in the world are denied a fair shot at either. There is the crux of the problem, I think.
>
> I would rather see a constructive discourse regarding the details of existing regulations and how they might be improved upon.
>
Taking a different approach might still be constructive, no matter how controversial it first appears.

> I’ll leave the morality thing alone.
>
>
> It is my hope that all of this will not seem asinine.
>
> Sincerely,
> Scott

It's not at all asinine. I don't think the morality thing can be ignored, though, because the drug problem is cast by so many in the light of morals. I find the prevalent anti-drug "morality" very frightening because it differs from extremest views like those held by Scientologists only by a matter of degree rather than logic. Chuck irrational fears of drugs (or at least the pose), and what you are left with is not a substance to blame but a society. Far more daunting and complex, politically unattractive, defying all pat explanations and easy solutions. Somehow Julliani types would rather throw a mentally ill homeless addict in jail than treat him or her like a human being in need of help. This is the current "morality", and the majority of the electorate seems to prefer it to thought or compassion.


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poster:Adam thread:17775
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000101/msgs/18090.html