Drug crises invite a temptation to identify not drugs but their prohibition as the "Real" problem.
This is particularly true today, during a crisis driven by an extra-potent substance leaking into-indeed, poisoning-the illicit drug supply.
McArdle kindly highlighted an essay of mine on the drug crisis that explains the extent of the problem and details its origins in a revolution in illicit pharmaceutical production.
The basic argument goes something like this: the current crisis is a problem of adulteration of the drug supply with highly potent opioids, principally fentanyl.
As writers like Sam Quinones have documented, the early crisis was driven by a dramatic increase in the prescribing of opioids for chronic pain, which either led to addiction or diversion-that is, the drugs addicted the people to whom they were prescribed, or they were diverted by their licit recipients to the illicit market.
McArdle notes a recent paper in the American Journal of Public Health, which found that drug busts are associated with an increase in drug-overdose deaths.
Legalization can seem like a seductive solution to the drug crisis, especially to ardent capitalists such as McArdle.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/no-legalization-wont-solve-the-drug-crisis
No comments:
Post a Comment