Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
Do you think that if all drugs were legalized and unregulated, use of drugs that were formerly illegal would increase?
I can't say no, but I suspect they wouldn't
the first reason is access. if you are 16, it is easier to get coke than it is to get booze, you just need to know the person to ask, if you want it.
the second reason is the "forbidden fruit" aspect. Ive had several people tell me it is the illegal part of drugs they like (like, when I was 16/17), and the only person I've met who abstains because of the law is ddm.
you might see some differences in use, but imho, you would see the greatest decline in use by teens. 1) with a legal market, the black market dies, so kids now don't deal with unscrupulous dealers, but a store where they will have their ID checked and 2) it isn't "cool" to get high anymore, as in, you aren't some badass because you break a law (I think a lot of people use drugs for the first time for this reason, and thus, less kids would try them, as opposed to people stopping once they become legal).
Its going to depend on the drug of course. I don't see people lining up to buy heroin, but pot is already ubiquitous in culture, so use of it might rise, but I don't think it would be to any significant degree.
EDIT: to rant a bit more, there were studies done on the use of pot during the 70s(?, might have been 60s) in the states that showed lower numbers of people using pot for the first time in states that had the most lenient laws on pot, and ones that consistently show the use of pot is considerably less by Dutch people than other European nations, the US or Canada (who leads the first world in use 🙂). Basically, and I don't find these studies conclusive to say prohibition causes use, but the trend seems to be that the less you police drugs, the less people do them.