Dave Finch

Kill the Drug Trade Dave Finch

Details how the nation can bring about a fundamental change in our failed and inhumane national drug policy. Shows how the harms and perverse incentives created by drug prohibition can be eliminated through an adult use tolerant dispensary system tightly controlled against access by minors, the age group where 90% of addictions begin. Proposes a scalable, state run system, which can begin with pilot programs in selected counties whose success can be emulated in others and so spread across the country. Qualified adults are allowed to join a confidential program that allows them to purchase drugs and paraphernalia manufactured and dispensed under FDA regulations, at below street prices. Purchase is through a tightly controlled remote ordering/delivery system, preventing access by minors. To qualify, users commit to regular contact with counselor/monitors, or "coaches". The coaches maintain contact with the users to promote responsible use, to keep them informed of current drug information and risks, and to serve as helpful confidants when someone signals a readiness to discuss rehab. The book shows how this system will1. Increase users' willingness and ability to seek abstinence over time and at a pace commensurate with their individual circumstances and conditions;2. Employ market forces to destroy the business of the pervasive drug dealers and violent traffickers; 3. End the accessibility to drugs of teens and preteens;4. Improve health and safety in our communities; and5. Release tax dollars (criminal justice costs) for better purposes, including education and addiction treatment.6. Provide a solution to the opioid overdose and death epidemic by furnishing users with safely compounded drugs certified as to purity and potency. Most drug users eventually quit on their own without treatment. Many more will, given the chance, seek treatment in support groups and professional rehab centers. In this use tolerant program with information rich counseling and controls against irresponsible use, the natural maturing toward quitting can be encouraged and even accelerated. The myriad details necessary to make such a plan work properly and its benefits are presented. A collateral and major benefit of killing the drug trade through natural market forces, as described, is the curtailment of the illicit drug trade and its associated crime and violence, and a reduction in prison populations and related costs. Of even greater importance is the protection against access to drugs by minors, which has been shown infeasible in a system of prohibition. Legal markets can be controlled, where powerful illegal trafficking cannot be. it is critically important to society that we end access to drugs by minors, which sets so many on a course of idleness and crime.