Today John Goodman posted the Danger of Drug Laws and the unintended consequences of making drug abuse illegal. Because drug abuse is illegal, illicit drug users don’t have the support system that medical pharmaceuticals have. For example, fentanyl has both legitimate medicinal uses and non-medical uses. It has a low therapeutic index when used for pain relief. That means it is inherently risky.
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
The Danger of Drug Laws
When governments try to stop people from consuming politically disfavored intoxicants, they make consumption of those substances more dangerous by creating a black market in which purity and potency are highly variable and unpredictable….
The alarm about xylazine in fentanyl, which compounds the danger of fatal respiratory depression and may increase the risk of serious and persistent skin infections, is just the latest illustration of this predictable peril.
Thursday Links
- Arnold Kling on “Price Discrimination Explains Everything,” (including hospital finance). Recommended.
- Biden suspends funding for the Wuhan Lab.
- How Fauci and NIH leaders worked to discredit the lab leak theory.
- Report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic relies on more than 8,000 documents, including emails and other communications, plus nearly 25 hours of witness testimony.
- Bob Moffitt: the Biden administration is stonewalling an attempt to get at the origin of Covid.
- Douglas Hofstadter changes his mind: AI really is a risk. (David Brooks: NYT)
- Woke ideology is invading the mental health professions. (WSJ)
Tuesday Links
- Is drug legalization the answer to the fentanyl crisis?
- Brazil recognizes a “right to be beautiful” and it subsidizes a half million cosmetic surgeries a year. (NYT)
- Trading places: In 2008 the EU’s economy was $16.2 trillion versus America’s $14.7 trillion. By 2022, the US economy had grown to $25 trillion, whereas the EU and the UK together had only reached $19.8 trillion. (Financial Times)
- One reason: Europe banned fracking, while Obama encouraged it.
- Study: The CDC used unreliable data to support masks.