To my mind it is the only viable option to address the vast multitude of issues related to illicit drug use.

I was using the terms interchangeably, but you bring up a really valid point. Decriminalization really isn't the same as legalization, & if you're going to allow people to use what are currently street drugs you'd be a damn fool not to regulate it (for reasons I've repeatedly mentioned throughout this thread) & to tax the ever-loving hell out of it.

I want to lasso every comment made so far, and give them a "+1".

The notion of a 'war on drugs' as a conflict that can be "won" is flawed, and it is high time we move beyond it.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Sorry for the bad pun. It won't happen again

Drugs in the broad sense (all substances that moderate physiological and psychological response, including alcohol, nicotine, etc.) are capable of great harm when used with irresponsibility. It seems to me laying down the facts both pro and con, encouraging responsible action, and establishing a safety net to catch those who fail to act responsibly is more socially sustainable than what we are currently doing.

I've heard that argument too. I've also heard that in the UK, people can still get pot, heroin, cocaine, speed, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. and those drugs are all illegal.

OK, that was a bit sarcastic but making the point that making it harder to get a hold of hasn't really fixed any problems at all and I haven't heard any reliable sources reporting that drug use is down here in the U.S. At all.

All it does is drive the prices of the drugs up higher and the users (like the one in the story) go to more extremes to get the money for it. So by keeping the drugs illegal - they actually lead to crimes being committed.

Note: I don't consider using drugs a crime.

It might have been the Swiss; they have been doing some very advanced things in term so treating Herion addiction as a medical issue and catching lots of shit from the US over it.

Swiss Trials in the BMJ

Swiss trials in the BMJ 2

BBC article on German trials

I suspect you are right, but part of me goes: "meh, who cares?"

There are lots of destructive behaviours that we as a society tolerate. Hell, alcohol is probably the most pernicious drug around in terms of death, violence and ilness, but it is legal. Then there is smoking etc.

Personally as long as people are educated as to the issues caused by their behaviours then they can go right ahead as far as i am concerned as long as what they are doing doesn't put others at risk. Hence you can't drink drive or smoke in pubs and restaurants here in Oz.

I can't speak for how it is in the UK, but here in the US nearly every illegal or controlled drug is readily available without much effort. Quality and purity are often suspect, but if you have the money and aren't picky pot, heroin, cocaine, pills, meth, etc. aren't hard to buy - so I'd say the "illegality makes it harder to get" argument only holds true if you're comparing illegal drugs to ease of access of legal drugs like alcohol and nicotine.

It's harder to buy a six pack of beer than it is to buy illegal drugs, you just have to know who and how. When i was using it would take me a phone call and approximately 20 seconds of face to face to get things done. If you buy beer, you have to go into a store, pull out your wallet, pull out your ID, pay, wait for change...

When i was using i did stuff i try not to think about, i didn't physically hurt anyone, but i know i let down a lot of people that expected a lot more out of me, including myself. My addiction consumed my life as opposed to someone that would use in moderation. I guess if i look at it, from all the people i used and partied with, i am one of the lucky ones, i was able to realize that my addictions were consuming my life and limiting my opportunities and took a big giant step back and went the path of sobriety.

In my personal opinion i think hospitals and doctors are one of the reasons there is a problem with addiction in the United States. When i had my shoulder surgeries, they were repeatedly pumping me full of narcotics for pain, prescribing me very strong narcotics for pain and basically pushing me down the path of taking a pill every time i had a little owie.

Even after repeatedly telling doctors that i was clean and sober, that it would be in my own best interest to stay away from narcotic pain killers, they still prescribed them. It was like they didn't even listen to me.

At the beginning of this week i was rear-ended by another vehicle. It was doing about 35 when it hit me. I was taken to the local hospital on a backboard with my head immobilized. I was worried about my shoulder surgeries being undone because of the way the seat belt caught me.

I sat in a hallway, strapped to this backboard for about an hour. I started to become uncomfortable, not from the pain in my shoulder, but from being strapped to a backboard for over an hour. I asked the nurse if i could get unstrapped, i was losing feeling in my feet, my back was bothering me, i was laying on stiff piece of wood, i wasn't in pain, i was just extremely uncomfortable.

The nurse ran off to converse with the doctor about it. When the nurse returned, with a look in his eye that kind of frightened me, he said "We can't get you off the backboard until we scan your neck, but we can give you pain killers...narcotic pain killers" and he smiled a bit.

I replied that i am an addict, i have been clean and sober again for just over a month, the last thing i want is a narcotic pain killer, i just want off the board. He smiled, said sorry, and then went back to the doctor to let him know what happened.

The doctor immediately started treating me differently as if i was sub-human because i was an addict. After the scans and the x-rays, the nurse approached me to give me my discharge papers. Keep in mind, i did not hide the fact that i had addiction problems. When i was discharged, i was discharged with a strong prescription of Vicodin.

