Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaster86
There is a very large misunderstanding as to what the goals of decriminalization are. It's not about letting people get high when ever and where ever they want. It's about removing stigma, putting people in places they are more likely to find avenues to help or get help if something happens to them.
It should not work alone and cannot work without other policies being in place.
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In theory that's how it works, but in practice it means fire fighters delivering Naloxone to the same person 50 times a year.
To me, decriminalization is like Unschooling. Yeah, there are people and circumstances where children can learn to be self sustaining adults by being unschooled. However, there are just as many who become NEETS. In theory unschooling is a way to help people who don't thrive in an institutional setting, but in practice, it can enables people who are not interested in becoming self sustaining adults.
Having upstream interventions is the best solution, on that we agree. We also can all agree that putting people in jail for nickel and dime drug use does not solve the problem. We should also agree that addicts are powerless to their addiction and are unreliable to themselves. Addicts are also oblivious ( when using) to the harm they cause to people around them. As such there needs to be meaningful intervention, so that otherwise self sustaining people do not get harmed by living surrounded by drug addicts. That doesn't need to mean sweeping people off the streets so we can ignore them, but it also shouldn't mean that people are doing drugs at every downtown street corner with no consequences ( outside of the obvious health and social issues).