Gay Men and Crystal Meth

Andrew Sullivan:

A few years ago, there were alarming reports of crystal meth use soaring among gay men. Readers know I'm a libertarian on the responsible use of soft drugs. But I have no tolerance for crystal meth. It's poison. I decided a while back to have a zero tolerance policy for it among my friends and acquaintances. I saw what it was doing to human beings. Not only did it destroy their minds and empty their souls, it also was HIV's best friend. On meth, the last thing anyone thinks about is protection from HIV.

As Sullivan reports, major public awareness campaigns have greatly reduced Meth use among gay men in NYC and San Francisco. This represents a libertarian alternative to the war on drugs, using reason and scare tactics to limit the use of destructive drugs instead of legal sanctions. If this sort of thing can be made to work on a larger scale, then we could afford to ratchet down our "war on drugs." Sadly, I think the situation in the poor heartland communities where Meth does its worse damage is different from that of gay men in cities -- what are poor kids in dusty towns going to do instead?