War on Drugs? What would happen if all recreational drugs were legal? Imagine advertising for existing drugs. Imagine the effort Pfizer, and all other pharmaceutical companies, would devote to creating a product so addictive, that once tried, no customer would want to live without it. Imagine the government that would drool over the prospects for tax revenue from this irresistible product. Tobacco provides some idea of how things would go. Sex work? Similar concerns would arise. In my dystopian view, some depraved parents would groom children for this line of work.
We don't have to imagine, because the pharmeceutical companies already bribe doctors to overprescribe. It's the leading cause of the opioid epidemic. It being illegal has not stopped it at all. Harm reduction isn't about punishing people for doing the bad thing, it's about addressing the root causes of the bad thing. I agree, depraved parents would do that - they already do. I just don't agree that it being illegal stops anybody already so depraved that they would do so from doing so anyway.
"...the pharmeceutical companies already bribe doctors to overprescribe. It's the leading cause of the opioid epidemic."
But the product itself is legal. However, even with theoretically sensible prescription guidelines, we ended up with a huge problem. What would happen if opioids were the legal equivalent of beer? Seems like a nightmare to me.
" It being illegal has not stopped it at all. "
It does slow things down.
"Harm reduction isn't about punishing people for doing the bad thing, it's about addressing the root causes of the bad thing. "
Um, the problem is human nature mixed with the power of a pleasure-inducing substance to erase the last bit of our sensible restraint.
"I agree, depraved parents would do that - they already do. I just don't agree that it being illegal stops anybody already so depraved that they would do so from doing so anyway."
Are there parents who would happily announce to friends that their daughters are sex workers? Sex therapist is one thing. Sex worker? Hmmm.
Then there are those too-common situations where there's a pimp keeping his girls in drugs and on the street ,or wherever they operate, to maximize revenue. More than likely, these girls don't have "parents".
Well we do have existing examples of other countries that have legalized and decriminalized sex work(two different things). None of them have become dystopian nightmares.
War on Drugs? What would happen if all recreational drugs were legal? Imagine advertising for existing drugs. Imagine the effort Pfizer, and all other pharmaceutical companies, would devote to creating a product so addictive, that once tried, no customer would want to live without it. Imagine the government that would drool over the prospects for tax revenue from this irresistible product. Tobacco provides some idea of how things would go. Sex work? Similar concerns would arise. In my dystopian view, some depraved parents would groom children for this line of work.
We don't have to imagine, because the pharmeceutical companies already bribe doctors to overprescribe. It's the leading cause of the opioid epidemic. It being illegal has not stopped it at all. Harm reduction isn't about punishing people for doing the bad thing, it's about addressing the root causes of the bad thing. I agree, depraved parents would do that - they already do. I just don't agree that it being illegal stops anybody already so depraved that they would do so from doing so anyway.
"...the pharmeceutical companies already bribe doctors to overprescribe. It's the leading cause of the opioid epidemic."
But the product itself is legal. However, even with theoretically sensible prescription guidelines, we ended up with a huge problem. What would happen if opioids were the legal equivalent of beer? Seems like a nightmare to me.
" It being illegal has not stopped it at all. "
It does slow things down.
"Harm reduction isn't about punishing people for doing the bad thing, it's about addressing the root causes of the bad thing. "
Um, the problem is human nature mixed with the power of a pleasure-inducing substance to erase the last bit of our sensible restraint.
"I agree, depraved parents would do that - they already do. I just don't agree that it being illegal stops anybody already so depraved that they would do so from doing so anyway."
Are there parents who would happily announce to friends that their daughters are sex workers? Sex therapist is one thing. Sex worker? Hmmm.
Then there are those too-common situations where there's a pimp keeping his girls in drugs and on the street ,or wherever they operate, to maximize revenue. More than likely, these girls don't have "parents".
Well we do have existing examples of other countries that have legalized and decriminalized sex work(two different things). None of them have become dystopian nightmares.