Heh, I would agree with that if it weren't so wrong. Pharmaceutical companies push drugs, that you certainly don't need, to make money. Have you ever seen the commercial where they tell you the product name but not what it does?? Just because something is legal doesn't mean it should be or that it's right. It certainly doesn't upset me, but it's easy enough for you to say when it's not your family. What if they found your kid making a stupid mistake selling a little bit of pot, or if he was selling some from his personal use bag to another friend, and they hung him for it? Blanket solutions never work, neither does prohibition; education and treatment programs are the only things proven to work, and I don't mean DARE or CHICKEN. The 12 step program is crap too, but that's another topic.
They already "control" heroin habits with methadone, I used to work at a clinic. It was sort of sad to see the little old ladies going home with their skull marked boxes for the weekend and such.. but that stuff doesn't work so well, and since they make your dose smaller and smaller people who are just going through the motions never make it. The other thing I noticed is if you get addicted to heroin the shocks on your car will go out. When I used to smoke cigs I would stand outside my "office" which was in front of a speed bump and watch people go by.. if their shocks were crap, they almost always were driving to the methadone clinic part of the building.
In answer to that:
1) Something like 80% of crime (in the U.K.) is drug related.
2) All too many addicts are incurable. That means that they cannot or will not be weaned off their addiction. Which leaves you with a limited number of options.
3) There have been experiments in providing heroin (not methadone) to incurable 's in at least on European country. Those experiments have proved quite successful.
I should add that the reason the drugs are provided to them is:
1)destruction of the pushers market.
2) Reduction of crime.
The nasty part of me would not be unhappy to see your average addict O.D. them self out of the gene pool, thus doing the human race a favour. The rest of me feels that they need help, not punishment.
In the U.K. an addict who seeks help is automatically prosecuted. Which means a jail sentence, which means a serious criminal record, which means unemployable.
Which means turning to crime both to support himself and his habit. A vicious circle.
I personally think that Tom Clancy had the right idea in "Clear and Present Danger" when it comes to the supplier's. Difference being that I would have openly proclaimed my intention to pursue them with all the means available to the state. That means diplomatic, political and military. Arrest,try (scrupulously fairly) in absentia if necessary, execute.
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