American attitudes about how we deal with drug addicts seem to be shifting. According to polls from the Pew Research Center , 67 percent of Americans believe the government should focus more on treating drug addicts than on prosecuting them.
But legalization arguments extend beyond marijuana. Some countries that are faced with drug addiction problems are trying an alternative approach: providing addicts with the drugs they need, for free, under professional supervision.
Yet these countries report that many addicts live with their addiction while leading productive lives. The state benefits from that productivity while saving the money it would otherwise spend arresting, trying, and imprisoning those drug abusers. Not only do addicts stay out of trouble with the law, many have used this service to reduce and even quit their dependency. Providing free drugs to addicts is not a new idea. The argument was exemplified half a century ago in the following two opinion pieces.
He wanted to focus on what would work for addicts and for society and believed that giving drug addicts regulated access to narcotics could be beneficial. Straus was the head of the National Association for the Prevention of Addiction to Narcotics, an organization that was starting the first national study of addiction.
In later years, the NAPAN sponsored conferences to introduce the methadone treatment for opioid addiction. Two years later, Jonah J. Out of this experience, he made a surprisingly practical and original argument for decriminalizing drugs: to protect everyone else. Free drugs for addicts β no plan for coping with the national tragedy of narcotics addiction prompts greater outrage.
