• mycatiskai@lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    The tens of thousands of people, if not more who are murdered by their alcoholic partners who would say that alcohol is a lot worse than marijuana.

    If you decriminalize even hard drugs it allows people to take it under supervision in places like safe injection sites that also give them access to social services that will help them quit using drugs.

    Portugal has had way fewer drug issues since they decriminalized it. Treating it like a medical issue instead of treating it like a criminal issue solves problems instead of creating more problems such as imprisoning people for drug offenses, stealing to pay for drugs.

    This obviously costs money which people don’t like paying for in their taxes, but a healthy member of a society is a lot cheaper than a drug user costing the rest of us when they end up in an emergency room.

    • Auzy@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      And thats a VERY good point.

      Alcohol is decriminalised, and is a SERIOUS issue. Just like Nicotine is. People keep trying to quit, but they can’t because smokes and alcohol are available everywhere you turn. Making these things more accessible isn’t a solution.

      Alcohol should be banned too (our ex housemate was an alcoholic).

      This isn’t a case of “oh, but weed is less harmful”. In fact, I just realised I have 2 housemates who had weed problems. The second one told me explicitly moved from her household because her family all had a serious weed and alcohol problem, and she felt less exposed to it in my house.

      People on drugs like ICE here are already treated like a medical problem, and it hasn’t helped. At least if its treated as a criminal issue courts can order them to go to rehab.

      But yes, I think we’d all be more comfortable if Alcohol was banned too (or strongly controlled)

      • flerp@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Yeah they tried banning alcohol… have you ever considered reading history and learning from it?

        Making things illegal doesn’t make them not available, it crates a black market for them which generates more crime and violence, makes them dangerous to obtain, and makes it so that people addicted to the substances can’t get help to get off of them. It is all-around worse.

        • Auzy@beehaw.org
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          8 months ago

          Alcohol is still banned in some countries… A world does exist outside US.

          Here in Australia, in NT having alcohol readily accessible was a huge disaster. There are laws to heavily restrict it in areas with a drinking problem and they do help. It was literally requested by the communities most affected. No there isn’t some weird crime syndicate

          And if you speak to social workers, they will tell you having it so easily available isn’t a good thing