# Why save people overdosing on meth **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 21, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-save-people-overdosing-on-meth/763480 "2016-08-21T04:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 66
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-save-people-overdosing-on-meth/763480/66 "2016-08-23T03:51:10Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > I’d got to agree with the Governor, there. Same reason I don’t support ideas such as handing out free needles. I don’t see the point of making it easier for people to be criminals. The idea that “they’re only going to do it anyway” is bullshit. Human beings are capable of making their own decisions. Sure, humans are capable of making their own decisions. And it’s a fact that there are always going to be some people who choose to spend most of their time fucked up. At this point, we’ve proven pretty conclusively that throwing people in prison doesn’t stop that, but it does cost a shit load of money, and it’s not clear to me what benefit we get from locking up addicts like that. If you genuinely don’t give a shit about these people, it seems the best policy is to do something like what the Swiss have been trying lately. Instead of arresting and incarcerating drug addicts, spend a fraction of that money and just _give the addicts free heroin._ Then let them go home and shoot up until they die.\* Costs the taxpayer pennies on the dollar versus the war on drugs. \*It’s worth noting, here, that the actual program they tried in Switzerland was actually the first step in a comprehensive treatment program to get people off of heroin entirely, which sounds pretty counter-intuitive, but seems to have worked pretty well. > [@](#): > > As I said before, someone who plays sports or drives a car is not TRYING to hurt themselves. Someone who does drugs can’t make the same claim. Likewise, if they blow themselves up in a meth lab. You burned your face off trying to make poison? Karma’s a birch, and they got exactly what was coming to them. Don’t expect me to feel pity for them, because I don’t have any. People who do drugs (or drink, or smoke) aren’t _trying_ to hurt themselves. They’re trying to have a good time, and they’re hoping they can do it without incurring any consequences. And lots and lots of people do. Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer. Not everyone who drinks has liver failure. Not everyone who does heroin overdoses. And not everyone who drives a race car wrecks. They’re all people who have decided that the enjoyment of an activity is worth the risk that the activity will harm them. This is very much a perfect example of a non-fallacious slippery slope. There are degrees of danger in all of these activities, and the participants have different ideas about where the line on “too dangerous” is. > [@](#): > > And BTW, I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs and I cannot comprehend why anyone would want to. I have no problem getting through my day without drugs, so I don’t understand what is so goddamned difficult about it. Yeah, I bet you never played with the “Tint” knob on your TV when you were a kid, either. Look, it’s great that you’re straight edge. The world needs all kinds. Including people who aren’t. There’s nothing inherently wrong with people choosing different things from you. There’s no reason to get this angry at them. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-save-people-overdosing-on-meth/763480)._