Heroin was once a respectable over-the-counter medicine you could buy from a catalog. Now it’s the archetype of “hard drugs” and the justification for militarized policing, mass incarceration, and endless “crackdowns” that somehow never crack down on the real culprits: poverty, bad policy, and corporate greed. This didn’t happen by accident. The story of heroin…
“If we legalize drugs, addiction will explode, crime will soar, and society will collapse.” That’s the standard prohibitionist script. It’s been recycled for over a century to justify criminalization, mass surveillance, militarized policing, and billions funneled into a war that has never achieved its stated goals. The fear is always the same: if people have…
“If we legalize drugs, society will collapse. Addiction will skyrocket, crime will explode, and our streets will be overrun with chaos.” You’ve heard that line in a dozen variations from politicians, pundits, and the same “family values” lobbyists who stay suspiciously quiet about alcohol ads during the Super Bowl. It’s the go-to scare story: prohibition…
Opioids didn’t become a “crisis” when suburban white America discovered OxyContin. The war on opioids started over a century earlier—when the people using them were Chinese railroad workers, Black laborers, sex workers, and poor women buying laudanum from corner shops. To understand how we got from open, over-the-counter opium tinctures to mass incarceration and fentanyl-adulterated…
When governments declare a “war on drugs,” what they actually declare is a war on drug users. The drugs don’t go to prison. The substances don’t overdose. People do. We live in a world where prohibition has turned an already complex thing—humans altering their consciousness—into a high-risk gamble. The black market is contaminated, information is…
Heroin has been many things in its short, chaotic life: a miracle cough remedy, a respectable pharmaceutical, a racialized boogeyman, a pretext for mass surveillance and incarceration, a convenient excuse to militarize borders and streets. What it has never been is honestly regulated based on evidence and public health. The story of heroin isn’t just…
“If we legalize drugs, addiction will explode, crime will skyrocket, and society will collapse.” You’ve heard this line a thousand times. It’s the default prohibitionist script: drugs are uniquely evil, people are too weak to handle freedom, and the only thing standing between us and total chaos is criminal law and armed police. It sounds…
“If we legalize drugs, society will fall apart. Addiction will skyrocket. Crime will explode. Our kids will be next.” You’ve heard that script a thousand times. It’s the backbone of every tough-on-drugs speech, every “just say no” campaign, every politician’s excuse for pouring more money into cops and cages instead of healthcare and housing. There’s…
“If we legalize drugs, addiction will skyrocket and society will collapse.” That’s the core prohibitionist script. Sometimes it’s dressed up as “think of the children,” sometimes as “we can’t send the wrong message,” sometimes as “look at the opioid crisis.” But the underlying claim is always the same: legal or decriminalized drugs = chaos, addiction,…
“If we legalize drugs, society will collapse. Addiction rates will skyrocket, crime will explode, and our streets will be flooded with zombies.” That’s the greatest hits album of prohibitionist fearmongering. It’s emotionally powerful, politically convenient, and almost completely detached from what actually happens when we stop treating drug users like criminals and start treating drug…