Ok, first I must apologize because I am about to go metagame on you here. Have you ever wonder why ASEAN countries and in fact, countries geographically close to China seem to oppose the “harm reduction” policy? It may be because of what happened to China, starting all the way back in 1839, AKA the First Opium War.
Even then, China rejected proposals to legalize and tax opium (Note that we are not talking about a modern society at that time, but a society that forced adult Han Chinese men to shave the front of their heads. And comb the remaining hair into the queue hairstyle, which was worn by Manchu men, on pain of death). Yes, the Chinese did lose the war, however Viceroy Lin Zexu’s attempts to solve the problem by abolishing the opium trade and the destruction of opium at Humen are, right or wrong, widely admired, right to the modern day.
Even now, every few years or so, China, Taiwan, etc, make TV dramas and movies about the harms of drugs, which are watched even in countries where Chinese are not widely spoken (Ah, the magic of Youtube and English subtitles). The latest I can think of is “Cruel Romance” in 2015. Artistes convicted of drug offences are widely considered to be committing career suicide, even if you are the son of one of the biggest kung fu movie stars in Chinese history. Now, do you understand why countries here are so resistant to the “harm reduction” policy, which frankly rise the bile in one’s throat?
More metagame. The debate on drug policy seems to be, on the surface, just about drugs. To me and many others, it is only part of the debate on the future of society itself. Even before the popularity of dystopian stories like “The Hunger Games”, many other stories about future society were written. I will just mention 2 stories relevant here: “1984” and “Brave New World”. Amusingly, from the recent posts on your blog, I got the very strong sensation that you believe our society is moving towards the type depicted in “1984”. I, however, believe that the “harm reduction” policy is part of many, many little things that is nudging us towards the direction of “Brave New World”. Mr. Aldous Huxley couldn’t have predicted the rise of the Internet and genetic engineering, but I got the horrible feeling he is going to be right in his prediction of future society.
As Mr. Neil Postman mentioned in his book “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Which way do you think our society is going?
As to your comment that thinking that it is possible for any society to be completely drug-free is wrong, I beg to differ by a personal example. When I am much younger, my English is terrible. I can curse in 4 different dialects, yet I can’t tell if you are insulting my mother in English. My primary school English teacher, who was a native English speaker from England (who happened to understand the 4 dialects I was cursing in, which was really impressive to a 9-yrs-old boy) once took me aside for a personal talk.
I remembered whining that it is impossible to me to ever speak English as well as a native English speaker. She calmly replied that yes, maybe this is true but she wanted me to try as much as possible. Her theory was that if I don’t even try, I will never improve, while if I at least try, I may one day get the following compliment “Wow, your English is very good! Are you a native speaker?” So foolish boy I was, I kept trying.
Fast forward to today, my written English is at least tolerable, my spoken English is still horrible. So yes, maybe thinking that it is possible for any society to be completely drug-free is very foolish. That does not mean it is not a worthwhile goal and we should stop trying, or we will never improve.