Should Meth/crack be legalized?

[Ivor the Engineer]

<snip>

What I'm saying is that "1 in 6 will become addicted in the next 10 years" sounds bad, but realistically it's not that different from alcohol. We just use very different definitions of what counts as addicted for the two.

It's been fairly well established that cocaine is significantly more addictive than alcohol (E.g., see table 1). Therefore is it likely legalising cocaine would result in more addicts than alcohol.

 

[Information Analyst]

The percentage of people that will try had drugs, let alone keep using them? 10% maybe? I'm guessing here.

Obviously this is only from a UK (sort of) perspective, but the British Crime Survey results on "Drug Use Declared" does show how things stack up here. Despite the name, though, the results are actually only for England & Wales, so we're talking a population of just over 53 million. Table 2.1 (page 24) shows that between 1996 (calendar year) and 2010/11 (financial year), the percentage of 16 to 59 years olds who have ever used heroin fluctuated between 0.6% and 1.0%. Crack cocaine was in the range of 0.7-1.2%, while cocaine powder 3.0-8.8%. Methamphetamine has been 1.0% for the last two years (not previously recorded), but as I've noted previously, use in the UK is very low compared to some other countries. Of course some of these figures show that some drugs have become more popular over time - especially cocaine power - but others show more steady trends.

 

[Information Analyst]

IIRC, about 1 in 6 people will be addicted to cocaine 10 years after first use.

The latest BCS figure put 8.8% of the population as having ever used cocaine powder, 2.1% who had used it in the last year, and 0.8% in the last month. We can probably assume that the 8.0% who had used it ever but not in the last month are not "addicted." At the most it suggests that 1 in 11 might be "addicted," even thoiugh the 0.8%/last month group will naturally include some first-time users, or those who may have coincidentally used in the last month after a period of abstinance.

 

[Eddie Dane]

The latest BCS figure put 8.8% of the population as having ever used cocaine powder, 2.1% who had used it in the last year, and 0.8% in the last month. We can probably assume that the 8.0% who had used it ever but not in the last month are not "addicted." At the most it suggests that 1 in 11 might be "addicted," even thoiugh the 0.8%/last month group will naturally include some first-time users, or those who may have coincidentally used in the last month after a period of abstinance.

Aren't you assuming here that people who are addicted, stay addicted?

I've know a few people with cocaine issues. These usually didn't last very long.
As soon as people realise they have a problem, they tend to do something about it. (anecdotal, I know).

Most of the addiction problems I have witnessed were people who could not contain themselves once the weekend/paycheck swung round.
They didn't use on a daily basis, but Friday night they went and bought cocaine.
There seemed to be a big social component to this. They ran with a group that used cocaine and if only one person in that group would decide to get some, the rest just couldn't say no. At some point the just didn't have sober weekends any more.
During the week they'd complain about fatigue, being broke and nosebleeds and vowed to stop. Then Friday came round...etc, etc, etc.

I've seen people stuck in the above pattern for several years.
But it is a pattern that can be easily broken without counselling, apparently.
At some point they got responsible jobs, or got kids and their drug use just disappeared.

I've only known one person who would use daily.
She worked in management and was a real go-getter. She started doing small quantities of cocaine during her work day (quick line in the bathroom) to prop her up during work.
That became a problem real quick. (well, duh!) But also something that she decided to stop very radically.

Based on my own anecdotal evidence, I think that there is a lot more 'weekend addiction' than daily use.

 

[Information Analyst]

Aren't you assuming here that people who are addicted, stay addicted?

Not necessarily. It was more a case with coming up with a proxy measure in relation to Ivor's recollection that, "1 in 6 people will be addicted to cocaine 10 years after first use."

I've know a few people with cocaine issues. These usually didn't last very long.
As soon as people realise they have a problem, they tend to do something about it. (anecdotal, I know).

Most of the addiction problems I have witnessed were people who could not contain themselves once the weekend/paycheck swung round.
They didn't use on a daily basis, but Friday night they went and bought cocaine.
There seemed to be a big social component to this. They ran with a group that used cocaine and if only one person in that group would decide to get some, the rest just couldn't say no. At some point the just didn't have sober weekends any more.
During the week they'd complain about fatigue, being broke and nosebleeds and vowed to stop. Then Friday came round...etc, etc, etc.

I've seen people stuck in the above pattern for several years.
But it is a pattern that can be easily broken without counselling, apparently.
At some point they got responsible jobs, or got kids and their drug use just disappeared.

I've only known one person who would use daily.
She worked in management and was a real go-getter. She started doing small quantities of cocaine during her work day (quick line in the bathroom) to prop her up during work.
That became a problem real quick. (well, duh!) But also something that she decided to stop very radically.

Based on my own anecdotal evidence, I think that there is a lot more 'weekend addiction' than daily use.

I think the inherent problem is that "addiction" is a rather blunt concept. Clearly with heroin, methamphetamine, and crack cocaine there is the sort of acute addiction that leads to continued and sustained use. With cocaine power this can manifest itself as per your latter example, but a lot of the time it seems more a case of habitual use in certain social settings. The same can be said of MDMA and amphetamines in club settings, where some people see them as an optimum component of the night out, but if unavailable would either go without, or not go out in the first place. This could include individuals who go out and use every weekend, if they can - a sustained usage that some might define as "addiction" but which isn't really.

 

[nvidiot]

Apologies for not getting back, the main reference I would use is on loan at the moment, and life is just mental for me right now. But from memory the rates of problematic addiction for most of what are called "hard" drugs are comparable, within the 5-10% bracket. I'll try and track down an online copy and present the references.

If anyone is interested, one of the better titles on drugs and drug policy I've read over the years is "Saying Yes: In defense of drug use" by Jacob Sullum. He's a biased author of course, with a heavy libertarian bent. But hard numbers are very difficult to come by and are always subject to interpretation.

One of the better figures probably comes from comparing individual lifetime use of a given drug, ( i.e. Tryimg a given drug at least once in their lifetime) versus those who are actively and problematically addicted (addiction doesn't equal disfunction). Even that requires careful interpretation, because the illegality of the substance in question heavily influences whether an addiction is problematic or merely inconvenient.

 

[mikeyx]

no it shouldn't. drugs are bad.....

m,kay?