The Walter White of Wichita (2016)

http://interactive.fusion.net/death-by-fentanyl/the-walter-white-of-wichita.html

by bspn • 8 years ago

81 49 8 years ago

interactive.fusion.net

Then came the 1970s and the drug war. “Oh my goodness, now I have a business,” he thought.

This guy is pretty interesting (and it's disappointing that he didn't do something more constructive with his skills), but this quote stood out the most to me. If you start limiting supply but not curtailing demand (e.g. a drug war), it makes it a lot more profitable to sell. And all that money makes it a lot easier for the sellers to become big and organized and dangerous.

I'm sure it's not that simple, but it really makes me wonder what would happen with widespread legalization.

stmfreak• 8 years ago

With legalization, the drugs would be cleaner and dosing more predictable. We could then focus on helping addicts recover instead of worrying about the legal trouble and violence they might bring to our homes if we try to help them.

Gibbon1• 8 years ago

Being in my mid 50's I know lots and lots of people who at one time had problems with drugs and managed to recover from that and go on to lead reasonably happy lives. The ones that were unlucky enough to get arrested have had a lot harder time putting that behind them than the ones that weren't[1].

Being arrested puts you in the situation of Jean Valjean, released from prison, 'free' but not free.

[1 I know someone who was a drug addict and dealing. He got busted. The end result was he had to scramble and sell even more drugs to pay his legal bills. He was successful eventually. But ultimately also because he lived in California.

austincheney9• 8 years ago

So far legalization has not proven to solve the problems of demand or addiction. In the past several years legally available drugs have been the most abused and resulted in significant problems. I am not claiming this as a justification for increased enforcement either.

If you aren't solving for demand you either aren't taking the problem seriously or you have anterior motives to ending drug abuse.

umvi3• 8 years ago

Why is legalization better than decriminalization? If legal drugs are anything like Juuls, widespread availability and removal of social stigma will just cause use to explode and you have 10x as many addicts as you did before.

ryanmercer2• 8 years ago

With legalization, the drugs would be cleaner and dosing more predictable.

This is a huge problem. People have sold stuff that they claim to be LSD, MDMA etc while using other compounds that can be damaging to outright fatal.

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Then take things like anabolic steroids, especially injectables. If someone wants to use steroids, that should be their business as it doesn't hurt anyone other than potentially themselves HOWEVER purity. When you're buying stuff in a gym from a random guy or ordering from a Eastern European website or the darknet you only have the reputation of the seller to go by and you're injecting something of unknown purity into muscle which can (and occasionally does) result in abscesses/infection which can do considerable damage to your body. The infections are likely often from poorly manufactured 'gear' and not from operator error.

Why not allow people that want to use steroids, for their own athletic performance, go to a qualified medical professional to not only have the drugs prescribed but to have their blood work monitored so that on cycle, and post cycle, therapy can be handled optimally for health. People will use the compounds, so why not allow them to do so as safely (and legally) as possible? I know of at least two of my friends that have served time, one bought steroids in his youth and has lived with the stigma of being a felon for decades now, the other acted as an one of the individuals getting the money from a PO box a decade or so ago and then forwarding the payment on to the actual seller to add a layer of protection for the seller and again in his early 20's landed a felony conviction and did time. Now he's in prison again, after getting the first felony expunged, for selling ancillaries and peptides (peptides aren't even explicitly illegal, they're simply not approved for administration to humans by unqualified medical professionals!).

jpatokal• 8 years ago

And a drug war also encourages manufacturing and selling drugs that are as potent as possible, like fentanyl. The same happened with Prohibition: the underground market was all hard liquor, not beer.

matwood• 8 years ago

Also, once someone is on the wrong side of the law it becomes easier to rationalize (or safer as there is no one they can turn to) breaking other laws. Human trafficking and guns use the same routes established and initially funded by the drug trade.

EDIT:

This also occurs at the street level. I've read stories of people not wanting to talk to the police about a murder because they are afraid the police will find some weed and arrest them instead.

abtinf• 8 years ago

It is that simple. Here is a Nobel Prize winning economist agreeing with you:

“See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true.” ― Milton Friedman

lotsofpulp• 8 years ago

And the police/DEA/ATF/DHS "security" apparatus.

trumped• 8 years ago

what about carfentanil: https://spauldingdecon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/fentan...

exabrial• 8 years ago

Ok, things I didn't know about where I grew up...

piker• 8 years ago

“If he makes a mistake... he'll find out he made a mistake when the devil welcomes him to breakfast,” said Madinger.

That quote is great! Is it a common saying in dangerous fields?

moftz• 8 years ago

I can't find any mention of "devil welcomes him to breakfast" other than that article and quotes from that article.

The Walter White of Wichita (2016)

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