That's not true. Here in Portland OR drugs were legalized for almost 4yrs and the overdose numbers were huge and the public outcry was so loud the politicians changed the laws before they were voted out. I was supportive of legalizing drugs but it became quickly apparent that it was a big mistake. Now, if there had been rules that were put in place and adhered to such as mandatory rehabin certain situations (rather than let anyone shoot up smack or snort meth wherever they want in public) then the outcomes might have been different but just allowing drug addicts to take drugs freely out on the streets will just encourage them and create more deaths.
Discussion
Even in that case, it’s a microcosm within the greater paradigm that we’ve lived in for the past 50 years. That is actually the expected result in this case. One super liberal city attracting drug addicts because it is a haven for it skews the entire situation in a number of dysfunctional ways. I.e. public funding which attracts drug addicts and homeless people to the location. Additionally, the fact that it was acceptable for these people to do them out in public leads to things that actually are crimes like harassment, violence, disturbing the peace, destruction of private property, etc., bc most of them are mentally ill. On top of all that, they are still getting fentanyl laced drugs on the black market. Fentanyl is only a problem because of the fact that drugs are illegal. Also, all drugs can’t be put in one basket, most drug users are not mentally ill and homeless on the street. They are just average people.
In 1995, at the very same time the DEA was ramping up raids on people’s poppy gardens, OxyContin was being approved by the FDA.
Well it's the one example I know of and I experienced it. Any city that allows legal drug use is going to attract addicts. What needs to happen is there also has to be help for them. They have to voluntarily accept help or it is made mandatory otherwise society just sinks. You are not going to have just "average people" taking drugs, you will have hardcore users, mentally ill & homeless too, that's inevitable. It's a nice idea to let people do drugs if they want but there's no reason the rest of the population should pay a price for it. Rehab needs to be a part of the agreement.
Fortunately the rest of the country saw what happened here in Portland so no other city is going to allow drug use without some sort of enforced rehab rules. In fact Portland really put an end to any idea of legal drug use in the US because it made such a collassal fuck up out of it by showing what a nightmare it can become.
I don’t deny any of the problems you’re describing in Portland. Mainly, the original post is calling out libertarians and free markets. Objectively, there is just no possible way to look at the drug problem and say that it has anything to do with a free market. I mean, Trump just blew up some Venezuelan drug boats the other day. There’s nothing free market about it.
Check out Portugal. Legalising drugs properly/responsible takes more than a line of legislation.
That's right but when the political leadership of a city/country is far out to the Left as it ishere in Portland you just have people doing whatever they want. Hell, the city handed out over 20,000 tents to homeless people and said go find a place to sleep so you can imagine how it was with drugs too. The city was a MESS. Progessives are killing the cities.
Maybe refine that to "well meaning people Who don't do their homework and cause chaos." I don't get It, we have access to so much good info. And the oldest meme I remember is" to be successful copy a successful person". It's so simple - with drugs copy Portugal. With education copy Finland...with how not to meddle with birthrates consult china, and so It goes on.
One city planner here proposed making spaces around certain new building in downtown specifically for homesless to sleep. Apparently she thought that was a good solution to the problem. Fortunately it was voted down but that's the sort of thing we have to deal with here!