Oregon just decriminalized personal useage of heroin and cocaine, but continues to ban their commercial scale manufacturing, distribution, and sale. How exactly is that supposed to work?

By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

November 4, 2020

Oregon voters just approved a ballot initiative which decriminalizes personal usage of small amounts of heroin and cocaine.

However, it is still illegal to manufacture, distribute, or sell these drugs on a commercial scale.

Therefore, people who use these drugs will still be getting them from illegal manufacturers, distributors, and sellers.

Which means that the problems of contamination, unknown levels of potency, gangs, drive by shootings, etc., will still be possible.

In order to get rid of these problems, the drugs need to be legalized at all levels of manufacturing, distribution, and sale.

Only then, when the drugs are fully legal, and are manufactured by brand name companies whose reputations are on the line, and whose labels list all of the ingredients, as well as the exact concentration and potency of the drugs, will we be able to see what happens when these drugs are legalized.

As it stands now, with the drugs decriminalized only for personal usage, but still banned for manufacturing, distribution, and sale on a commercial scale, it will be impossible for users to know for certain what exactly is in their drugs, or how strong they are. And in order to buy the drugs, users will still be interacting with criminals.

By legalizing these drugs for personal usage, but continuing with the ban on on commercial scale manufacturing, distribution, and sale, how exactly is this supposed to work?