What’s the point of investing in drug treatment when it’s super easy to get and get hooked on drugs? On the one hand, we are saying the drugs are not harmful enough to criminalize, let people take personal responsibility for their drug use choices, but then on the other hand, we are saying society should also be on the hook for reforming bad personal choices? Decriminalize and invest billions in drug rehabilitation! It doesn’t make sense to me.
Canada has free public healthcare for all.
Alcohol rehabilitation is government funded.
So is chemo for various cancers attributed to smoke inhalation and tobacco use.
So are appetite reduction operations for very obese people.
Why should heroin rehabilitation be any different?
Some people would then argue that some drugs are significantly worse than others - that they are significantly more costly to rehabilitate, that their consumption causes more harm etc. Should the costs be calculated average or total?
Let's say that the consumption and / or distribution should be penalized.
What should the punishments be for consumption? How harsh should the punishments be for distribution? Jailing people costs a lot of money too.
How do we create a society where people don't become so easily addicted?
Canadas healthcare system is under severe strain, with people being unable to access routine care due to not having enough resources and the ones they have being stretched thin. Having government healthcare does not magically remove basic economics.
To their credit, many places ban alcohol and even gambling as social negatives. I’m ok with socially funded drug treatment for something that is illegal, because at least we are trying to make sure the problem doesn’t keep growing when we are trying to fix it. I don’t like a plan that has us throw money at an avoidable problem forever.
> On the one hand, we are saying the drugs are not harmful enough to criminalize
i dont think thats it. one of the main arguments is that people will do the drugs anyway legal or no. But if they get/do them illegally they'll be afraid to seek help when ODing or trying to quit, and they have nowhere safe to do them so they do them anywhere and everywhere. This explains why we both decriminalize and rehab
You see much better results in Asia where drug laws are harsh and you or your family are on their own for rehab: people simply can’t afford to take the risk anymore because they understand very well their life and a probably ruined if they try. But then we have to consider literal survival bias: maybe you just don’t see many drug addicts in Asia because they die quickly.
> What’s the point of investing in drug treatment when it’s super easy to get and get hooked on drugs?
We let people mainline sugar to the point where they get diabetes[1], but we spend lots of money on holistic treatment to make sure that its manageable is as little medical intervention as possible (continuous blood sugar monitoring is awesome)
Substance abuse is more often than not a symptom of other things.
> On the one hand, we are saying the drugs are not harmful enough to criminalize
I would say that mischaracterises the issue. I would suggest that its a case of lesser of two evils. An entire shadow economy worth billions, with no regulation and no qualms about killing people for profit, and is the cause of most petty crime, or cutting out a money supply to crime, but you need to change the way you spend on support and care of addicts.
[1] its mot complex than that, and also depending on what type you have.
