In 2021, the most recent for which we have complete data, 106,000 drug overdose deaths have been counted, of which 70,601 can be blamed on “synthetic” opiates, meaning fentanyl. This is a true crisis that should command national attention. Maybe it’s better to remain on page 2, because national attention would more than likely draw the wrong kind of attention, and the inevitable wrong kind of solutions. And there is only one solution that would end this crisis, and that is the legalization of the substance that fentanyl seeks to emulate. Cocaine, plainly. Legalize it, and watch the synthetic, Chinese knock-offs wither and disappear, just as marijuana’s synthetic doppelgängers did, once the natural thing was finally accepted legally and socially. People want to get high, but they prefer not to die in the process. Getting high, drunk, loaded, et cetera, is an inseparable part of the human condition. Some people want to do it, need to do it. So why not let them do it safely? Building a dam around human nature is a fool’s errand, but it’s something we attempt more often than accepting what we are. The path to a better world must begin with accepting reality; of our nature as a species, and of what is and is not possible.
One fatal flaw, among our many, lies in our inability to empathize with how certain restrictions on freedom affect someone other than the person in the mirror. We want freedom for ourselves, but can barely summon the energy to acknowledge the value of freedom for others. We thrive in a state of freedom, but look at the world and only see how it could be improved through restrictions on the freedoms of others. The role of government is to understand both the necessity of freedom, and the very real danger that every single one of us poses to society-wide freedom.
Will cocaine ever be legalized? Not for many years. Why not? Due to the almost insurmountable obstacle that is our nature, that I laid out above. We have no compassion for drug users. Almost all of us can’t look beyond stage 1 of a problem, or accept a solution that at first appears counterintuitive or awakens a fit of pearl-clutching indignation. It’ll never happen. But it’s the sole answer to a problem that will grow worse each year until the public accepts what must be done.
