Re: Home on LeGrange

[Jed Rothwell]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

The "product" purchased at fair-market value by governments should 
eventually be sold by governments at substantially reduced prices on the 
streets, so to speak - and by doing so undercut the artificially pumped up 
profits . . .

This is not such a radical or unprecedented suggestion. Variations of this 
plan have been implemented in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, with varying 
success. It probably works better than today's "war on drugs," and it is 
certainly more cost-effective.

Steve's plan is far too radical, but in the US, doctors, police and city 
officials have suggested a program along the following lines for heroin and 
cocaine:

Addicts register with the police without fear of punishment. In return, 
they are admitted to drug treatment programs. If it is determined that an 
addict has a long-term genuine addiction that is probably untreatable, he 
is given a prescription for maintenance level doses of the drug. He 
purchases the drug at a pharmacy, and he has to undergo monthly or 
semiannual checkups with drug treatment physicians.

No advertising of the product would be allowed, and no one under 18 would 
be given a prescription.

This would not solve the entire problem by any means, but it probably would 
improve the situation. No one can say what fraction of the addict 
population would participate. At least it would give some addicts a way to 
escape the cycle of crime, prison and poverty.

I think it would be good idea to treat cigarettes and chewing tobacco the 
same way. They cause far more harm than cocaine or heroin. They should be 
available with a doctor's prescription, after a doctor certifies that the 
patient is chemically addicted. They should be sold in in plain, black and 
white packages in drugstores, which come with a long list of medical 
cautions and photographs of cancerous patients. Advertising should never be 
allowed. In other words they should be treated as "semi-controlled" 
dangerous substances, which are highly regulated, like a powerful 
insecticide, a vial of mercury, or an explosive.

There is no point to making things like cocaine or tobacco fully illegal -- 
it just does not work. But that does not mean we have to make them freely 
available to everyone and anyone. We need a pragmatic, middle-ground 
solution that addresses the legitimate concerns that led people to ban 
these substances a century ago.

- Jed