Cocaine Destroying Rural Ireland

There's a key difference here between decriminalization and legalisation though.

There's going to be a section of society who would buy a drug if it was as easy as walking into a shop and getting a known quantity that has some levels of quality control about it, who simply won't buy that same drug if they need to go through the hassle of finding a drug dealer.

I'd be one of those people. There are certain recreational drugs that are currently illegal in this country that I'm not going to try and find. However if I could buy them in some sort of dispensary or shop (like you can in Amsterdam) then I would, on occasion, do that.

Similarly if alcohol was made illegal I'd give up drinking it rather than try and source some from a bootlegger.

The point I'm making is - I wouldn't expect the number of heroin users to have gone up in Portugal after they decriminalized it since that's a drug that's not very attractive for new users and besides they'd till need to find a drug dealer for it.

However I suspect that there were an increase in the numbers of users of cannabis in places that legalised it. I'm thinking specifically of middle aged people, who might like to buy some cannabis on the odd occasion but wouldn't know how to or want to find drug dealers.

I agree. But then some of these people (me included) may find that it is not what they thought it would be and that would be it for them. As I said usage may spike a bit after legalization but then it would settle around pretty much the same numbers as it is now. Perhaps a bit higher but nowhere close to something alarming. Stats from Netherland show that despite availability very few people actually participate and somewhere I even read that if not tourists more than half of the shops and cafes would have to close.

Heroin is different thing but these people gave up on life long time ago. They do it because it is easier for them than deal with life and take pleasure from other things. Same go for crack users but cocaine is completely different and I would say that most of it is connected with alcohol consumption. At least that is what I see on weekends when people from pubs go round the corner and whip out small bottles with tiny spoons while still holding their pints on. And these are not junkies you see on the street asking for spare change for the hostel. These are neatly dressed people in all age categories man and women alike. It become some sort of a culture to go for a pint and some of other stuff and when you ask them why do they do it they look at you like you came from the mars.

When I was talking about dealers, I was thinking more in the line of trusted connections for safety, but yeah - I'd well believe you with regards to sources finding the punter.

The war on drugs didn't fail - prohibition failed; but prohibition never works anyway. As for trying something else, well - it depends on what you see as the goal.

Bear in mind, the whole purpose of the "war on drugs" was to criminalise black people and hippies because they were the main opposition to Nixon politically.

“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

(John Erlichman - Nixon aide)

EDIT - add quote

That was example to illustrate that not everyone will run towards it if it become say supervised or somehow regulated or controlled. Current policy is not an answer as you can see yourself. It is not just cocaine which is destroying communities, it is pretty much everything out there. I remember when there was the same talk about alcohol, smoking, heroin, benzos, fentanyl, cannabis…

Cocaine is the topic today but there will be something new tomorrow or soon and you can be sure about it.

We are not identifying what make people to do things like that, we are not going after the cause but trying to deal with effect. That is not going to work.

Cannabis is a bit of a non-starter for this argument, because people can just buy a few plants and grow their own. Not really an option with cocaine.

The other argument isn't anything to do with increasing usage - it's that the increased usage is safer. Now whether that's true or not depends on the individual.

Safe is a very wide and relative term. Overall, I'd say rural areas are safer.

You are talking about one part of west county Limerick.

There are no traveller gangs running Adare, Croom, Oola or the vast majority of other towns and villages.

Equally I walk around Limerick city every day and make regular trips to Cork and Dublin and the likelihood of some "brain dead thug" beating me up feels very remote. I know it has happened in Dublin to people but the hyperbole has gone into overdrive. I'm sick of all the country people I work with calling Limerick "dangerous" because they got tapped for change or saw a homeless person in the distance.