In the current material conditions we're in (everything is the same, we're still in hellworld, but the drug laws are the ideal for these conditions)?
In a social democratic state?
In a socialist state?
In FALGSC?
Would the policies actually change at all in any of these?
full legalisation, and state production of them.
availability of recreational drugs could be limited via scripts or referral, or not & just flag the patient to get questioned at their next doctor appointment or something
drugs really aren't a big deal when you control supply and have free health care. <---if these for some reason can't be done just decriminalise
I really wish more people would understand this.
Krokodil is my favorite example of a drug that is literally only so dangerous because it's illegal. It has this reputation as a ridiculously toxic chemical that will dissolve the flesh right off your bones. But what people don't realize is that in reality Krokodil (also known as Desomorphine) is just as physically benign as common prescription opioids like Vicodin. The whole flesh melting thing came as a direct result of people searching for a cheap alternative to illegal black market Heroin.
Eventually someone figured out you could convert Codeine to Desomorphine in a bathtub using common household chemicals. So in countries with OTC Codeine people did just that. But this whole process is about as hygienic as you'd expect and so people ended up injecting all sorts of unreacted reagents and other pollutants into their veins along with the Krokodil. Cue the horror stories of people who had their legs fall off after injecting the stuff.
Things like this are why it is supremely important to maintain a legal supply of addictive drugs for those who suffer from addiction. In the end it is vastly preferable that people use clean, well labeled, pharmaceutical grade opiates rather than get desperate enough to try literally anything that might work.
This, clean drugs with reliable and consistent strength and dosage would almost totally eradicate drug deaths. There would still be some but it would handle the vast majority
I mean seriously. I can think of several people who would be sober if they weren't constantly ground down by work or a lack of health care.
How much of a supply of drugs would there be, to prevent the risk of running out or rationing too little, and then people just trying to make impure, cheap versions of drugs?
We don't really have a problem with maintaining a large enough supply of legal prescription drugs, so if we legalized all drugs in this way it should work mostly the same.
We often think of hard drugs as extremely expensive, but it's important to remember that is only the case because they are illegal. If Heroin were legal, it could probably be produced efficiently at scale for just a few cents per gram.
Then so long as the pure stuff is freely available no one is going to risk using stepped on mystery powders that are probably loaded with fentanyl.