Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pmoriarty 1775 days ago
"I dunno about illegal drugs, they're illegal for a reason. "

They're illegal for many reasons, which are mostly: stupid, unjust, racist, harmful, and hypocritical.

Alcohol is one of the most harmful "recreational" drugs, but it's still perfectly legal, and no one is seriously proposing we make it illegal again, despite all the violence, addiction, sickness, and death it causes.

Virtually all of the illegal drugs are less harmful than alcohol, and when they are harmful it's largely because they're illegal, as it means people can't reliably get what they thought they were buying, which leads to overdoses.

Not to mention all of the organized crime, imprisonment, and ruining of lives that prohibition causes (especially of the poor and minorities).

1 comments

Also, some of the most illegal drugs that are classified as highly addictive with no medical use are literally orders of magnitude less harmful and addictive than for example meth, which is acknowledged to at least have some medical use.