to answer the thread topic. I believe in the short term od's would skyrocket as less experienced people would try it without supervision of someone with more experience. In the long run I believe it would level off to levels comparable to what we see now. If not lower.
Methadone was substituted for Heroin as Heroin is a Schedule 1. Methadone is much worse than Heroin but H had the entire German stigma attached when this public policy was made.
Almost all the physicians are aware prohibition of any drugs is a huge mistake. The are also going to be using Sativex as a Marijuana diversion drug. So my guess is this entire medical marijuana thing will be ending. Then we are going loggerheads with the prohibitionists.
Bullshit, the INSTANT that Fentanyl Citrate was diverted it was just as illegal as the questionable heroin it mixed with. Prohibition does NOT SAVE ANYONE! It only makes it impossible. If Heroin was legal (for adults not children) you would buy your Narcan next to your Heroin because it wouldn't be illegal EITHER!
You would KNOW the dose! No more deaths from hot loads. You could buy cheap syringes and stop Hep B, Hep C, and AIDS etc.... how does this benefit people?
Also mark these words. Sativex is being positioned as Methadone for Pot. Really consider the ramifications of that and if you don't believe pull out google and LOOK at their human testing.
I am now done with the topic. I won't speak on prohibition again.
baaah! don't speak in absolutes annie. Get well and come back. You're insight into the medical community is appreciated by me anyway on topics like this.
For many years I agreed with keeping drugs illegal, it was about five years after I returned home from Korea that my views changed. While I was a trooper in AK we would have to deal with the same 15-20% of problematic users over and over. I can say with certainty that jail time doesn't do a thing for most people, if anything it makes it worse. I always looked the other way on the pot and coke crowds because frankly they never caused any problems.
It strikes me more as a personality disorder that causes people to become addicts, the ones who develop problems are the ones who shouldn't be doing drugs in the first place. Heroin is a tough one, but like it or not it's here to stay. I would hope one day out country
sat down and had a rational talk about our drug policy, because what we are doing now isn't solving a thing. I can see some benefits of legalization, I can't say the same for what we are doing now.
as an ex trooper I would think you would recognize that our current system isn't meant to solve anything. It is simply another form of taxation. A sin tax if you will. Without calling it that.
Around here it all about the money. With probation, drug counseling yada yada. If you have insurance they run you through the ringer. If you are uninsured they'll kick you out after a couple of months.
the entire stance on drugs our government takes has little to do with solving the problem and more to do with keeping hundreds of thousands of government jobs or subcontracted facilities in business. Not to mention all the jobs created for the supporting infrastructure.
it was a money making machine for decades.
not so profitable now that the vast majority of our country is already broke. Can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.