Questions tagged [drugs]
Questions related to drug policies.
80 questions
2
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0
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Which US government policies potentially prohibit [space] contracts with a company run by a drug user? [closed]
According to the WSJ:
The world’s wealthiest person has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties around the world, where attendees sign nondisclosure agreements ...
-6
votes
1
answer
448
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What's the basis for the rumors that Macron takes cocaine? [closed]
There's a French "observer" to the Russian election who says
I think Macron and Zelensky take too much cocaine, and they should stop.
So, since the Zelensky angle has been covered before ...
5
votes
1
answer
190
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Have any governments run user-dissuasion campaigns concerning fentanyl? What were the outcomes?
Fentanyl overdoses present a unique problem to Canadian provinces and US states *.
While few want to return to Nancy Reagan's "just say no" **, it seems to me that the extremely deleterious ...
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18
votes
3
answers
4k
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Why did it take so long for the U.S. government to give Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices directly with drug companies?
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is sending initial
offers to the participating drug companies of the ...
user28660
3
votes
0
answers
83
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Do most countries adopt a "know-your-customers" approach to prevent chemicals from being used by potential drug-traffickers?
Certain precursors used in the production of fentanyl are
internationally classified as unscheduled chemicals and legal to
produce in China and export. Beijing argues that it cannot restrict
the ...
user28660
15
votes
8
answers
4k
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Have any governments attempted to provide dosing guidelines for illegal drugs?
In the United States, almost 110,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2022, apparently driven largely by fentanyl.
I don't know the biology of it, but it occurs to me that surely something helpful ...
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8
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7
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973
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What is the libertarian solution to the antibiotic resistance caused by massive use of antibiotics in agriculture?
Libertarians are against all (or at least the vast majority of) government regulation. But there seem to be some things for which government regulation is necessary. Like the antibiotic resistance ...
- 1,382
1
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1
answer
305
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Why would China be against the U.S. charging companies and individuals for making fentanyl precursors?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmx_pmKUlkc
Why would China be against the U.S. charging companies and individuals for making fentanyl precursors? I don't understand why China would be against this. ...
user28660
15
votes
1
answer
2k
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How to know if increases in self-reported marijuana usage are real?
Let's take Colorado for example.
Considering the prior existence of penalties for marijuana use, it is reasonable to expect that people may have been less inclined to admit their marijuana usage prior ...
- 321
3
votes
1
answer
166
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Have most/all state-level cannabis legalization laws been preceded by referendums?
Seems to me each round of US elections lately has a batch of cannabis referendums riding in it.
Recreational marijuana legalized in 2 states, rejected in 3 in 2022 election referendums
Currently, 21 ...
- 92.8k
27
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3
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7k
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Why didn't Democrats legalize marijuana federally when they controlled Congress?
A notable majority of the US is supportive of legalizing marijuana, with Democrats having a much higher level of support, and Biden's own platform including legalizing it. Given the overwhelming ...
- 9,573
10
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1
answer
741
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What makes Brittney Griner more worthy of a prisoner swap?
My guess is that there are thousands of USA citizens convicted of foreign crimes (and held in prison in foreign countries), and hundreds with a misdemeanor nature similar to that of Brittney Griner's ...
- 525
9
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3
answers
627
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Why are passengers inspected so thoroughly for drugs when most drugs enter through ports and the majority of shipping containers aren't controlled?
According to icontainers.com, only 2-10% of all shipping containers are inspected.
What is the rationale for very thoroughly searching passengers and their belongings for drugs, when a simple opening ...
- 1,201
0
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0
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95
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After stopping production of opium, how does Afghanistan's government plan to offset the lost inflow of money going forward?
Thought some of the sources it cites are ten years old or more, Wikipedia's Afghanistan; Economy; Agriculture says
Agricultural production is the backbone of Afghanistan's economy and has ...
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34
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4
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13k
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Why did Putin call Ukrainian officials “drug addicts”?
Among other things, Putin has called the Ukrainian leadership a “band of drug addicts” (source) shortly before invading Ukraine in 2022.
This seems like a strange accusation. He could have simply ...
- 759
6
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1
answer
329
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Why must Canadian cannabis be packaged in child-proof containers, but not Alcohol/Tobacco?
The Cannabis Act and the Cannabis Regulations lay out a set of guidelines that regulate the packaging requirements for Cannabis distribution in the country. Among the more basic and expected ...
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2
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329
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Can the president decriminalize marijuana without congressional action?
