Elon Musk says killer drug fentanyl should be legalised
Elon Musk is calling for the legalisation of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, arguing that would reduce the amount of harm done.
Technology
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The world’s richest person Elon Musk says the United States should consider legalising the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Mr Musk made the comments on Twitter, the social media site he owns.
“I think we should legalise it. The probability of overdose or a bad batch is greatly reduced if there is actual [quality assurance and] regulation.
“Also, crime flourishes when substances are made illegal.”
He argued the prohibition of alcohol, which took place in the US in the 1920s and 1930s, led to disastrous results.
“Alcohol is very much a ‘drug’ – it’s just a legacy drug from olden times when we had no technology,” he wrote.
“Prohibition of alcohol in the United States caused the greatest increase in organised crime in our history. How many times do we have to learn this lesson?”
Mr Musk famously appeared in a Joe Rogan podcast smoking a joint.
He’s also spouted the benefits of magic mushrooms and MDMA.
He has, however, warned that taking drugs can make you “age more”.
His call to legalise fentanyl was met with a mixed response.
British TV presenter Liv Boeree responded by writing, “[Fentanyl] is a very different drug to alcohol in terms of speed-to-dependency and ease of deadly overdose.
“I’d bet that making it legally available – and thus more socially normalised – would create even more victims than the status quo.”
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, criminal groups ship chemicals from China to Mexico where they are used to produce fentanyl that is smuggled across the US border.
About 70,601 overdose deaths were reported in the US in 2021.
The drug is mostly used medically for anaesthesia and as an analgesic.
Fentanyl poses an exceptionally high overdose risk to humans.
– with AFP
Originally published as Elon Musk says killer drug fentanyl should be legalised
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