Today, rather than commenting on a news story, I'm posting a bullet-poin statement of the conclusions I have reached concerning drugs. I welcome any thoughts you may have.

My Drug Manifesto

HUMANS INNATELY LIKE TO GET HIGH
About 90% of the American population regularly uses the stimulant caffeine
Human children routinely play games (spinning around, "the choking game", holding their breath) that make them dizzy
Many drugs are used by a majority of the adult population in many societies (US and Europe: Alcohol about 2/3, Khat in East Africa and Yemen, tobacco in pre-1955 US and Europe and in modern China and Japan, coca by indigenes of the Andes)
No society outside the impoverished polar regions has been without mind affecting drugs
Even elephants and robins have been known to seek out fermented crops and get intoxicated
DRUGS ARE UBIQITIOUS
Over 150 different plants with psychoactive effects have been identified through human use
Over 250 synthetic chemicals with psychoactive effects have been created and identified
Psychoactive plants may be grown in all areas of the earth except for the polar regions
DRUGS ARE MORALLY NEUTRAL
As inanimate objects, drugs are neither good nor bad, although almost all of them may be put to use with either harmful or beneficial results
Heroin is a very good pain-reliever, faster acting than morphine and tolerated by many who are allergic to morphine
Amphetamines are used to treat ADHD (ADD) in children and narcolepsy; the military uses them so that aircrews and soldiers may stay awake and alert for long periods
Overdoses of water can kill
Non-steroid pain killers cause more deaths each year than all illegal drugs combined
DRUG USE, DRUG ABUSE, AND DRUG DEPENDENCY ARE SEPARATE BAHAVIORAL ISSUES, AND MUST BE TREATED SEPARATELY
Use is any human consumption of a drug; it be medical or otherwise
Non-medical use of drugs can be benign or neutral: coffee to stay awake and alert during the day, a drink or two to relax for a social occasion, marijuana at a rock concert or MDMA at a dance party
Religious use of drugs include wine in Christian eucharists, peyote at Native American Church meetings, marijuana as a Rastafarian ritual
Abuse is the use of a drug under conditions that may lead to adverse consequences, like drinking and then driving.
Alcohol is the only drug regularly associated with abusive behavior like drunk driving and domestic abuse. Amphetamine users sometimes stay awake so long that they may experience hallucinations and paranoia, leading to automobile wrecks and violent confrontations.
Drug dependency is the situation in which an individual persists in using a drug even through the use has adverse personal consequences.
Drug dependency may be associated with physical withdrawal symptoms, like those with opioids, alcohol, caffeine, or Xanax; or with no physical withdrawal symptoms, like those with cocaine, amphetamines, or marijuana.
Psychedelics like LSD, peyote, or MDMA produce no dependencies.
ABUSE AND DEPENDENCIES MAY ARISE IN CONNECTION WITH NON-DRUG SUBSTANCES AS WELL.
Food is the best example of this
DRUG USE, DRUG ABUSE, AND DRUG DEPENDENCIES, AS DIFFERENT BEHAVIORAL MODES, CALL FOR DIFFERENT SOCIAL RESPONSES
Drug use, as individual behavior calls for little social response other than labeling drugs as to purity, potency, and possible effects.
Education may be useful in minimizing use and harmful effects.
Marketing limitations should limit children's access to drugs.
Drug abuse, with direct socially harmful outcomes may require intervention in the forms of education, amelioration, criminal sanctions, and therapies.
Drunk-driving laws and dramshop laws are examples of reasonably effective criminal sanctions on drug abuse; some domestic violence laws serve the same purpose.
Designated driver programs and free tows on holidays are examples of effective amelioration.
Many abusers are also dependent or may have other social or mental malfunctions so that therapeutic regimes can be useful in decreasing abuse.
Drug dependencies do need medical intervention, but they may also call for social- and job-skills training, education, stable living environments and other programs as well
Therapies are often unsuccessful and may need to be repeated several times for good results.
ATTEMPTS TO DECREASE OR MODIFY DRUG-USING BEHAVIOR MUST BE MADE ON THE DEMAND SIDE OF THE MARKET
Tobacco use in the US decreased from over 50% of the population to under 25% from about 1958 to 1990, largely through an educational effort.
Prohibition laws do not limit supplies; they merely increase costs and add all the black market social costs to the externalities of the drug market.
PROHIBITION LAWS DO NOT DECREASE SUPPLIES, BUT THEY ALWAYS HAVE MAJOR NEGATIVE SOCIAL EFFECTS
The history of Western societies has seen four major attempts at prohibition laws: the British Gin Acts of the 1720s - 30s, the US ban on internationally traded slaves from about 1815 - 1860, US prohibition of alcohol from 1920 - 1933, and US prohibition of "dangerous drugs" from 1914 until the present; all four examples have shown the same outcomes.
Supplies of the banned substances are not substantially reduced and use continues at approximately the same rate
Law enforcement is corrupted: London was plagued with profit-seeking false informers; over 1/3 of alcohol prohibition agents were convicted, fired, or allowed to resign because of corruption and ultimately the Prohibition Bureau itself was dissolved because of corruption involving even the Director; about 1/3 of the agents of the Bureau of narcotics were fired and the agency dissolved because of corruption in the 1950s; in 1999, the US Police Chiefs were told that corruption was the major problem facing law enforcement
Black markets are captured by organized criminal gangs, with radically increased corruption and violence. These gangs can continue long after the prohibition that builds them is ended.
Prohibition laws are notoriously expensive to enforce: over $100 Billion per year today.
Illicit manufacturing of drugs harms the environment: cocaine labs in the Andes and meth cookers in the US
Drug quality goes down, further harming users
Innocent people also suffer: those injured in mistaken no-knock raids and searches, those shot as bystanders, people who cannot buy cold medicines, those not allowed to transfer funds because of money-laundering laws, students subjected to drug tests and dog searches.
INSANITY IS REPEATING THE SAME EXPERIMENT AND EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT (Einstein)
THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW HISTORY ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT (Santayana)