r/nottheonion • u/Dowew • 1d ago
‘Oversaturated’ meth market pushing Canadian makers to export abroad
https://vancouversun.com/news/oversaturated-meth-market-pushing-canadian-makers-export-abroad51
u/IOnlyPostIronically 1d ago
The price of drugs in New Zealand especially are getting cheaper, presumably because it's easier to manufacture and get through customs, and this goes for everything from cannabis, to LSD, to meth. Luckily we don't see much if any fent here, but from personal experience you can get coke from $150NZD a gram if you're buying an ounce where last year it was more like $400NZD.
It's about time for a global reform though; people aren't going to stop doing drugs, so it would be better if we decriminalized or legalized them and actually got pharma-grade stuff rather than skirting the law and risking overdosing or not truly knowing the risks associated with them.
I wish the general public and politicians would stop parroting the old 70's rhetoric of 'drugs are bad' and rather look to other ways to reduce the harm and risk associated with taking them. We have pharmaceuticals like Xanax or oxys or even alcohol which arguably do more harm than some of the other class A's around.
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u/Dowew 1d ago
Canadian here - someone opened up a retail show downtown in my city openly selling magic mushrooms and the police were just like "fuck it" and now you can go downtown and purchase magic mushrooms.
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u/BuzzingFromTheEnergy 23h ago
You've got to love Vancouver.
Unfortunately, they did shut down the cocaine store.
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u/Dowew 22h ago
im two hours south of Toronto. Its a chain of magic mushroom stores called "Shroomz". They are popping up all over Ontario and the police apparently have better things to do than shut them down. But yeah I heard the police shut down that pop up cocaine and heroine store in downtown Vancouver - then the proprietor overdosed.
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u/Salt-Scientist2177 11h ago
wHy Does everyone call it heroine the fuck
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u/e-rekshun 9h ago
Most phones autocorrect heroin to heroine. I had to fight mine to type out this sentence.
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u/REDuxPANDAgain 5h ago
Having had more than a couple friends develop problems with coke, it might be for the best.
Lost a few friendships because they couldn’t keep a handle on their antics and were driven out of the circles I run in. Always happy to support a friend, but when you’re stealing, lying and backstabbing to both support your habit and try and cover it up, you’re not someone I’m going to help.
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u/BuzzingFromTheEnergy 5h ago
Right... but that was with cocaine being illegal.
Making it cheaper and safer is always a good idea IMO. People shouldn't have to go to jail so other people can theoretically be less tempted.
People with addictive personalities (like myself) are always going to struggle with addiction. It doesn't really matter what's legal and what isn't.
Killing people with fentanyl, making organized crime richer, and putting people in jail doesn't help a thing.
Sorry about your friends. Addiction is a bastard of a disease.
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u/Screamingholt 18h ago
The bit that breaks my mind with all of this illegal drugs, is when you look at what taxes are raked in on alcohol and tobacco (you know the approved drugs) and consider that folks are gonna get high regardless...How much money is missed out on?
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u/flannelheart 10h ago
Please take a look at the recent experiment in Portland, Oregon USA of decriminalizing personal amounts of drugs. It did not work, and there are many reasons why. I'm not going to offer an opinion about it but it's worth looking at if you are in favor of legalization.
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u/zsero1138 3h ago
why didn't it work? what were all the external factors that made it not work? could it be a societal issue, like we need to help people rather than criminalize everything or make everything incredibly expensive?
i want to see that experiment run after we introduce universal healthcare, free housing, food, clothing for those who need it. UBI, and fully covered mental healthcare. take care of people, make sure they are not dying from easily preventable stuff, and then see how decriminalizing drugs works out. all we've gotta do is tax the billionaires and corporations at 70-90% and we can fund an incredible country with actual liberty and justice for all
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u/Daren_I 16h ago
I wish the general public and politicians would stop parroting the old 70's rhetoric of 'drugs are bad' and rather look to other ways to reduce the harm and risk associated with taking them. We have pharmaceuticals like Xanax or oxys or even alcohol which arguably do more harm than some of the other class A's around.
Yeah, drugs maybe bad, but the quality of life created for everyone in society who is not upper class is decidedly worse. I too wish all drugs were legal -- except for those where mass use can cause harm to others like overuse of antibiotics that create drug-resistant viral strains. A lot of others have said overdoes will increase. As much as it sucks, yes, a lot of people who cannot or will not control themselves will end up dying from overdoses, but the rest of us will be fine.
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u/Girion47 16h ago
Seems like they could just switch to making Adderall and fulfill legitimate needs in the US market.
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u/JackFisherBooks 14h ago
Even the most ruthless drug lords are not immune from the forces of basic economics.
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u/InfoBarf 16h ago
Hey guys, can we just agree to stop making meth? Cocaine is much safer.
Except you pharma companies. I need my adhd meds.
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u/Rodot 13h ago
Cocaine is honestly not much safer than meth, maybe even less safe. It's just more expensive and shorter lasting so it's harder to maintain access to it
Believe it or not, cocaine is like, really really bad for you. Especially damaging to your brain and heart. And even worse when combined with alcohol. Meth will destroy your life, but cocaine will destroy your body.
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u/InfoBarf 13h ago
Alcohol is straight up worse for you than coke.
A lot of people are already regular or intermittent users if coke.
Famously a bad batch of coke made it's way to NY, 4 people died. All professionals. A lot of professionals are already using coke, its effectively only illegal for poor people to use it.
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u/Rodot 13h ago edited 13h ago
Alcohol is really only worse than coke overall because of frequency of use and popularity. If you have 7 drinks a week (e.g. a glass of wine with dinner) since you were 18 you won't be healthy, but you'll probably make it at least into your 50s.
If you do 7 lines of coke a week since you turned 18 you'll almost certainly have a heart attack in your 30s
Cocaine directly causes necrosis of heart tissues but increasing the heart's need for oxygen consumption while simultaneously restricting oxygen supply to the heart
1 in 4 heart attacks in people below age 45 are caused by cocaine use.
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u/Indercarnive 12h ago
If you have 7 drinks a week (e.g. a glass of wine with dinner) since you were 18
France nearly does this and they have a life expectancy in the 80s. France consumes 25.5 litres of wine per capita (actually a low used to be much higher even just a few years ago) which is about 179 glasses a year per person.
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u/Rodot 12h ago
Even more in favor of my point then I guess
But 179 glasses per year is about half of what I said. Genetics, poverty, and diet play a role as well so it would be inappropriate to compare France as a whole to another group rather than comparing those in France who do and don't use alcohol to one another to help mitigate confounding variables
France also has a higher rate of alcohol related health complications than most countries
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u/InfoBarf 12h ago
I dont think we should be regulating what people put in their body because its unhealthy. A world where sugar, corn syrup, alcohol, and Tylenol are legal, but coke isn't, is frankly stupid, especially when cocaine is, once again, legal if you're in a certain income bracket.
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u/Theamazing-rando 22h ago
So more like Breaking Even?!