I know some countries have seen good results from decriminalising drugs (Portugal springs to mind, although without checking, I do recall usage may have increased, albeit those seeking treatment went up). But I understood the suggestion was to legalise and make hard drugs available for sale. That’s very different to decriminalisation imo.
If you could stroll into a shop and buy crack/opiates then I’m 99% sure the same problems we have with alcohol miss-use in UK would apply. The damaging effects on health are accelerated massively on those drugs versus booze. They can take your body and soul in no time. I’ve seen it live more than once and don’t see any situation where making access to them easier is a good thing*.
Decriminalisation and massive investment in addiction treatment I’m definitely on board with. Jailing young people/giving out criminal records for possession doesn’t work and worsens the cycle. But for the issue being discussed I don’t see how that really impacts the gang involvement in supply.
*edit - The exception being some sort of controlled, safe supply to those already chronically addicted in a safe, controlled environment and alongside intensive treatment. Similar (but properly managed and funded) to what happens now with methadone. My point is more around availability to potential new users.
There is the issue with legalisation or decriminalisation.
If you just decriminalise it, you're still leaving it in the control of the drug gangs, you just aren't penalising those involved, So that would mean you're not getting fines etc. but still have the problems, dangers and costs involved.
Legalisation puts you in control. You can control to some extent the supply, the quality, you can raise tax on it to help with the problems. It gives you so much more scope to fight the problem.
If legalisation is such a problem due to health concerns, why aren't we pushing to change the status of alcohol? Studies have shown alcohol addiction to be one of the worst in terms of overall impact for health, loved ones and society, including worse than crack and heroin.
The points you make are fair ones, and I said earlier that it would almost certainly lead to an increase in usage and all that that entails.
It could be rolled out bit by bit to assess the changes. Start with things like pot, then move onto stuff like MDMA until eventually you slowly work up to the hard drugs.
The ideal would be legalisation but being able to have a public perception that doing drugs is a very unhealthy and socially irresponsible thing to do. That public perception would mean far more than any legal definition. We've seen that happen gradually with smoking, which is still legal. I also think attitudes towards drinking have changed a bit in recent years, but still have some way to go in all sections of society.
