As I wrote earlier, I’m a libertarian: I don’t like it when the state sticks its nose into people’s private lives. And probably one of my hottest takes is my attitude toward drugs: I support full legalization. Yes, not just decriminalization of use — full legalization. Yes, including fentanyl (the stuff that makes homeless people in the US wander around like zombies) and alpha-PVP (which turns residents of Saint Petersburg into deranged stargazers).
Now, here’s why I think this is the right approach not only for users, but for society as a whole.
Drug use, when it comes to danger to others, can be compared to driving at very high speed. Driving is dangerous, but it’s allowed in specially designed conditions — for example, on a racetrack. With drugs, including alcohol, it’s actually the same: use can be acceptable if you ensure the safety of others — and preferably your own as well.
A huge number of risks that non-users face because of users can be reduced by moving drugs into a legal framework.
1️⃣ Crimes against health and property happen because some drugs cause severe dependence, while that dependence is relieved by a substance that costs pennies to produce but reaches the end user with a massive markup — largely due to the need to circumvent the law.
2️⃣ The stigmatization of drug use leads to people not understanding the difference between dangerous and relatively safe use. With alcohol, for example, we all understand this intuitively: a glass of wine with dinner is fine; drinking vodka straight from the bottle while driving is dangerous. For most psychoactive substances, there are safer-use protocols that minimize the risk of the user ending up in psychosis — let alone in psychosis with the ability to harm other people.
3️⃣ Violating safer-use protocols can and should, in my view, be an aggravating circumstance and potentially an offense in itself (the analogue is drunk driving). Substances for which no such protocol exists are basically limited to deliriants (substances that induce delirium, like belladonna) and some extremely powerful stimulants. Deliriants are essentially useless to anyone because their effects can hardly be described as positive, while powerful stimulants are usually taken because milder ones are unavailable or too expensive. Even then, a theoretically society-safe protocol can exist — for example, taking the substance after chaining yourself to a radiator.
4️⃣ The illegal status of drugs worsens quality control and thus creates the very same risks of unsafe behavior. For example, in one US study, ecstasy pills contained 0% MDMA — the substance they are supposed to contain as their main component. Imagine someone planning to dance and hug people, but instead getting a wild mix of stimulants, ketamine, LSD, and sometimes opioids added on top for “extra euphoria.” What kind of safety protocol is even possible there? I’m not even talking about cocaine, which is routinely cut with all kinds of things — that’s practically textbook — or fentanyl, which in the US is often mixed into heroin.
5️⃣ Criminalizing use puts users’ lives at risk — that’s exactly why we get stories where friends who used together hide a still-breathing overdosed body instead of urgently calling an ambulance. Here we’re admittedly moving into the territory of risks for users rather than society as a whole — but I still consider those risks important.
So why do we need legalization at all, beyond “keeping the state’s nose out”? Precisely in order to enable softer, more effective control. Removing the forbidden status breaks the existing market and deals a serious blow to drug cartels — this has been confirmed by the experience of a number of countries. It also pushes the most dangerous drugs out of use: believe me, no one will buy fentanyl if they can get an honest dose of heroin in a specialized store or health center. No one will go picking fly agarics if they have access to psilocybin mushrooms; no one will be tempted by a ten-minute, psychosis-inducing “salt” when cocaine is available.
At the same time, of course, you can’t just “start selling drugs officially tomorrow.” Protecting society is impossible without reforming healthcare and education — people should give up dangerous use not out of fear of prison or death, but out of an understanding that drugs don’t open a door to some new universe. But if someone does decide to use, at least let their expectations about “unreality” actually match reality.