Columbia wants to legalise drugs
A nice complement to yesterday's post on the legalisation of marujana in the US, which does appear to need some sort of regulation to prevent the ramping up of addictive formulations, use in potentially damaging product areas (eg inhaled with unregulated vape chemicals) and marketing to children.
Here the country at the 'epicentre of the war on drugs' since the 1960s has struggled and failed to prevent violence and addiction and the president Gustavo Petro is leading other countries in the region to get support for a new approach. Fascinating.
So it seems that the predatory capitalism of multinational companies is definitely better for society than criminal gangs, but that regulation and treating addicts like human beings is the best way.
Addiction research is so like the trust research which confused me for a year! We are discovering how different areas of academia view addiction and addicts (there are various psychological, biological and social strands) - and how these different views influence and interact with society's views and can have a big influence on what solutions seem 'right' and appropriate. Quite excited about an article coming soon!
Article from The Conversation here:
Why Colombia sees legalising drugs as the way forward. Here’s what’s being proposed