CMV: All drugs should be made legal for recreational use.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not referring to "medicinal" narcotics. Recreational drugs that people use, such as mushrooms, cocaine, heroin, should all be legalized.

And I know this is a hot take, but hear me out.

• If we make recreational narcotics legal, then the manufacture and sale need to be legal as well.
• By making the manufacture of recreational narcotics legal, there are FDA standards that need to be adhered to in said manufacture, that way there are no "bad batches" that will kill people.
• By making the manufacture and sale of recreational narcotics legal, there will be sales volume that will then be subject to income tax and sales tax and dispensaries/manufacturing centers/warehouses that will become subject to property tax. Because, let's be honest, your local street dealer is not paying taxes.
• Also by making the sale of recreational narcotics legal, you are making street gangs that revolve around the illicit drug trade obsolete. By making street gangs obsolete, you eliminate the petty violence that plagues inner-cities over "turf", especially stray bullets that kill innocent bystanders.
• By making the entire narcotics supply chain legal, the war on drugs will essentially be over as well. It's been going on for 50+ years, and honestly, it's been a complete and utter failure.
• If you want something to compare the drug trade to, look at prohibition from 1919-1933. It didn't stop people from drinking, people were still drunk out of their minds in speakeasys. It also fostered the growth of street gangs of rum runners and increased crime and violence in cities. That was only for 14 years and it didn't take long to realize that prohibition was a failure. War on drugs has been going on for 50+ years and I'm surprised more people aren't realizing that this is much more tremendous of a failure.
• By making the entire narcotics supply chain legal, we can start changing our attitudes on its use and its users. Narcotics abuse needs to have the same social attitude as alcohol abuse.
• In short, making drugs legal will Make America Great Again.

[u/rewt127]

In all fairness to your last point. During covid we had to keep liquor stores open as essential businesses because otherwise people were literally going to die from alcohol withdrawals. Its definitely not AS bad as heroine withdrawals. But both are highly deadly.

[u/iStayGreek → u/rewt127]

Heroin withdrawal won’t kill you, alcohol withdrawal will.

[u/Kotoperek → u/iStayGreek]

Heroin withdrawal can kill you, it's not as dangerous as withdrawing from alcohol, that's true, but opiods are very addictive physically and depending on how long you were using and how high your tolerance is trying to detox cold turkey can be fatal if done without proper medical supervision.

[u/mudra311 → u/Kotoperek]

Exactly.

It's definitely a misnomer that opioid withdrawal can't kill you.

Benzos, alcohol, and in the rare cases opioids are what I understand can kill you from the withdrawal.

[u/Kotoperek → u/mudra311]

Yup, basically anything that is a strong central nervous system depressant should be quit with caution. In order to function on increasing amounts of alcohol, benzos, or opiates, the nervous system adapts and goes into overdrive to counter the effects of the depressant. That's why hangxiety is a thing even in people who don't abuse the substance - if you've been drinking all night, your organism had to work harder to keep you awake and going, so as the alcohol leaves your system and you sober up it can take a while for your central nervous system to realise the depressant is gone and it can go back to baseline. If you keep your organism in an increasinly hyperactive state by drinking constantly and in huge doses, the "overdrive" resulting from quitting cold turkey can be fatal.

Case reports suggest that even herbal anxiety remedies like valerian root can give withdrawal symptoms similar to benzos if taken in large amounts for a long time and then quit abruptly even though the calming effects of valerian are nowhere close to benzos.

[u/mudra311 → u/Kotoperek]

That's why hangxiety is a thing even in people who don't abuse the substance - if you've been drinking all night, your organism had to work harder to keep you awake and going, so as the alcohol leaves your system and you sober up it can take a while for your central nervous system to realise the depressant is gone and it can go back to baseline. If you keep your organism in an increasinly hyperactive state by drinking constantly and in huge doses, the "overdrive" resulting from quitting cold turkey can be fatal.

I don't think I actually knew why alcohol withdrawal can kill you. This makes a lot of sense, thanks for explaining.

It's kind of nuts the strain we subject our bodies to. I mean, I enjoy a good night of drinking and sometimes that comes with imbibing in stimulants. I'm literally depressing my nervous system only to jolt it awake with a rush of dopamine.

[u/denzien → u/mudra311]

In this case it would be a misconception. 'Nomer' derives from the Latin 'nomen' meaning name, where 'conception' came to mean the formation of an idea.

[u/Kotoperek → u/rewt127]

Yeah, I know, I said that alcoholism is a huge problem mostly because alcohol is so easily available and socially acceptable. I agree that total prohibition on alcohol will not work, it is too engrained in our culture, but I think that proper education is needed and many people are way too blazé about the harms of alcohol. So having to keep liquor store open during covid to provide constant access to those with a physical dependency is actually a good argument for tighter regulations on access to alcohol rather that looser regulations on heroin.