As a society we are rewarding bad behaviour. When you reward a dog for biting eventually it be bite you. In the mean time this dogs life will be miserable, lacking joy, lacking love.
I so enjoy your posts! Your fact based perspective is refreshing and appreciated.
So, ok, but what is the solution? I am a lifelong critic of the Drug War. And I have long been for legalization of everything. But this fentanyl thing, hm. And then the activists came up with harm reduction, and suddenly my world stopped making sense. Would you roll out barrels of whisky for folks on Skid Row, just to give them quality alchohol, rather than bathtub gin, and pat yourself on the back for the good you are doing? It's insane.
The problem with our approach, IMO, is that we are mixing a libertarian "legalize everything and stop the war on drugs" approach with a decidedly collectivist approach to the harms that come from drug use.
A lot of people missed the point that saying "go ahead and use drugs if you want, even if I think it's harmful" and "go ahead and camp out in the park where the kids used to play and shoot up with drugs with complete impunity" are diffferent.
So the "go ahead and use drugs, we won't get in the way" idea only is plausible in a society where individuals bear the consequences of that decision.
The other thing that libertarians (I count myself as one) fail to recognize is that a second-order consequence of stopping the war on drugs is an implicit acceptance of drug use as normal. I clearly saw this in Canada when marijuana use was legalized, and many more people started to use it, and to use it regularly, with all the harms that come with that. In fact, marijuana use is SO normal here now that I have to ask "do you use marijuana" as a separate question to "do you use any drugs", because people don't even think of it as a drug anymore.
There is a space between de-stigmatizing and normalizing that in theory exists but in practice is very hard to stop the pendulum in.
Yes, indeed. The collectivists are out to spare people consequences, and call it compassion.
But at the same time, I have acquired doubts. Here it is: I looked into how China looked when using opium was normalized. The cultural impact of it. Basically, what they had was family restaurants, where you would go and order a meal, and then smoke a little opium, and then check out the "girls" and have a fuck. And they said, oh it's really fine, it spreads the wealth to the lower classes... And their soldiers went useless, all they thought about was relaxing in one of the opium cafes (a big concern for the emperor). My impression from it was that China lost any sort of moral mooring with it. (And this from a sympathetic description by a Chinese.) Ugh! So where do I go from here? Your input would be much appreciated.
Edit: I guess my impression right now is that some things are better kept in a closet...
Excellent stuff again! One issue in all this is the terrible sin of 'being judgemental' and, God forbid, 'prejudiced.' I recommend Dalrymple's 'Romancing the Opiates' and 'In praise of prejudice' as suitable restoratives. I am personally prejudiced against any policy , and those espousing it, which results in the terrible scenes of degradation and displays of human misery now on the streets of our cities, not to mention crime, ruined lives and deaths. The evidence is plain and at least we are seeing some push back now.
PS: as to "scenes of degradation and displays of human misery". Even 3 years ago, downtown Sydney Nova Scotia was safe. Downtown had died like most urban environments so there were lots of empty shops, but it was safe. One could stagger home from a bar at 2AM unmolested, male or female. Then we went all in on "harm reduction". Yesterday Julie and I drove by the "Ally Centre", the taxpayer-funded facility which uses our money to give out free needles, food, "support", and I think now "safe supply" to addicts. There was a mass of humanity milling about in various states of consciousness. Some passed out, some semi-conscious. several having verbal altercations. A half-dozen or so had new T-shirts on that had the words "HARM REDUCTION SAVES LIVES!" on them. There are piles of garbage everywhere. My friend was propositioned to pay for a blowjob when he stopped at a nearby traffic light when he was out running last week. Another friend saw a "fine gentleman'" receiving a blowjob on the stoop of the senior's club just across the street from the Ally Centre, in broad daylight in full view of passing cars. Panhandlers have become aggressive and threatening - a friend of mine now won't use the bank machine in that area. There is no police presence as any movement by them to enforce vagrancy or loitering laws would be "unjust" to the poor "victims" who now have de-facto control of our downtown core. The most galling thing about all of this is that my tax money is being used to fund it. Meanwhile (unless it changed in the last 5 minutes) overdose deaths remain at an all-time high, stabbings and shootings have greatly increased, and rates of addiction have not dropped. What is the measure of success for "harm reduction"?
Dalrymple is my favourite living writer. Unparalleled in his insights. Romancing Opiates should be required reading for anyone who wants to be knowledgeable enough to express a useful opinion on these matters.
Abstinence represents a mortal danger to those who "earn a living" working in the marketplace of treatment protocols and pathways.
Agreed. Sounds like you've been reading your Thomas Sowell! :-)
Aside from the potential for loss of income, abstinence represents a strength of spirit that poses a real threat to the parasite class
We get what we tolerate.
