In The Economist magazine, Main article We discuss the fentanyl crisis. This graph contains some discouraging data.
I knew about the frightening statistics on fentanyl, but I was surprised to see a significant increase in deaths from cocaine. I don't think cocaine use has increased that dramatically in recent years. In fact, I think cocaine use has become far more deadly. but why?
The graph will give you a hint. Since 2013, increases in cocaine deaths appear to be highly correlated with increases in fentanyl deaths. Both lines increased slowly from 2013 to 2015, then increased very rapidly from 2015 to 2017, slowed down a bit from 2017 to 2019, and then increased very rapidly for the next three years. , slowed down in 2023. One possibility is that cocaine use is dying out. Contains fentanyl.
In the same issue of The Economist, editorial Although they point out that it is impossible to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States (despite claims from big politicians to invade Mexico to shut down pharmaceutical labs), their policy proposals It's disappointingly weak.
And we should decriminalize less-lethal drugs like cocaine so we can focus our time and scarce resources on the drugs that are killing so many Americans.
This does not solve the problem shown in the graph above. Even the decriminalized cocaine market is still underground and has all the associated problems, including a lack of quality control. Tens of thousands of Americans will continue to die from accidentally ingesting fentanyl when they thought it was cocaine. This is particularly disappointing given that I remember The Economist as one of the few major publications that used to bravely advocate for drug legalization.
To be fair, they may have assumed that decriminalization was the only viable reform within the current Overton Window. Their argument for decriminalization was followed by the following observation:
Politicians from all walks of life hate such ideas because they seem to condone drug taking. It is unlikely that the United States would try something that radical. But fentanyl is already a problem in Canada and is spreading in Mexico. An even more powerful synthetic opioid called Nitazene has arrived in the UK. For the world to deal with this situation, it will need to innovate just like the traffickers.
Drugs are not an easy problem for policymakers. Because of the harsh penalties for hard drug use, there is a correlation between drug use and other problems such as crime, unemployment, and mental illness. (Just to be clear, this correlation is far from perfect; there are a significant number of hidden drug users who have steady jobs but don't make the news.) Legalizing drugs risks attracting „undesirable drugs.“ ”. Although this was not a major issue in marijuana legalization, it may have influenced Oregon's recent decision to reverse its policy of decriminalizing certain drugs.reason magazine There is another way of looking at it. )
This is similar to immigration. If only one developed country adopted open borders, that country would become a magnet for the world's poorest people.