(no subject)

[semperfiona]

Ironically, many activities far more risky than the officially forbidden activities are not crimes. Why should cocaine be illegal and Drano not? Whether snorted, swallowed, or injected, Drano is far more harmful than cocaine. And yet Drano is available in every supermarket. Children can buy Drano. No one asks, "What are you doing with this Drano? You're not going to snort it, are you?") There is also no "Drano law" that prohibits us from ingesting Drano nor a Drano Enforcement Agency (DEA) to enforce the law. Nor is there an Omnibus Drano Act designed to reduce the international use and trafficking of Drano.

That's not the beginning of the book, but I happen to have read it while waiting for the Drano to work on my tub. (*gleeful dance of functional tub drains*)

Comments

[curgoth]

Because when someone takes drano, they drop dead, instead of getting hooked, and using it again and again, robbing stores or prostituing themselves to get more drano.

There is a disincentive to snort drano, and no incentive to do so.

For cocaine, there is a strong incentive to do so (big high) and the disincentive is delayed; "might" get hooked, "might" od and die.

The government is trying to offer disincentives for cocaine, but they're delayed again; "might" get caught and spend the next 15 years getting gang-raped by angry men.

The real problem, as with most addictive substances, is to find some way for people to differentiate between use and abuse; there is plenty of incentive to use, and none of the disuasions available seem to work. So, how does one dissuade people from abusing, while accepting that people will use, whether one wants them to or not?

I dunno.

I suspect the first person to figure that out will get shot.