[speedplane]

> Users are currently resorting to crime to acquire their heroin because it's illegal, not because heroin inherently makes you evil.

That's not quite right. Heroin users definitely resort to crime to fund their addiction. They are not "evil" for being addicted, but they do become desperate. And if you're desperate, you're more likely to do "evil" things.

Most do not immediately resort to crime. Imagine you were addicted to some expensive substance. You'd likely try hard to keep whatever job you had to fund the addiction, then if that fails you'd pressure family to fund it. If family stops paying, then you'd sell whatever property you had. When that's over you may turn to illegal "jobs" such as prostitution or dealing drugs yourself. Only finally, as a last desperate resort, would you try to steal or commit other crimes.

Addiction is not "evil", but it results in desperation. When one is starving for bread, they're more likely push the boundaries of their morality to eat, maybe steal, and in extreme cases maybe worse. Desperation can make people do evil things.

[kirstenbirgit]

That's exactly it, because it is illegal, it's also extremely expensive, and it's hard to afford daily heroin with a regular job without resorting to crime.

If heroin was not illegal, and therefore not extremely expensive, users would not have to resort to crime to afford it.

Now imagine heroin was legalized and/or freely available: noone would bother to commit crimes, and would be able to start living a regular life since they don't have a single reason to exist anymore. One of their basic needs are taken care of.

It's amazing how quickly we've forgotten prohibition. When you make something illegal that there is a demand for, an illegal market pops up.

[speedplane]

> If heroin was not illegal, and therefore not extremely expensive, users would not have to resort to crime to afford it.

If heroin was legal, it's does not necessarily follow that it would be much less expensive. In states that have legalized marijuana, the price is roughly the same (and often more) than black markets.

> it's hard to afford daily heroin with a regular job without resorting to crime.

Regular jobs typically pay more than petty crime. The reason that heroin addicts resort to crime is not because their regular job doesn't pay enough, it's because they can't hold a regular job because they're addicted to heroin.

> Now imagine heroin was legalized and/or freely available: noone would bother to commit crimes, and would be able to start living a regular life

I'm not sure that many heroin addicts (legal or otherwise) can live a regular life.

[kirstenbirgit]

Commenting here since I can't reply downthread:

> If heroin was legal, it's does not necessarily follow that it would be much less expensive. In states that have legalized marijuana, the price is roughly the same (and often more) than black markets.

Heroin is extremely cheap to manufacture, and it's of course also not patented anymore. There's no point to discussing this, really.

> Regular jobs typically pay more than petty crime. The reason that heroin addicts resort to crime is not because their regular job doesn't pay enough, it's because they can't hold a regular job because they're addicted to heroin.

This is partly true. It's a large topic. A heroin habit will take a lot of time, since you're doing a lot of waiting around for dealers. But it depends on the job, though. These days, Americans are very close to losing everything in the time of one or two paychecks. Add a heroin habit of hundreds of dollars a day on top of that, and you need something else.

> I'm not sure that many heroin addicts (legal or otherwise) can live a regular life.

I think far more people are using heroin and keeping a regular life than you realize.