[nnfy]

Right, the solution is to give addicts more money to buy drugs. I suppose that'll solve the problem when they inevitably OD and we can stop wasting our money on them.

I'm not speaking from an ivory tower either, like many UBI supporters seem to do. I grew up with friends who were addicts. Ive known people who died of overdose. Plenty of kids are more than happy to throw away their lives smoking weed and shooting up, especially if they're getting their shit for free.

For the record, I support responsible drug use. But UBI is not the answer for the problems in our society, because it will hurt many if not most of the people it should protect.

[logfromblammo]

Giving addicts money to buy drugs will simply push up the price of drugs.

UBI would instead need to give everyone above the drinking age something like a monthly ration of 2 ounces cannabis, 2 psychedelic doses of a regionally appropriate entheogen, and 750 mL neutral grain spirits, all from local production facilities. If they want more, or better quality stuff, they'll just have to spend their pocket money on it, or get a QA job in the industry.

Also, giving the actual drugs out can influence the market, such that people may be encouraged to use drugs that are more socially manageable--in contrast to opioids. Honestly, I'd rather hand out free weed than free alcohol, but you just know the agricultural lobby will heavily influence the composition of the UBI goods ration. If they can make your fuel 10% ethanol, they can certainly convince the government to distribute some of that distilled corn alcohol for human consumption.

[maxerickson]

I think maybe the thing to do would be to give away treatment.

You also pick really weird amounts. A casual drinker can kill a fifth in a weekend without really disrupting their life, while they range in price from ~$5 (after taxes!) to $25 (Smirnoff is $14 here).

Almost no one would use 2 ounces of marijuana in a few days and it has a street price in the hundreds of dollars.

[logfromblammo]

I reasoned that someone might use 1/4 ounce in a month. But I also thought that the stuff the government would pass out would probably be grown in less than ideal conditions, and inattentively processed, making the ration weak, with lots of stems and seeds. So you would have to give out 8x as much (and thereby also encourage recipients to learn how to do organic extractions). I didn't give much consideration to the cost, because they don't call it "weed" for nothing, and much of the current expense is due to prohibition.

750 mL works out to about 17 shots of 1.5 oz. each, but I also figured it would probably taste like it was made from stale tortilla chips in most of the US, and would therefore mostly go into mixers, averaging 4 drinks per week. The people who really enjoy their alcohol would be springing for commercial vodka, and there would also be plenty of people who would be getting that ration and not drinking all of it. Many drinkers would probably be relying on a beer or wine ration, but I don't really consider those to be "drugs" below a certain %abv, and UBI beer would probably be around 2.5%abv, with the wine around 4%abv. The beer would taste like a business handshake between Bud and Miller, and the wine like Welch's made out with Manischewitz on their friend's couch.

And for the peyote buttons, mushrooms, DMT or whatever, I thought two trips in a month might have been pushing it, especially for people that were still trying to have normal jobs with their UBI. Good for two of your four weekends, with maybe a couple sketchy Mondays when the machine elves follow you to work.

[Boothroid]

I don't see why we couldn't directly provide pure pharmaceutical grade narcotics to addicts for them to consume in safety, as part of a compulsory programme to attempt to cure the addiction. Eventually I hope we will come up with a drug to reset the brain, but in the meantime I wish we could have an outbreak of maturity and recognise and treat the addiction in a sensible way, rather than contiuining with the obviously failed war on drugs and all the bad things that flow from it. Imagine if we destroyed a massive part of global organised crime's income at stroke.

[logfromblammo]

> a drug to reset the brain

Ibogaine.

The US classifies all hallucinogens and psychedelics at Schedule I, so obviously no researcher that values their academic career can study the use of psychedelics for the purpose of curing addiction. But anecdotal reports suggest that a heroin addict may be cured of opioid addiction by using kratom to alleviate the physical symptoms of withdrawal, and ibogaine to "reset the brain" to no longer desire heroin.

Politically, people would prefer to believe that rehab centers actually work. Using illegal drugs classified as "the worst, most dangerous drugs in existence" to cure addictions to other illegal drugs with a lesser classification may be perceived as... a bit hypocritical.