Thread by @ChristinaBDent

Follow-up 🧵 to yesterday's on kids being safer with legal drugs. Walk this through with me:

I have a 13-year-old son. As far as I know he's never been offered drugs. We're teaching him about the risks of drug use.

But right now he could go buy illegal drugs. (1)

My son can buy drugs just as easily at 13 as a 33-year-old can. Not good! There are no age restrictions on the street. No one is checking ID. So already his access is greater under drug prohibition.

Legalization at least puts the vast majority of drugs behind a counter. (2)

Now, he could still get drugs. But I've heard many people comment that alcohol was harder to get than cannabis in high school. They could get both, they just had to put more effort into finding someone with an older brother to buy their booze. Cannabis was everywhere. (3)

Drug prohibition won't keep my 13-year-old from getting drugs, and it actually logically makes it easier for him to access them. Not good.

I hope he chooses to not use drugs, especially as a teenager. But if he crosses that threshold, the next question is what will he use? (4)

Under drug prohibition, the drugs he gets are contaminated. There is 100% NO quality control, proper labeling, ingredients, dosage, the whole nine yards. We have a baggie with a question mark on it. Not good! (5)

So far we have the law telling him that using drugs is illegal, but the cost is no age restrictions for access and increased potential for disease and death. That's a high price to make a point. But we're not done.

If he gets caught, what will happen? (6)

Tens of thousands of people every year get arrested for drug possession. Nobody wants it to be their son.

As a mom, the last thing I want for my child is a crippling criminal record & the trauma of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that often accompanies incarceration. (7)

I see the benefit of making drugs illegal. It sends a signal. Don't do drugs. But the cost of making that point is massive risk and a lot of visitations at prisons and funeral homes.

And it hasn't worked.

1 in 10 people have used an illegal drug recently. (8)

Drug prohibition causes breathtaking human harm to make an ineffective point. Legalization with honest education and harm reduction efforts is a better path. (9/end)

#EndItForGood #HealthNotHandcuffs #ContaminationKills #FirstsLifeThenHealth #CJR #CJReform #HarmReduction