ANOMALOUS MATERIALS: FUN WITH PHARMA

The World Would Be Better If Caffeine, Tobacco, Alcohol And Illegal
Drugs Did Not Exist.

Period. Even the most 'harmless' of these substances have possible
side effects that can ruin your life or kill you. Caffeine kills
two-dozen people every year through nasty heart complications, and
makes the rest of the world merely unbearably cranky and insomniatic.
Marijuana, arguably the safest drug ever discovered from a purely
physiological point of view, has moderate users showing significantly
higher incidence of schizophrenia than the general populace (although
whether its cause or effect is anyone's guess). While recent research
shows that it might not be a carcinogen, putting that much burnt tar
crap in your lungs can't be healthy.

Anyone who tries to whitewash these effects is trying to sell you
something. (Probably drugs). Importantly, these effects are not
counterbalanced in any reasonable sense by the occasional good song
or poem that we enjoy, thanks to one druggie artist or the other.

However, by far the most lives ruined by these drugs are not due to
medical complications, or overdoses, or even addiction.

That is because on top of being physically somewhat harmful, most
drugs also carry legal penalties for use, sale or possession. By
criminalizing most drug use, many governments, including ours, have
created a host of additional negative effects that would otherwise
not be a part of the drug problem.

The supply side of the drug markets generate huge revenues for very,
very bad people, who are corrupting influences in their respective
countries. That is to say, it encourages enslaving the poor, bribing
the powerful and killing those from either group who can't be bought.

The demand side of those black markets are controlled by the mob,
primarily, and serve to ghettoize communities, encourage property
crime and create a permanent underclass of revolving door inmates.

Teachers and parents are encouraged to lie to their kids about the
effects of drugs, corroding their authority and their kids' trust.

Drugs are an unregulated market with no quality controls on a product
that isn't exactly safe to begin with. Law enforcement's job,
unfortunately, is to stand on the front line against the very heavily
armed merchants of this black market.

Thus it is no wonder that a fairly large percentage of police deaths
are directly related to the War on Drugs. It should also be noted
that every once in a while, the actual drug will kill someone, too,
and by the actual drug I don't mean the rat poison it was cut with. I
mean the actual drug.

Many people would look at this situation and start to consider
legalization. After all, could it possibly be worse than what we have
now? This is sensible, and in a simple world it would be an easy fix
that avoids most of the above pitfalls.

But, as usual, things are not that simple, and legalization brings
with it an entirely different set of complications.

If it were just a matter of drugs killing the people who take them,
then as a free society that would be a regrettable cost our society
would be required to grin and bear. After all, we have already
accepted that as part of the cost of doing business with alcohol and tobacco.

However, some drugs cause their users to actually behave in a violent
and psychotic fashion.

In particular, cocaine, amphetamines, and above all, alcohol can
cause uncontrollable, dissociative, violent rages.

That sort of crap simply can't go on in a civilized society; those
turn-of-the-century prohibitionists weren't entirely crazy.

Also, if recreational drugs all became legal tomorrow, who exactly do
you suppose would rush in to fill the new legitimate market?

The pharmaceutical industry seems logical, as they have the
infrastructure and the experience. The reality is that the industry
would leverage these products (sometimes unethically, to be sure)
into even more absurdly stratospheric profits, which in turn would
give them the financial muscle to make the regulatory arm of the
government into their bitch. More so than present, if that is
conceivable. Remember, legitimacy only matters if there is
accountability. And with 'legitimate' products comes the specter of
counterfeiting for profit; anyone who has bought a bootleg DVD or
concert tape on the street knows that sometimes you don't get what
you pay for. Now imagine that principle applied to something you'll
be sticking in your mouth/lungs/veins. The 'rat poison' problem isn't
going to go away; only the middle-class and wealthy addicts will be
spared the effects of doctored or counterfeit drugs, while the poor
won't be able to afford their stuff at the pharmacy.

That legalization has serious hurdles, that most pro-drug folks love
to gloss over, is no reason not to do it. It would still be
tremendously better than the current situation.

It is better for drugs to be managed by an ineffective regulatory
agency than to be completely unregulated. It is better for there to
be a source of drugs that were reliably pure, even if some people
will still buy (it) on the street.

It is better for experts to be free to educate on the actual dangers
and effects of drugs, rather than be reduced to employing scare tactics.

It is better to decriminalize and treat addicts than lock them up by
the millions.

It is better for there to be one less way for drug cartels and
mafioso to get money.

And it is way, way better for people not to have their communities
turned into shooting galleries.

A final point: Drugs, for the most part, do not affect people's lives
the way that clever TV adverts and health class teachers describe.

The vast majority of drug users are, in fact, fully functioning,
otherwise law-abiding, job-holding spouse and two-point-three kids
sorts of folks, or the children of those folks.

Chances are you have talked and worked with many a person who was
high and you couldn't tell the difference. Drugs are a complicating
factor in many people's lives, but a complication that many of them
have chosen to cope with, and have done so successfully. The
arguments have become unfortunately shrill on both sides;
legalization is not a doomsday scenario, but neither would it be a
Libertarian paradise.

But there still is a clear choice, and one of them is far, far better.