I've heard this many times before, I assume it's true and can't find any rejection of it. However, asking here for a second opinion.
The Attorney General serves at the "pleasure of president&...
- 4,476
2
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0
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135
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What is the status of drug decriminalization in Indonesia?
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://bnn.go.id/ipwl-dekriminalisasi-ala-indonesia/
This says
Regarding the optimization of IPWL, the Head of BNN said that in
...
user25908
22
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7
answers
4k
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Why does decriminalisation/legalisation not reduce the cost of drugs?
It is conventional wisdom that the criminalisation of the supply of recreational psychoactive drugs causes an increase in the cost to supply and therefore to the user. In an unreferenced but somewhat ...
- 321
0
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1
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166
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Have there been any referendums on legalizing the recreational sale of drugs other than marijuana?
Oregon Measure 110 was recently voted in, decriminalizing the possession of any controlled substances:
A "yes" vote supported making personal non-commercial possession of a
controlled ...
- 51.2k
-7
votes
2
answers
280
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What's the point of legalising dangerous drugs in some states in the US? [closed]
4 American states - New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana- recently agreed to lift their ban on marijuana. And Oregon became the first state in the history of the USA to descriminalize ...
- 113
3
votes
1
answer
160
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What are efficient approaches to counter drug trafficking?
I recently heard that for a City/State it might be better to educate people and help them get away from drugs rather than fighting the drug dealers with more and more police force. Based on the ...
0
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1
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311
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How has India become the primary source for Hydroxychloroquine?
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, suddenly India seems to have become relied upon as the world's primary producer of the drug Hydroxychloroquine, promoted by Donald Trump as a potential means of ...
0
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3
answers
612
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Have any governments proposed relaxing drug/vaccine development requirements for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Given that a vaccine or an effective treatment for COVID-19 is the best way out of the current crisis, it seems logical that governments would take a "no holds barred" approach to making it happen as ...
- 51.2k
4
votes
2
answers
157
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Does the FDA regulate off-label use of pharmaceuticals?
In today's press conference (3/19/2020) the President is touting the FDA's approval of using (for example) an anti-malarial as a treatment for COVID-19. This drug has been in widespread use and has ...
- 10.5k
5
votes
4
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812
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Why did the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan fail to ban opium production?
Why did the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996-2001), despite claiming to be an Islamic state, fail to ban opium production? Can it solely be explained in terms of economical difficulties like not ...
- 927
4
votes
1
answer
222
views
What is the death toll of war on drugs compared to death toll from drugs? [closed]
It is not obvious how successful the war on drugs is, in part because it is not clear what success is.
Drugs cause deaths, and the war on drugs causes deaths.
One possible metric is how many people ...
- 3,212
1
vote
2
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182
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Does US have a national strategy to reduce Rx drugs consumption?
According to this article, Rx drug usage has greatly increased in the last 20 years:
The total number of prescriptions has increased by 85% while the total
population has increased by only 21%.
...
- 53.5k
58
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11
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12k
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Why do right-wing parties generally oppose the legalization of marijuana?
In a general sense, it seems that proponents of marijuana legalization tend to come from left-wing political parties, or at least, from the left-leaning factions within right-wing parties.
I am ...
CDJB♦
- 109k
5
votes
1
answer
379
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Is Mexico winning its war on drug cartels? (2019)
In 2006, Mexico's president Felipe Calderon declared a war on drugs. This was in response to the growing power of Mexico's cartels, who had acquired vast wealth from the proceeds of drug trafficking. ...
user8398
5
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3
answers
532
views
How much money would legalizing marijuana (both state and federally) save the US goverment on average?
One of the arguments for legalizing of marijuana is that it is suppose to save a significant amount of money spent in enforcing laws against the crime. Some of the cited supposed savings are:
Not ...
- 9,573
-6
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4
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358
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If drug prices are much higher in US, and the US government prohibits import, why not just import online for all personal uses? [closed]
If medication prices in the US are higher than in other countries, why not import from there?
This is a natural extension of this question.
Basically
Drug prices in US are high
A Free market could ...
- 4,329
3
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2
answers
265
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What political barriers prevent the legalization of Marihuana on the federal level in the United States?
Multiple US states have legalized the recreational use of Marihuana. Why is US federal law still anti-marijuana? A Democratic president, Barack Obama, was in office for 8 years and could have started ...
- 41
4
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0
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140
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Why doesn't Colorado legalize other drugs?
