this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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[–] WheeGeetheCat@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

people could easily say they hate the smell of weed - is that a good reason to outlaw?

I keep thinking of the rat experiments where rats in cages took drugs until they died but happy rats in rat societies turned away from drugs.

I think people take drugs, including cigarettes, to cope. If they didn't need to cope with terrible conditions, they wouldn't use the drugs (except a few outliers). To me, taking away people's cope is punching down.

We can't get rid of tobacco like we can quaaludes or some synthetic drug. It's going to be available to people. The question is do you want to create a huge black market for it (where people can easily lace cigarettes with fentanal, bonus? ), or do you want to address the reasons that people chain smoke?

[–] CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

It's worth noting that even the happy rats would go get the occasional hit, they just weren't dependent on the drugs. They did it for fun once in a while, not frequently as an escape from reality. This is how healthy people enjoy drugs.

That doesn't change the end result though. Addiction is the result of profound despair, not the cause of it. Giving people hope and support keeps them from needing to escape.