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Heroin legalization: An unconventional alternative
Aaron Corpora

In the midst of opiate addictions rising at a previously unfathomable rate, it is understandable that few have looked at the option of actually legalizing and regulating a drug like heroin or other potentially deadly opiates as a solution to the problem. However, there are some who believe that perhaps that is exactly what the federal government should consider doing to curb all of the addiction and death that has left parts of the American midwest in shambles.

First, consider how we have gotten to where we are today in the opiate crisis. Of course, we have seen people fall victim to drugs’ ugly grip as far back as the 1970s. Music superstars like Elvis and Janis Joplin succumbed to heroin and it resulted in their early deaths. But it hasn’t been until recently, when heroin began to become accessible and affordable for the everyday people living in Suburbia, USA, that we have reached what is now considered an epidemic level.

Experts consider a growing rise in pharmaceutical drug addiction as the catalyst to the opiate crisis. Dr. Wilson Compton, the deputy director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse provides a startling statistic highlighting the danger of prescription drug abuse and its tendency to lead to heroin addiction.

“Most of heroin users now, their first opioid exposures are through prescription drugs. That’s true for at least 80 percent of today’s heroin addicts,” said Dr. Compton via Healthline. “That’s very different than 30 or 40 years ago when the first opioid was heroin.”

It is a scary reality when we address the fact that drugs being given to us by the government could potentially be the very things leading people to pick up and resort to a drug like heroin or other opioids.

Dr. Mark Thornton, a senior fellow at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama spoke with me about legalizing heroin in response to this epidemic, and the misconceptions that many people operate under, leaving an option like legalization practically an impossibility.

[pullquote]The war on drugs does not keep people safe—it kills people that would otherwise survive.[/pullquote]

In his opinion, ignorance about the benefits of legalization is most to blame for this controversial stance not being considered more. “People do not know the issue and have been lured into total fear,” Dr. Thornton said. “The war on drugs does not keep people safe—it kills people that would otherwise survive.”

Look at the state of Colorado, the first in the union to legalize a Schedule 1 drug—marijuana. Since legalizing marijuana for recreational use on the state level in 2012, Colorado has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars for the state, while also seeing the number of opioid-related deaths decrease.

Countries like Portugal and Canada have taken steps to decriminalize heroin in an effort not to demonize those who are struggling with an addiction and seek help. However, Dr. Thornton believes that full legalization, not just decriminalization, is the best solution.

“People do not understand the meaning of legalization,” said Dr. Thornton. “What they think is that the price will fall and we will just get more of the bad results we are experiencing. Actually, you get competition, the rule of law, tort law, liability law and many other features of capitalism that keep us relatively safe in so many other areas,” he said.

“Legalization and decriminalization are two different policies. Both are better than the total war on drugs, but legalization is much better than decriminalization.”

Doctors in Canada have begun prescribing medical marijuana as a means of curbing opiate addiction. Jacquie Miller, a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, spoke about Dr. Mark Ujjainwalla’s pioneering practice.

“There is evidence that cannabis can help treat chronic pain, according to a comprehensive review of the medical literature on the health effects of cannabis by the U.S. National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine,” Miller stated. “However, the report concluded that there is limited evidence of any statistical association between cannabis use and changes in the rates and patterns of other licit and illicit substances.”

And while this practice may come across as counterproductive to some, consider not only the proven benefits and firsthand accounts that we have at our disposal, but also other non-traditional ways of keeping heroin addicts safe, like prescription heroin that has become legal in Canada as of fall 2016.

According to the Washington Post, who reported on the story in September of last year, patients in Canada will be able to expand heroin-maintenance programs, which allow addicts to come in as much as three times per day to receive legally obtained heroin from a nurse for free.

Dr. Thornton of the Mises Institute sees this as a good idea. “It provides addicts with a long period to decide to quit and to get their lives in order—without dying first!” he says. “Ultimately, legalization involves medicalization, socialization and commercialization. Criminalization just makes everything worse in their lives worse for the addict.”

So what’s keeping heroin illegal? The answer is not one that sits very well with a lot of people. Large pharmaceutical companies, which continue to make billions off the very prescriptions that are getting people hooked on heroin is one big reason, while other factors like the Prison Industrial Complex, which profits off things like the war on drugs are also to blame.

“Big pharma and the prison industrial complex, along with the alcohol and tobacco industries, certainly are the big contributors to anti-legalization of marijuana campaigns, so they could also do the same thing with heroin,” Dr. Thornton said.

So where does the solution lie? There certainly do not seem to be any pro-heroin narratives being spewed, as there has been an increase of with marijuana over the past 10 years. Right now, heroin seems to still be operating in a boogieman phase, where people are too scared to even talk about it, let alone federally regulate and sell it.

But legalization of heroin may go a long way in curbing an epidemic that doesn’t seem to have a similar comparison unless you go back to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
“I been asking audiences the question for the last 30 years: ‘Would you try heroin if it were legal?’ Only one person has raised his hand so far,” said Dr. Thornton. 

Ohio saw more opioid overdose deaths than anywhere else in the nation in 2014. Unintentional drug overdose continued to be the leading cause of injury-related death in Ohio in 2015, ahead of motor vehicle traffic crashes –a trend which began in 2007. Unintentional drug overdoses caused the deaths of 3,050 Ohio residents in 2015, the highest number on record, compared to 2,531 in 2014. The number of overdose deaths increased 20.5 percent from 2014 to 2015, which is similar to the increase from 2013 to 2014.

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