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Nolubrication t1_jeekp71 wrote

Reply to comment by Ok-Entrepreneur4365 in West Baltimore gang takedown: 33 indicted on drug, gun and attempted murder charges, police say by Dr_Midnight

You're an addict? That's your expertise here?

You're arguing against a strawman, either intentionally or simply because you haven't bothered to educate yourself on what is happening in places like Portugal. Nobody is suggesting that we simply eliminate enforcement and call it a day.

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Ok-Entrepreneur4365 t1_jeel9r6 wrote

>You're an addict?

Nope

>That's your expertise here?

I'm involved in counseling for people with addictions. I've also spent personal time with these folks, on the streets of Baltimore.

>Nobody is suggesting that we simply eliminate enforcement and call it a day.

You literally said that punishing people for drug crimes doesn't work.

If you ever actually cared about this issue you might actually do some volunteering or work to help people.

But you're talking about some magical solution of "safe spaces" and "national hamsterdam."

And you clearly didn't watch the wire because you'd know that Hamsterdam was an enormous shithole.

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Nolubrication t1_jef1la6 wrote

> You literally said that punishing people for drug crimes doesn't work.

And it doesn't. All 33 of the gangbangers in the OP article will be replaced by new participants in the drug game within a week. There is no way we will incarcerate our way out of our national drug epidemic.

And you're not arguing against the alternative; you are arguing against the strawman you're building, "make everything legal and do nothing else about the problem". Any viable path to reducing addiction and overdose rates also has to include a myriad of social services. The $50k/yr it costs to lock someone up and throw away the key can be better spent on counseling, education, rehabilitation, and "housing first" programs.

We should be taking our cues from nations whose policy is actually reducing drug use among adolescents (new addicts) and opioid deaths overall.

Have a look at the chart here. Does that indicate to you that America's less liberal national drug policy is more or less effective than that of its OECD peer nations?

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