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From: clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,net.med
Subject: Re: Drug Abuse - True Problem or Media Hype?
Message-ID: <135@spectrix.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Sep-86 09:50:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: spectrix.135
Posted: Thu Sep 18 09:50:22 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Sep-86 22:41:39 EDT
References: <720@scc.UUCP> <20756@rochester.ARPA> <463@epimass.UUCP> <1302@trwrb.UUCP>
Reply-To: clewis@.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Organization: Spectrix Microsystems Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 58
Xref: mnetor talk.politics.misc:169 net.med:3395

In article <1302@trwrb.UUCP> suhre@trwrb.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre) writes:
>In article <463@epimass.UUCP> jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck) writes:
>>You're right, Ray.  A fairer comparison would be to legal, but
>>harmful, drugs like tobacco (350,000 deaths a year) and alcohol
>>(25,000 deaths in drunk driving wrecks alone).  Can you explain
>>to me why cocaine use is worse for society than alcohol and tobacco
>>use?
>	I don't have to.  The principle is, if you have two problems
>	on your hands, should you acquire a third one if you don't
>	have to?
>
>	But for starters, I don't think that tobacco users have
>	to steal to support their "habit".  Similar for alcohol
>	users.

You walked right into this one - they did murder and steal for alcohol
during prohibition.  An extremely strong case can be made that the
damage to society (crime, health costs etc) of a drug of any sort
is *higher* when the drug is illegal.  When a drug is illegal:

	a) the mystique of doing something forbidden tends to increase use.
	b) demand for the drug, and the lack of legitimate channels
	   of supply force the prices way up.
	c) Extremely high prices:
		- force users to steal to support their habit
		- attract organized crime to the market
		- the high amounts of money involved result in
		  other crimes
	d) People in trouble with the drug tend to try to avoid
	   treatment

How much crime would you expect to see resulting from a drug if the cost 
for a day's worth of "tripping" was $1 instead of $1000?  Not much.
If they legalized cocaine tomorrow I would suspect that usage would go
up somewhat (not all that much), and the crime rate would go down sharply
(excluding "possession" that is) and the health costs wouldn't change
much.  I bet you won't find many "dealers" in favour of decriminalization!

Of *course* alcohol and tobacco are "dangerous" drugs.  And, of *course*
more people die from either one of them than from all the other drugs 
combined.  But, a lot more of alcohol or tobacco is consumed
than coke or whatever.  And the high rates of consumption are *not* because
they're legal/illegal *now*, but because of the history of our culture.
The other drugs are not part of the majority's history.  And, they're far 
more dangerous (with the notable exception perhaps of pot) on a 
per-individual basis.  If they legalized these drugs tomorrow the mystique
would be gone, the criminal involvement the day after, and many of the addicts
a few years from now:

	- would no longer be the "in" thing to do - fewer starting on drugs.
	- people being able to seek treatment without fear of the law.
	- pushers no longer having incentive to push.

And, Miami Vice would go off the air!  (Yay!  Worth it for that alone!)
-- 
Chris Lewis
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