Sunday, April 20, 2014

On Legalizing Heroin

Written on May 16th, 2011



   Keeping heroin illegal (1) raises its price, causing an increase in violent crime – and of theft and other illegal means by which such money can be obtained (such as prostitution, mugging, bank robbery, etc.), (2) increases rates of blood-borne illnesses arising from infection due to needle-sharing, exacerbated by the occasional outlawing of needle purchases without prescriptions, and (3) makes it more difficult for heroin users to know the potency of their heroin, which can lead to overdoses.

   If states realize this, and begin to understand that legalizing heroin would lower prices, decrease violent crime, reduce infection rates, and allow government to sell and tax heroin as well as provide information to consumers about its potency, I say the federal government should let the states do it. The people will be safer, healthier, and they will have more money to spend on food and utilities.

   Cheaper drugs means less ostracism of drug use, and a better chance that drug users will be able to afford homes inside which they will be able to use drugs privately, rather than outdoors where they can endanger the health of (and be seen using by) others.

   Not only am I willing to defend Congressman Ron Paul's position that federal laws restricting the use, purchase, sale, and distribution should be struck down; I am also willing to recommend that state and local governments strike down similar laws.




http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-food-and-drug-administration.html

For more entries on justice, crime, and punishment, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/10/thrasymachus-support-for-justice-being.html

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