this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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Question for those of you living in a country where marijuana is legal. What are the positive sides, what are the negatives?

If you could go back in time, would you vote for legalising again? Does it affect the country's illegal drug business , more/less?

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[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You're talking about decriminalization, which is not the same as legalization.

Heroin should absolutely not be legalized, but it shouldn't be criminalized either.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No, I'm talking about legalization. I said legalized, I meant legalized. Drug treatment programs should be ubiquitous, available, and free.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 29 minutes ago

Where I live they are. As we have universal healthcare.

We still got hit very hard by both a cocaine and heroine crisis.

Not all people who need help will seek it, even if it's free help. A hard lesson to learn, but one you learn while living in a country why vast social programs and universal healthcare but there are still people with severe issues who just refuse to get helped.

[–] CalipherJones@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I've seen what fentanyl and tranq does to people first hand. Walking zombies with decaying flesh wounds that will kill them. Not all drugs should be legal for recreational use.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Fentanyl and xylazine are only common because of prohibition; legalize all drugs, and opiate users will flock to heroin instead.

Also, the necrosis isn't caused by the drugs themselves, it's cutting agents, needle reuse, and poor sanitation. Legalization solves the first one, almost solves the second, and makes teaching about the third a lot easier.

[–] CalipherJones@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Tranq, also known as Xylazine, specifically causes flesh wounds.

"A high prevalence of abscesses and painful skin ulcers [13] developed over various body parts irrespective of the IV injection site was reported. The mechanism is thought to be mediated by its direct vasoconstricting effect on local blood vessels and resultant decreased skin perfusion [6]. In addition to vasoconstriction, it causes hypotension, bradycardia, and respiratory depression, leading to lower tissue oxygenation in the skin [14]. Thus, chronic use of xylazine can progress the vasoconstriction and skin oxygenation deficit, leading to severe soft tissue infections, including abscesses, cellulitis, and skin ulceration. Decreased perfusion also leads to impaired healing of wounds and a higher chance of infection of these ulcers [15]."

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9482722/

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago

Exactly, those drugs are sought after because smuggling small amounts of them is much easier than smuggling larger amounts of heroin.

Black markets, drug markets, gang violence, the warehousing of impoverished people who get drawn in to all that. Nothing but bad comes from prohibition.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

How's that working out? Prohibition has never done anything for addiction.

[–] CalipherJones@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (3 children)

Prohibition in Singapore works swimmingly. But that's a single city state. It's much harder to stop drugs from coming into a country like America.

I don't think anyone should go to prison for consuming drugs. I also don't think fentanyl and drugs like it should be made any easier to obtain.

San Francisco has spent so much money trying to solve the fentanyl crisis and yet it still persists. I think the problem lies deeper in our culture. Substance abuse is just a symptom of our cultural illness.

[–] Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

San Francisco has spent so much money trying to solve the fentanyl crisis and yet it still persists.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

No, it doesn't. Still drug addicts, still drug dealers and violent gangs that import and sell drugs.

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean technically all kinds of opiates, some considerably stronger than heroin, are already legal. Access to them is strictly controlled but if you have the right piece of paper you can go to the local pharmacy and pick up all manner of extremely hardcore drugs.

Just nitpicking the semantics of legal/controlled/etc though. Ultimately we're all in agreement that drugs should be a healthcare issue and not a criminal one.

[–] Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

The stricter it's "controlled", the more out of control the black market is.