Finally, A Word of Sanity from the AMA

In a surprising show of sanity, the American Medical Association's House of Delegates recently voted to decriminalize adult drug use & possession in a 345-171 vote.  They cited decades of effort & categorical failure to improve the situation of overdose and addiction, comparing the War on Drugs to the statement "The beatings will continue until morale improves."  😮  The AMA's Board of Trustees protested, stating there was "not enough evidence" of public health benefits while Connecticut delegate Ryan Englander cited Portugal's success with decriminalization.  The AMA's report will call for "elimination of criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use as part of a larger set of related public health and legal reforms designed to improve carefully selected outcomes."  Bloop.

While this is a huge and positive development, I posit that decriminalization doesn't go far enough in the face of the fentanyl, nitazene & xylazine ("tranq dope") epidemic.  Full legalization and government regulation of the drug supply would be needed at this point to truly stop the overdose and drug adulteration crisis.  Decriminalization addresses the problem of locking addicts up for their disease, which is a step in the right direction though.  It would also free up police resources to focus on actual crime, which would still include drug selling & manufacturing under decriminalization.  Criminal penalties for drug possession/use could be replaced with "civil" penalties like referral to drug treatment programs the addict is not ready for & thus are unlikely to work.  

Still, this is a huge improvement over having a criminal record that follows you & prevents you from obtaining gainful employment, public housing or voting in some states.  The biggest problem with decriminalization though is that black market forces still control the drug supply, which is the cause of adulteration and overdose deaths in the U.S.  It also allows those entities to maintain their violent control in countries like Mexico & South America where they are driving refugees North to our borders in search of a safe place to live.  The artificial price inflation of illegal drugs would also remain in place since it would still be controlled by the black market, which means addicts would still be required to engage in illegal and unsavory activities like prostitution, robbery, shoplifting & panhandling to fund their habit.

Compare this to full legalization which would take control and profits away from cartels, gangs & black market drug dealers & put it in the hands of governments who would be free to use that money for harm reduction education & evidence-based treatment programs for those ready to quit.  Since production of the drugs would be under the control of companies with government oversight, the problem of adulteration & varying potency would go away overnight.  (Similar to how alcohol, tobacco & caffeinated beverages are regulated for purity & quality now).  Buyers of drugs would be carded with a photo ID at the point of sale to prevent their sale to children & the violence associated with illicit drug trade would evaporate.  Safe injection sites would open up to get addicts out of the streets, so there would be no more "fentanyl zombies" and the like in public view.  And the cost of once-illegal drugs would come down to affordable levels since the risk of handling said drugs would be gone (which means addicts would no longer have to center their lives around obtaining money for drugs).  This would reduce crime at all levels of society.

My fear is that when decriminalization inevitably fails to stop the overdose and addiction crisis like it has in states that have decriminalized personal use (Oregon), the U.S. will experience a backlash against it & crack down harder on personal adult use & possession.  Perhaps decriminalization would've been sufficient in the pre-opioid epidemic era, but now anything short of full legalization will not do. 

Still, I commend the AMA for their bold vote in a time when blaming other countries like China/Mexico for our drug problem is so popular, and when cracking down harder on drugs like fentanyl is all the rage.  It's high time we let medical and scientific experts write our drug laws instead of politicians with elections to win & grieving mothers who are righteously angry to have lost a child to drugs but have misdirected their rage at the wrong target.  No matter your stance on the issue, it's clear what we're doing is not working.  Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, and we've been banning drugs & locking up their users for over 80 years now. It's time to try something--anything--else.