• thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You did the math for liquor stores (without really quantifying density, given there are dry countries and large swaths of empty land), but what about bars, wineries and distilleries? What are we up to for deaths related to alcohol (addiction and DUI killings) every year, have we exceeded 150,000 yet? It was just under 100k a few years ago, but covid might have changed it. Probably what meth/fentanyl/opioids do combined.

    Some quick numbers from the NIH, 93k is the number from all non-alcohol related overdose deaths in 2020, versus just over 140,000 alcohol related deaths.

    I’m curious why folks seem to harp on some drugs, but not others?

    • Jordan Lund@lemmy.oneOP
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      1 year ago

      If I were to guess, it’s because the drunks aren’t sleeping in tents, stealing everything that isn’t nailed down, and shitting on sidewalks… but that’s just a guess.

      • thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        … and I’ve got news for you: you’re wrong. Conservative estimates suggest that at least 1/4 of the homeless in the US feel pretty to addiction through alcohol. Since meth is fairly available and much less expensive than a fifth or half gallon of booze, it’s also available to help you forget how cold it is sleeping on the street. If you’ve spent any time in Portland, you’d remember just how bad it was when the city would open the drunk tank and dump the homeless alcoholics back out onto the street - pissing and shitting themselves on the bus, Max or in the first of a business. This was commonplace in the mid 00s, I can’t imagine it’s any different now.

        Drugs are drugs are drugs. If we’re going to restrict, we need to restrict them all appropriately. We already know that the drug war on alcohol AND narcotics was a massive failure (saying nothing about how it’s turned virtually every country south of our border into narco states), so what’s next? Trafficking is still a felony in Oregon, why don’t cops enforce the law?

        • Jordan Lund@lemmy.oneOP
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          1 year ago

          “Conservative estimates suggest that at least 1/4 of the homeless in the US feel pretty to addiction through alcohol.”

          Or to invert your quote, 3/4 of the homeless in the US AREN’T addicted to alcohol… which is right in line with what I’m saying… the drunks aren’t the problem.

          But in the end, I’m not talking about the US in general, the US in general doesn’t have an equivalent of Measure 110 and if we’re lucky it never will.

          • thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If other drugs have the same percentage of impact, or less (which is the case statistically, than alcohol, then what is the problem of the drinks aren’t the problem? If fentanyl users make up only 5% of the homeless, why go after them rather than the alcoholics?

            • Jordan Lund@lemmy.oneOP
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              1 year ago

              The degree of impact is different. You don’t have drunks sleeping in tents built on a pile of 500 stolen and disassembled bicycles. You DO have that with meth and fentanyl.

              The impact on the community is many hundreds of times more than alcohol.