I've heard that Colorado is quite a libertarian state. So why does Colorado legalize only marijuana? Why doesn't it legalize other soft drugs?
I understand that in Colorado more people use (or abuse) ...
- 4,329
1
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1
answer
208
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Why do laws prohibit possession and usage of narcotics separately?
In Indonesia there is article 112 that prohibits the possession of narcotics, this carries a minimum sentence of 4 years. Then there is article 127 which prohibits using narcotics, which carries a ...
user24251
10
votes
2
answers
430
views
How effective are ports of entry in detecting smuggled drugs?
It is commonly publicized about the amount of illegal drugs that are seized at the ports of entry to the US.
However, illegal drugs that are NOT seized, cannot be directly counted. So it is difficult ...
- 10.5k
0
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1
answer
245
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Will brexit affect (and if so, how?) orphan drugs?
(Not 100% sure about this being the right place to ask)
According to here, orphan drugs have a market exclusivity of 10 years in Europe.
UK is now (...sooner or later) getting out of Europe, so will ...
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10
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2
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326
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What caused the political interest in recreational substance control in the 1930s?
The 1930s featured an interest in Washington of controlling recreational drugs. Before the 1930s recreational drugs were only outlawed sporadically and by individual states. In the 1930s this changed ...
- 5,200
3
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4
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553
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Why did cannabis get legalized first?
The number of drug "addicts" are about 5% of users. So most users are not even addicts.
This one says 10% of users become addicts. I am sure it means 10% of illegal drug users.
First, medical ...
- 4,329
4
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3
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655
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Does the US "coerce" other countries to criminalize many drugs?
A comment on a question about taxing and legalizing soft drugs explains that the US may have used its political and economic clouts to force other countries to ban narcotics.
I find that hard to ...
- 4,329
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3
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Why very few countries/states try taxing and legalizing safe soft drugs? [closed]
Perhaps a better title of this question would be, why competition among states and different cultural preferences among people in many states do not make more states try legalizing safe soft drugs?
...
- 4,329
13
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2
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2k
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Why didn't Canada leave the UN conventions on illicit drugs before legalizing marijuana?
According to this article, Canada would be breaking at least three UN treaties once it legalized marijuana in October. But why didn't the Canadian government just leave the treaties beforehand? It ...
- 51.2k
2
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3
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785
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What are the negative consequences of stricter opioid prescription policies?
Several states and the DEA have spent the past few years “cracking down” on doctors who prescribe opioids such as OxyContin. However, we are now experiencing a heroin epidemic and the opioid problem ...
- 688
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1
answer
1k
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Do police really care about drug dealers? [closed]
If we are to believe the statistics, a lot of young people take drugs or have "experimented in college" with or without inhaling.
Now some of these people will end up in the police force tasked with ...
- 303
15
votes
1
answer
1k
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Why will Canada prevent selling marijuana "in the same location as alcohol or tobacco"?
According to CNN, Canada has approved a law to legalize marijuana, but will require sellers a licence and will forbid sales to minors.
One point of the article is that
Marijuana will also not be ...
- 33k
10
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3
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2k
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Why is Medicare/Medicaid prohibited from bargaining for price in US?
The other driver of high US drug prices is a lack of bargaining power.
Other countries have centralized/universal health care organizations
that can and do negotiate with pharma companies on price....
- 4,329
8
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3
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1k
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Why can't the U.S. stop drug production in Afghanistan?
Since the U.S. invasion in 2001 opium fields have grown rapidly. Why has the U.S. not done anything about it? In previous times the U.S. rather successfully suppressed traffic in Latin America. But in ...
- 11.8k
8
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1
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847
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Does the DEA have authority to prohibit any substance?
According to the DEA’s Denial of Petition To Initiate Proceedings To Reschedule Marijuana from 2011, one reason for the cannabis plant’s Schedule I status is because it has “no currently accepted ...
- 688
3
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4
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2k
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Why did the Dutch government put XTC/MDMA as a hard drug?
https://www.government.nl/topics/drugs/difference-between-hard-and-soft-drugs
Schedule I lists the substances classified as hard drugs, for example heroin, cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy and GHB. ...
- 4,329
0
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3
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365
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Why are medicine and certain medical procedures so expensive? [closed]
In countries such as the United States many prescription medicines are really expensive, and it seems like those medicines wouldn’t be that expensive to make. Also many medical procedures seem to be ...
- 37