Should meth be legal?

[backscatter712]

112. Also, injection clinics allow addicts to be supervised when shooting up.

This ensures that they get prompt treatment in the event of accidental overdose (at least that's how they do it in Vancouver - the injection clinic requires patients to bring their own drugs to inject, gives them clean needles, and gives them a place where they can rest, knowing that if they OD, the staff will step in immediately and save their lives.)

I would argue that it would be better if the addicts traded in the black-tar heroin and the homemade meth cooked in battery acid, and get pharmaceutical grade drugs in exchange, in precise, measured doses, which would eliminate the problems with adulterants in the drugs, and also ensure that because the doses were well-known, overdoses could be prevented.

And I would argue that with some patients, it's virtually impossible to completely break an addiction, so yes, managing an addiction in a controlled way so the patient could live a more normal life would be in order. One example would be chronic-pain patients, who are forced into addiction to painkillers by their medical conditions, who pretty much have to have a medically managed addiction to deal with the pain.