Wijziging Opiumwet vanwege nieuwe psychoactieve stoffen

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Vraag1

I think this is a mistake. We should fight to make drugs a smaller problem for the society, and the history shows that prohibition is doing nothing but the opposite. It will create a black market for drugs; more crime, possibly more violence and unsafe drug use leading to more damage. What prohibition does is turning normal people who are a functioning part of the society into criminals, only because they want to have alternative ways of having fun that doesn't usually involve anyone else in a negative way. There will be problems but that's not any different from alcohol, it's impossible to have a perfectly functioning society so the best we can do is to reduce harm as much as possible.

Harm reduction should aim to decriminalize drug use so people aren't going to jail for victimless crime, and instead help them to get over their addictions and other problems that have possibly led them to that point in life. People with drug problems usually have pre-existing mental health issues and punishing them will only makes things worse. We don't want that, we want to help them. We are wasting the society's resources in an impossible battle against drugs, the situation is the same as back in the day during the alcohol prohibition. We need to see our mistake and start educating people about drugs in an honest way. This should education should focus on making sure that people know exactly what they're taking (drug testing), how they can prevent overdoses and how they can minimize the damage those drugs are doing to their body (accurate dosing, health supplements during and after the use, etc.). The science shows that alcohol is already one of the most damaging substances to both the society and your health, so possibly with more open and safer drug use people might even have safer alternatives in those occasions they want to have fun with their friends. We need to start removing the stigma around drugs and focus on actual science.