[mugs99]

There's no accounting for junkies who simply don't seek any treatment at all
That's true. Many of their addicts are self supporting and no drain on the taxpayers.

That's the thing about statistics. They can be used to show pretty much whatever you want them to show
You could have stated that in the beginning and saved all of this tooth pulling...Your bias is showing: The Lancet even went so far as to use its pages to suggest that Andrew von Eschenbach was an unfit FDA director
von Eschenbach is an unfit FDA diector. He has destroyed what little credibility the FDA had left and turned the agency into a propaganda mill.
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[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

That's true. Many of their addicts are self supporting and no drain on the taxpayers.

It's hard to suggest they're not a drain on the taxpayers when the rate of welfare dependency is at 28%. Before the liberalization of Switzerland's drug laws, the rate was at 17% (Britain is 18%, Australia is 17%, US is 14%).

Regardless, even if what you say is true, and Switzerland has an abundance of productive heroin addicts in the workforce, it doesn't change the fact that they have no idea whether or not decriminalization has actually led to diminished heroin use. And that was the main finding of this study.

Your bias is showing

I wasn't trying to conceal it. Then again, I'm not getting paid to conduct surveys on social issues.