Countries all over the world spent billions of dollars in health care and research to fully identify the root cause of drug addiction. Many failed to pinpoint exactly what makes these people addicted to drugs while others don’t. While most people rally against drug addiction, launching campaigns for general public awareness, there’s another imminent brewing alongside it. Most people do not realize the two contradicting worlds revolving around drug addiction.
One is the legalization of cannabis and the ongoing “carnage of opioid epidemic”. In a global perspective, none would represent it better than the Philippines and Portugal. The Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launches a head-on attack to the Philippines worsening drug addiction, where many were killed in relation to drug-related operations. Meanwhile, Portugal responded very differently, they legalize all drugs for personal use and focuses to spend a large amount of money on public health treatment initiatives.
Are we willing to pay a heavy price?
But will it yield more good than harm to legalize these controlled substances? Will it be possible for the government to decriminalize all possible usage of these drugs? When does it happen do we have enough funding to reverse its devastating effect? Most importantly, are we willing to gamble on such a thing and pay a heavy price for the consequences? Here’s what we need to know.
“With the imminent legalization of cannabis and the ongoing carnage of the opioid epidemic, how to regulate the widespread use of so-called illicit drugs has become one of the dominant public policy issues in Canada.
That is true globally as well, with two philosophical camps vying for supremacy: those who believe drug use is destructive and warrants harsh criminal penalties and those who think that more harm comes from criminalization than from drug use itself. At one of end of the spectrum is the relentless and chilling drug war waged by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, in which at least 4,500 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed.
At the other end is Portugal, which has decriminalized all drugs for personal use and opted to spend money on public health initiatives instead of prosecution and incarceration. In between, most countries, including Canada, cling to an arcane prohibition regime, with some token harm-reduction measures thrown in for good measure.
All of this is occurring at a time when the supply of drugs, from cannabis to heroin, has never been more abundant. Prices are falling, drugs are increasingly pure and potent, and deaths are soaring.”
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