Opioid epidemic

[finley]

Well, there’s an interesting business idea for when those of us without implanted vaccine passport ICs aren’t allowed to work anymore …

I must say I know very little about fungi. I’m aware of their ecological importance, but I only cultivate them in the sense that I leave them alone to get on with it wherever they find a niche on the farm.

[Explant]

@finley

@Explant

However there is zero reason to criminalize the USE of any plant material.

Well, you mentioned ricin, which rather contradicts your position that there is ‘zero reason’ to criminalize the use of certain plant materials. Surely the government has a duty to curtail the use of certain substances - whatever their provenance - if they cause overt harm? That doesn’t imply that they ought (for example) to outlaw the growing of castor beans. It’s the dangerous substance itself that ought to be the target of legislation.

All drugs - medicines - are subject to very stringent laws, and if you allow individuals to distribute such things without any need to demonstrate safety, purely on the basis that they come from plants, then logically you have to allow pharma companies to do the same thing. Not so long ago the world actually worked like that, and although I tend towards laissez-faire capitalism, I don’t think that was a good thing.

Of course there are shades of grey here. Alcohol (is yeast a ‘plant’?) causes enormous problems, but we accept those problems on the basis of all sorts of complex tradeoffs. Weed has the potential for certain harms, but probably less so than alcohol. Drugs like heroin, OTOH, seem to serve absolutely no purpose outside of carefully-controlled medical settings.

Ricin is controlled, not the plant. Thats the difference. Many countries outright ban the species of a handful of plants outright. Including poppies, which is ironic as the seeds are sold and often are viable…

Largely the issue is more with criminalizing its use, controlling production is fairly common in every sector of any industry. Not just botany.

@Mick

@Explant

Anything? @gain and to mods

I already made my position clear on the topic of legalizing marijuana which is to say I am in the "for’ column, for many reasons but not the argument you made above.

@Explant

However there is zero reason to criminalize the USE of any plant material.

There are some pretty potent psychedelics that come from “plant material”, in the UK magic mushrooms are everywhere, it used to be the law that it was illegal to prepare them or sell them but picking them was fine, I think that law has changed and not sure what the law is in the US but mescaline is a pretty powerful psychedelic that comes from the cacti plant material.

Then there’s the plant material poppies which morphine, codeine, and heroin are derived from (not sure you would argue any of those should be legal because they just come from plants) and we can go on and on, cocaine derived from the coca plant.

Cacti and mushrooms should all be legal. however you are likening cocaine with the coca plant.they are different things. I think it makes sense to decriminalize (thats not the same as legalizing) all drugs, especially natural ones. This takes away a lot of problems linked with crime, addiction and money. The examples given i feel work this way. Mushrooms are not addictive a humans build up tollerance pretty fast and they are the anti habit forming psychedelic if there ever was one. Controlling the manufacture would be more ideal like they do with some other narcotics (alcohol~mostly man made, tobacco~natural plant)

Cacti, especially peyote, are so slow growing it wouldnt likely become a common thing. The US government already banned them for non NAC members and have prohibited cultivation forcing wild harvesting of an incredibly rare and slow growing olant. Its obvious what they did there. Canada tends to ban anything with certain chemicals in it. As with mescalin, everything is banned with it (many species actually), with a specific exception for peyote that is not tagged to a race or culture. Which is nice a well a far a to not discriminate between people, and allow traditions regardless of that cactus being relatively recent in use in Canada.

Canada pulled a smart one with ephedra as to not trample on human rights but effectively get rid of it by banning the import/export of it (it cant cross the border). As it wont grow there really, its a done deal and they didnt make anyone a criminal in the process. Its made into amphetimes and they remain illegal, but not the source plant.

Opiods are a trickier one as they are truly addictive. So i am on the fence with them, but personal use absolutely should be decriminalized in order to help get slow the spiral downwards.

The real focus should be on production and especially of the lab chems like amphetimies, rcs etc. Those are killing. The only thing that doesnt kill more people than lab drugs and opiates the black market ones that arent pure and distributed by really shitty leople.

[tempogain]

How Frighteningly Strong Meth Has Supercharged Homelessness

[Dr_Milker]

Broken link…

[tempogain]

Thanks

[OysterOmelet]

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