[rectangletangle]

What's your stance on antibiotics? Or did you only mean "recreational" drugs?

The reason why I bring this up is that antimicrobial resistance is an externality of widespread antibiotic usage. Unfettered access to all drugs would probably accelerate antimicrobial resistance, because people tend to overuse/abuse antibiotics when they have the freedom to.

(Not trying to be mean/inflammatory/pedantic, I'm genuinely curious how HN would reconcile these stances.)

[leetcrew]

I don't think most drug legalization types intend to advocate for unrestricted access to antibiotics, but it's certainly worth discussing.

antibiotics are less effective for everyone the more they are used, so you can conceptualize the effectiveness of antibiotics as a common resource that can be spent down. if I abuse antibiotics, I am directly harming you.

there are arguments that drug abuse also harms others, but I find them somewhat less compelling. usually they follow the pattern of "I feel compelled to help you in X situation, so you are harming me by putting yourself in X situation". not an entirely illegitimate argument, but much more debatable imo. there's also the common "we have to protect people from their own poor choices" which I consider incompatible with free society.

[scrumbledober]

pretty sure you can get at least several antibiotics with no prescription from a fish store.

[fiftyfifty]

Vast quantities of antibiotics are used by agriculture in the US, with little regulation or control. The stuff is in our water and food supply, whatever additional increases allowing people to purchase/use antibiotics without a prescription seem pretty small by comparison.

[rectangletangle]

You're certainly correct. But in this case it might bolster human specific pathogens. I know there is some overlap between human an animal pathogens, but unfettered access to antibiotics might accelerate the problem for humans specifically (which is probably worse than the current prescription only policy in the US).

[hawkice]

My understanding is that resistance to human pathogens is driven by waste water contamination. Human excrement combined with industrial quantities of antibiotics.

I'm sure there is a smaller scale problem of human use, but that petri dish is the one that's causing the problems, is my understanding.