Eliminate the Violent Black Market, Reduce Drug Use

by | May 22, 2011 | 12 comments

Since 2001, when alcohol sales began funding prevention services following passage of Gordon’s bill, the state has seen a 23.8 percent reduction in underage drinking, said Linda Paquette, executive director of New Futures, an advocacy group for substance abuse services.

That sounds laudable to me: reduced alcohol addiction/abuse and no violent black market created.

The same thing could be true of other drugs if politicians would only have the courage to think critically about it.  When criminals control the drug market, there is no harm reduction.  They’re criminals, remember?  They want to sell more drugs, not less.  They don’t want to help educate people about the dangers of their behavior.  They want to make money.

The article talking about the success of alcohol harm reduction (and it’s threatened continuation) is in today’s Concord Monitor here.