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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 25, 2024

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The problem is that just letting people get drugs as they like means that if they're the one in ten thousand who gets the rare but really severe reaction, who ends up getting the blame?

It's risky enough with prescriptions and people taking medication they're not sure of, or there are interactions with drugs they already are prescribed, or the doctor was careless about checking are they safe to take this drug. I've been prescribed things that gave me (fortunately) low side-effects and now have it on record that I can't take X or Y medication. Without some system of doctors and prescriptions, how are you going to manage this?

who ends up getting the blame

Simple, the person who took the drug without a prescription. This is no different to how if you park in an open parking lot you have to bear the risk of someone breaking in and stealing your shit.

You really think that's going to happen? "Oh my bad, my mom or brother or kid took that drug and suffered a severe side-effect, their fault for being too dumb to read the label"?

No, it will be Something Must Be Done and they'll sue the government and the drug manufacturer and the hospital and anywhere else they can think of: yes this is legal but someone else is to blame!

Yeah, it doesn't matter how blindingly obvious you make the risks. A lot of people will say they're OK with the risk right up until they lose a roll, at which point they are mad and want something to be done.

Yes, and it is the responsibility of the systems established by society to make sure nothing is done in response to such tantrums. It's fine if they sue, as long as they lose and have to pay the court costs.

That attitude leads to things like the opioid crisis where the rest of society is left cleaning up the mess left behind by people making questionable decisions.

A huge chunk of healthcare costs these days are associated with lifestyle related problems. That's going to get worse if you have 100k people fuck up their kidneys and need dialysis.

Negative externalities are a thing.