It was like they didn't even listen to what i told them, but yet they managed to treat me differently because i was completely honest with them. In all reality they didn't do anything for me, the scans and x-rays couldn't tell me if i had damaged the cartilage in my shoulders again, but they were more than happy to toss narcotics in my general direction. I am a big boy, i can take a little pain, i know i didn't need a narcotic to deal with it, but that didn't keep them from offering them to me.

I am by no means saying that all hospitals and doctors are like this, but i have had several experiences where the answer was to just drug me. In the instance of the car accident i only had one person actually touch my shoulders to examine them, and that was for a few short seconds, but i had several people offer me strong narcotics.

Much like Kikka, legalization scares the hell out of me. One of the major factors that keeps me clean is the consequences of losing everything i have worked to rebuild, there are many other things that keep me clean. I understand that there are plenty of people that can use in moderation, but i would go ahead and make the assumption that there are a lot of people like me that can't. I am much more in favor of decriminalization.

I don't have an educated answer on how to tell people to deal with the War on Drugs. I know it's a failure economically and strategically, but like i said, the idea that i could just drive to the store and pick up a drug that could potentially ruin my life again really does scare me. It takes a lot of effort on my part just to stay sober, i am not sure what would happen with the temptation of legalization.

I'm not indifferent to your particular problem, but as previously discussed by myself & others, there's a whole host of other problems related to illicit drug use which wouldn't be addressed by decriminalization as opposed to legalization. The good news is that if there were finally enough public support for legalization of all drugs, most likely pushing for enhanced treatment & counseling for those with addiction & dependency issues. I understand that there is a small percentage of people-- many of them young-- who would experiment, abuse, & become addicted to drugs if they were more readily available. Its incredibly minuscule in comparison to the vast amount of people who are already flying under the radar & putting themselves in danger because their vice of choice is currently illegal. There's also numerous studies conducted in European countries where they've made inroads to soft legalization (in controlled environments/decriminalization) that show that the number of drug users does not rapidly increase due to the availability of drugs.

I think DevilsReject brings up an interesting point that doesn't get discussed often enough. I've known no small amount of addicts-- including the author excerpted here-- that first got into the drug scene because of prescription painkillers. Oxycontin is basically legal (albeit, controlled) heroin. Don't kid yourself, that's what it is. It was packaged & sold as a safe alternative to existent painkillers like vicodin, supposedly with less risk of addiction. Which is why Purdue has paid over $650 million in fines to date & countless people from teenagers to street addicts have died.

However, the Federal government will still not recognize the legality of medical marijuana in the thirteen states which allow it to be prescribed. Marijuana has been proven to be a useful treatment for everything from chronic pain to neurological disorders, including-- wait for it-- opioid dependency. That's right, the Federal government classed marijuana as a Schedule I drug, just as dangerous as heroin, cocaine, LSD, & ecstasy. Even though controlled prescription substances are not only legal, but over-prescribed, & then when you get hooked on an opioid pain medication you need the pot to get off it. Our cultural hypocrisy on this issue really knows no boundaries.

Thanks for posting this Nicole and especially for your very intelligent insight Fatality. Chris - also thank you for your articulate responses. I learned a lot from this thread.

I thought heroin was overrated from the first time I did it at my elite university in downtown Manhattan in the mid 1990s. Remember those days? Everybody was passing around dogeared copies of TRAINSPOTTING and saying shooting smack was better than the best orgasm and waiting for the movie version to come out. TRAINSPOTTING and THE BASKETBALL DIARIES. We thought we were so cool.

I thought it was overrated but ended up doing it recreationally all through college while holding down jobs, having a normal social life, and graduating early. Lost my best friend to an overdose along the way, though, but I managed to avoid picking up a daily habit until I graduated and started working full time. Had to skip town and go back packing through India to figure out there was better shit to do with my time than drool and scratch myself.

Years later, I found myself living in San Francisco's Mission District and getting an unemployment check in the mail when I noticed people slinging on my very own corner--I could just stumble out of bed and cop dope! Didn't take long to get strung out again, but I did maintain--keeping jobs and paying my bills--for over a year before I wound up back at mom and dad's, approaching 30 with a fancy degree and nasty habit. Got arrested for felony possession (0.25 grams--there's no such thing as misdemeanor possession of heroin) and, as a first time offender (first time getting caught!) wound up on probation for three years. That really sucked--I couldn't get a decent job or leave the county and lots of other things. I would not have been able to attend graduate school if they had not released me from probation early (which they did--after 20, rather than 36, months).

I call myself an anarchist but it took the state and the threat of further loss of my freedom to straighten me out, and I am grateful. I tried lots of ways to quit, but I always held on to that delusion that I could go back to "recreational" use. For a stubborn, thinking-he's-smarter-than-everybody addict like me, state power was probably the only thing that would have worked to give me enough clean time to realize that my life is so much better without that shit. I will pop a fistful of painkillers a couple of times a year just to remind myself what I'm not missing--it's really not that great and then I'm sleepy for two days after. I still get treated like a second-class citizen sometimes (like when I honestly answer the criminal background stuff on job applications), but I'm still better off than when I was strung out and blame nobody but myself.

That said, herb should be fully legal like it is in California. And today is three weeks since I smoked a cigarette!