Interesting and thought-provoking perspective.
As a society we are rewarding bad behaviour. When you reward a dog for biting eventually it be bite you. In the mean time this dogs life will be miserable, lacking joy, lacking love.
I so enjoy your posts! Your fact based perspective is refreshing and appreciated.
You need to publish this in MSM, it is very sobering, we need to reclaim proper compassion and treatment for our culture.
So, ok, but what is the solution? I am a lifelong critic of the Drug War. And I have long been for legalization of everything. But this fentanyl thing, hm. And then the activists came up with harm reduction, and suddenly my world stopped making sense. Would you roll out barrels of whisky for folks on Skid Row, just to give them quality alchohol, rather than bathtub gin, and pat yourself on the back for the good you are doing? It's insane.
The problem with our approach, IMO, is that we are mixing a libertarian "legalize everything and stop the war on drugs" approach with a decidedly collectivist approach to the harms that come from drug use.
A lot of people missed the point that saying "go ahead and use drugs if you want, even if I think it's harmful" and "go ahead and camp out in the park where the kids used to play and shoot up with drugs with complete impunity" are diffferent.
So the "go ahead and use drugs, we won't get in the way" idea only is plausible in a society where individuals bear the consequences of that decision.
The other thing that libertarians (I count myself as one) fail to recognize is that a second-order consequence of stopping the war on drugs is an implicit acceptance of drug use as normal. I clearly saw this in Canada when marijuana use was legalized, and many more people started to use it, and to use it regularly, with all the harms that come with that. In fact, marijuana use is SO normal here now that I have to ask "do you use marijuana" as a separate question to "do you use any drugs", because people don't even think of it as a drug anymore.
There is a space between de-stigmatizing and normalizing that in theory exists but in practice is very hard to stop the pendulum in.
Yes, indeed. The collectivists are out to spare people consequences, and call it compassion.
But at the same time, I have acquired doubts. Here it is: I looked into how China looked when using opium was normalized. The cultural impact of it. Basically, what they had was family restaurants, where you would go and order a meal, and then smoke a little opium, and then check out the "girls" and have a fuck. And they said, oh it's really fine, it spreads the wealth to the lower classes... And their soldiers went useless, all they thought about was relaxing in one of the opium cafes (a big concern for the emperor). My impression from it was that China lost any sort of moral mooring with it. (And this from a sympathetic description by a Chinese.) Ugh! So where do I go from here? Your input would be much appreciated.
Edit: I guess my impression right now is that some things are better kept in a closet...
Excellent stuff again! One issue in all this is the terrible sin of 'being judgemental' and, God forbid, 'prejudiced.' I recommend Dalrymple's 'Romancing the Opiates' and 'In praise of prejudice' as suitable restoratives. I am personally prejudiced against any policy , and those espousing it, which results in the terrible scenes of degradation and displays of human misery now on the streets of our cities, not to mention crime, ruined lives and deaths. The evidence is plain and at least we are seeing some push back now.
PS: as to "scenes of degradation and displays of human misery". Even 3 years ago, downtown Sydney Nova Scotia was safe. Downtown had died like most urban environments so there were lots of empty shops, but it was safe. One could stagger home from a bar at 2AM unmolested, male or female. Then we went all in on "harm reduction". Yesterday Julie and I drove by the "Ally Centre", the taxpayer-funded facility which uses our money to give out free needles, food, "support", and I think now "safe supply" to addicts. There was a mass of humanity milling about in various states of consciousness. Some passed out, some semi-conscious. several having verbal altercations. A half-dozen or so had new T-shirts on that had the words "HARM REDUCTION SAVES LIVES!" on them. There are piles of garbage everywhere. My friend was propositioned to pay for a blowjob when he stopped at a nearby traffic light when he was out running last week. Another friend saw a "fine gentleman'" receiving a blowjob on the stoop of the senior's club just across the street from the Ally Centre, in broad daylight in full view of passing cars. Panhandlers have become aggressive and threatening - a friend of mine now won't use the bank machine in that area. There is no police presence as any movement by them to enforce vagrancy or loitering laws would be "unjust" to the poor "victims" who now have de-facto control of our downtown core. The most galling thing about all of this is that my tax money is being used to fund it. Meanwhile (unless it changed in the last 5 minutes) overdose deaths remain at an all-time high, stabbings and shootings have greatly increased, and rates of addiction have not dropped. What is the measure of success for "harm reduction"?
Dalrymple is my favourite living writer. Unparalleled in his insights. Romancing Opiates should be required reading for anyone who wants to be knowledgeable enough to express a useful opinion on these matters.