Is Oregon Proof That Drug Decriminalization Will Fail?
The Drug Policy Institute's Kevin Sabet debates Reason's Zach Weissmueller.
Drug policy scholar Kevin Sabet and Reason's Zach Weissmueller debate the resolution, "The failure of Oregon's experiment in decriminalizing all drugs is compelling evidence that other attempts at complete decriminalization will fail just as badly."
Arguing for the affirmative is Sabet, the director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida, and the co-founder and president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. He is the author of Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.
Arguing against the resolution is Weissmueller, a senior producer at Reason, who has been covering the drug war for well over a decade. He recently produced a documentary on why Oregon re-criminalized drugs.
The debate is moderated by Soho Forum director Gene Epstein.
- Producer: John Osterhoudt
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It's a sign that those pushing for it are blind to the problems it creates and disinterested in mitigating the negative consequences for the rest of the population.
Prosecute crime heavily and let people kill themselves in their shitbox apartments with as much fetanyl as they want. Don't socialize the costs of your personal freedom.
This.
Combine libertarian ideals with no responsibility libirtineism and you get Portland.
^THIS +1000000 ... Both comments right on the $.
Spokane is going that way too. And it’s even more miserable if you’re a landlord. I long for the days when if I had an addict scofflaw, that I could kick in the door, beat the shit out of the worthless junkie, and then toss him into the street. And if the junkie put up a fight, I could turn him over to the sheriff for a second beating and a nice long jail stay.
Simpler times.
Yeah I don't see a failure of decriminalization as much as leftist government fucking it up. But to be fair it all started with prohibition that happened before any of us were born.
…that happened before any of us were born.
Hank says hold his tin cup.
Decriminalization is bullshit. It’s either legal, or it’s not.
No, there are steps in between. Almost all traffic and parking violations are non-criminal. So the illegal things we do the most aren't crimes. It's not as if non-criminal illegality is inherently politically unstable; there's no serious push to either legalize traffic violations or criminalize them. A rare exception was the criminalization of drunk driving.
No, there are other factors operating in political instability here.
You’re confusing non criminal violations with the legalization of controlled substances. Which are legal or not. Parking violations are not ‘decriminalized’ crimes, they are infractions,
Drugs are legal, or not.
There's nothing illegal that isn't criminal? And you think I'm the one who's confused here? Decriminalization doesn't make an act legal, it makes it not a crime.
Prostitution reformers have the terms mixed up.
The problem is somewhere on that downward slide you can't even afford the shit box apartment so the costs get socialized eventually. That and so much of our welfare state is about making sure there are minimal consequences for shit decisions.
Right. The answer comes down to whether leftists have enough power to influence the outcome. As we see in Portland they are uninterested in success, in fact they prefer failure which they claim can only mean they need more funding. And since they have this power almost everywhere in the US (even in red states the institutions administering the related programs will consist almost entirely of leftists) it's very likely Sabet is right.
Well said.
You can say it is not fair, but the way Enron dealt with CA during their, admittedly, lame attempt at deregulation helped insure that such a policy will not be tried again.
Portland did that to drug legalization.
Marxists don’t hold anyone accountable for their personal behavior, so legalization would also be a massive failure there.of course, everything they do is a massive failure.
Marijuana should be legalized across America. Trump and the GOP should pull the trigger on this and it might become bi partisan law which can only benefit the country with two parties finally agreeing on something.
Apply taxes as done with alcohol and create a new revenue stream.
All the impacts and results of legalizing marijuana are noted in Canada and have been positive.
And using British Columbia or Oregon as examples show when decriminalizing harder drugs go too far are available.
No reason to think there's not enough evidence to make proper informed decisions and policy on the matter.
Well, it failed on Oregon.
It has to be legalized, decriminalization keeps the black market in place. Portugal proved it works. Also it's simply a question of liberty no one has the right to tell another what they can do.
Drug decriminalization is profoundly stupid because it is still illegal and still has penalties. Full legalization is the proper course of action.
...PLUS Universal Taxpayer-Theft Medicare so the drug-stupid careless lifestyle can be 'subsidized'?
I point this out in hopes you realize just how impracticable 'subsidizing' (i.e. Gov-Gun theft) is.
Individual Liberty is definitely the 'proper course of action'.
But you can't defend Individual Liberty while asking others to pay for it.
That brings about '[WE] Identify-as *special* RULES!' - gangster wars. (i.e. It is not a balanced equation)
Funny, you Marixists have a mortal lock on Oregon government. Yet still no legalization.
Even if they went full legalization, they’d find a way to fuck everything up.