The Problems Caused By Decriminalizing Drugs

You don't have to love the War on (Some) Drugs™ to see the problems that drugs are causing in major cities. Oregon's Brutally Hard Lesson about Decriminalizing Drugs | National Review

Even Oregon progressives are seeing that there are problems.

This is not an either-or issue; you can look at the War on Drugs and find it counterproductive, ineffective, and turning otherwise law-abiding people into criminals simply for being curious about the feeling of getting high. You can heed the lessons of Prohibition and conclude that certain human activities can be unsavory, unpleasant, or potentially self-destructive, and should still remain legal. But you can also recognize that making something legal will increase the demand for it, and that the bad consequences of those newly-legal actions are likely to proliferate rapidly.

This idea that drugs and decriminalization bring problems is not new. See Seattle is Dying | A KOMO News Documentary. Even though it is a few years old, I can still recommend it. And it isn't all a tale of woe. It does offer at least one tested solution. But back to Oregon...

If decriminalizing hard drugs made places like Oregon safer and more pleasant places to live, more people would sign off on that change in the laws. Unfortunately, the opposite appears to be the case. Ryan’s report is chock full of jaw-dropping and disturbing figures and anecdotes. “Portland police investigated a record number of drug-overdose deaths in the city. This year, they topped that record in early August.”

Now I am no fan of the War on (Some) Drugs™, but open-air drug markets, addiction, and the criminal activity that goes along with all of that has to stop. I'm not sure how you stop it, but handing out free needles, and turning the landscape into a hazardous waste zone is not the solution.

There is a lot more to the story. Click thru.