But watch for a bit of sophistry in there.
On the legalize side: Which legalization model? EOH model? Nicotine model? State monopoly model?
On the prohibition side: State pays minimum of $36K/year for non-productive and life chances-damaging incarceration?
State actively discourages pharmaceutical R&D via market constraint (won't allow marketing except when the product meets FDA criteria for each medicine to be used in practice of medicine)?
What if the only intended use is 'to get high' under controlled conditions of 'recreational use' as might be set by the state regulatory agency for laser tag or paintball game establishments.
At present, the pharma R&D cannot innovate in this domain due to the federal government's creation of a monopoly for 'unethical innovators' such that 'ethical Pharma' could never make a profit on a drug developed with non-medicinal 'getting high' in mind.
Analogy in auto industry:
You cannot build a car 'for speed' unless its only use is on a non-public track.
Plus, we don't allow anyone to create a non-public track.
Consider a flight around the moon.
Govt says you cannot build a space travel device unless its only use is for military-industrial-scientific purposes.
Plus, you cannot launch it without govt permission.
So, at present, it's easier to raise capital (and find willing consumers) and to develop commercial space travel than it is to develop safe alternatives to our ancient plant-origin drugs with inherent toxicities: EOH, nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, psilocybin.....
I thought heroin is different in a way it causes intense, for the lack of a better word, euphoria, and rapid onset physical dependence through withdraw mechanisms, to an extent none of alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana is typically capable of. To me, it is not wise to legalize opioids for recreational purposes without an alternative whose 'get high' dose is distant from its lethal dose.
ReplyDeletePicking the lesser evils can be hard though. Maybe a more important lesson is how to prevent it from happening, cutting ties between the government and the industry???
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ReplyDeleteI don't think legalization is the solution, but I know incarceration is not the solution (for users).
ReplyDeleteI'd prefer the "green" medicinal chemistry route, would not build the new compound to produce euphoria, but would not dismiss it, even if some users of that new compound say they feel euphoria when they take it.
Fast acting antagonist needed.
...
Read up on heroin. Early JAMA experiment with naive users not told what was being administered. ~50% said they never wanted to take it again. It seems well under 50% become heroin dependent even when they first have tried it to get high or otherwise extr-medically.
Nicotine: A different story (different experiment).
"Euphoria"? Not sure that is the right word,but to expand vocabulary, look up Haertzen scales developed at NIDA ARC in Lexington, Kentucky.
Look at heroin profile versus morphine versus other drugs.
But these are side issues.
The last sentence of my post is, I think, its most important sentence.
Thank you for the comment.