Uh… What? The underlying issue do not suddenly disappear when you legalize drugs.
From the article:
decriminalising drugs leads to a substantial drop in substance abuse and addiction rates. Countless studies have shown this.
The issues do not disappear, but you lessen the stigma of addiction, and allow for official support, thus making the issues more manageable.
Legalization is not the same thing as decriminalization
Except we also need to have those support mechanisms in place and we don’t.
Also opioids are legal and lots of people start their addiction on pills subscribed by doctors.
The underlying issue do not suddenly disappear when you legalize drugs.
That’s technically correct, even though “underlying issue” here should be plural because addiction is multifaceted.
But I think no one is arguing that in the first place, the argument is that decriminalization has to be a part of the plan.
Given true choice, most people will avoid the highly addicting substances. Removing the stigma, more people will get help. Sort of an immediate, double-benefit on ending addiction issues
At this point it’s pretty clear that the core of any plan has to be Controlled Supply and Housing First, but those are respectively divisive and expensive, so we won’t get them as long as we live under the shadow of far-right movements growing powerful on our cities and provinces.
They use “Legalization” and “Decriminalization” interchangeably; they are not even close to the same thing.
Legalization mean you can buy it at a store.
Decriminalization means it’s not a crime to own enough for personal use, trafficking is still generally illegal.
