Been rewatching the wire (h/t Stonks1990) and going through the "Hampsterdam" arc. It's an interesting take on the whole drug use situation. Not to mention what we've seen go on in real life in Portugal and other areas with their approach, but the diametric opposite situation happening in SF? Curious to hear what the rest of WSO thinks about the premise? Good or bad, or both.
Personally, I get the legalizing pot side, but things that can actually stop someone's heart rate like opioids or something that'd give you Tachycardia and do it from the other end of the spectrum? And yes, this does include prescriptions that are either abused or mis-prescribed. Even legal things like alcohol too
Don't out yourself or even implicate yourself if you ever have had experience with anything that would involve any of this, just curious to hear everyone else's opinions.
I think theoretically it could work but the devil is in implementation. There needs to be support structures for addiction, homelessness, mental illness (which very often goes hand in hand with heavy drug use), supervision and law enforcement / public safety. Really needs cross agency type strategy across multiple levels of government and funding. As liberal as I am, really don't see any government with the ability or will to properly implement this in a way where it works. See Vancouver, Portland etc.
I get that, but that feels like a chicken or the egg situation. Did the mental illness come first and provoke the homelessnes and then "screw it, let's get messed up" attitude? Or vice versa?
People think that Portugal just legalized everything and told people to have at it to their hearts content with no further input. That couldn't be further from the truth...
Then by all means expound on the truth as you see it please. You know me. I don't want off-the-cuff anecdotes, and I know you're not in that game either. So please, do inform us.
I’ll sit on the fence here. If quality control was implemented, I could see it justified (not that I think it’s good).
Problem we have is fent is in many drugs these days. Former coworker of mine used to move weight around NYC and there was honor in the illicit trade. Your word and handshake really meant something. These days stuff gets cut with fent and no one cares who takes the fatal hit.
Coworker of mine lost a relative recently who was struggling with an Oxy addition after a bad accident from years prior. A stash he got had fent in it and he had the fatal hit. The pain this family has endured is unimaginable.
So, legalization that would involve state/federal scrutiny over the quality and efficacy of the product(s)?
You bring up a good tangent about fent. I'm also curious about people's opinions on how to handle that situation. Mods, I'm not looking to promote anything here, but should that be on the state to work through legalizing certain things and therefore regulating them? Or pulling a real-life version of Sicario/Sicario 2 to go that heavy? And of course all the clamor is that it's coming up through Mexico after coming in from China. Which is a whole 'nother ball of wax. Penny for anyone's thoughts.
Fent is what scares me the most about these kinds of ideas. "Responsible" drug use, a lot of people do it, and I can see how it can work in certain settings (as well as legally within the confines of your own home), but the ease with which things like fentanyl are cut in is so scary. I'm all for quality control with all of them (I like the connoisseur/sommelier system with weed, tbh I think that's one of the best ways to bring it into society like wine/beer), but harder to accomplish with cocaine, heroin, etc. I'm not knowledgeable enough to talk about different approaches but would like to learn.
I don't know your former coworker, and I don't know anything about the drug trade, but this raises my hackles a bit. This sounds a lot like the "back in my day..." stories you hear from someone from whom the world has moved on. I highly doubt the NYC drug trade was this civilized world of "thieves with honor" or some such. Maybe if your coworker was selling high quality cocaine to Wall Street bankers, I could see that, but my guess is most of the drug trade had a seedier side, with people cutting crack or whatever it was they were selling. The concept of some self-regulated black market for drugs that functioned on a word and a handshake just doesn't make sense when exposed to daylight. Maybe this one guy was careful, because his clients had the wealth and power to make life miserable for him if he diluted or cut whatever he was selling, but it's extremely hard to imagine that being representative of even a small portion of the world, then or now.
Not a NYC resident or alumni resident, but most of what I've read and seen is that it was the mafia and some other street gangs were a parallel form of "policing" in time gone by like WolfofWSO was alluding to and kept things civil. Obviously, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding.
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