Comment Re: Netherlands has been doing this (Score 1) 316
You want me to take the side of compassion? That's a fucking riot.
Nobody is asking you for compassion, which is clearly a lost cause. The scientific evidence on the subject shows that harm-reduction, decriminalization approaches cost less (less policing and medical expenses) and reduce crime and homelessness. This means that continuing with the current approach is akin to spending more money to punish addicts because of your so-called morality. Even more, with harm-reduction, addicts have a better chance of functioning and recovery, and their kids thus have a better chance at getting lunch and perhaps some parenting.
Call this a pragmatic argument if you will, but I think ethically there's a strong case to be made for trying to do what's best for those lunchless children, especially if it costs less and has other societal benefits. Unless your definition of ethics is basically that people you judge as "bad" should be punished with no regard to collateral damage. We don't even need to open the box of the links between childhood trauma or mental illness causing addiction, which in some ways literally hijacks a person's brain like a parasite might.