At the moment legalising cannabis in game results in crime increasing but in countries that have done this it usually results in crime decreasing as a result of people not having to go to an illegal black market source for this and there being safe places for people to take the drugs
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That’s why legalizing Narcotics lowers organized crime but raises ordinary crime in game.
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I made an account just to comment on this. The stats for legalizing all drugs and the effect of a massive increase in crime seems crazy and not based in reality. We have a case study on this called Portugal and it is clearly not reflecting in how the game responds to decriminalization of all drugs: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it
By the looks of the way the game responds, it would leave the intended consumer believing that crime increases with more lax drug laws. I would like to see evidence that is true, but Portugal is a case study for the opposite story, and also the only country in the world with this experiment going on. Feels like propaganda (ironic) that the game advertises increased crime with more lax drug laws.
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Yea, I’m not exactly sure about propaganda, but I’d be interested in hearing an explanation.
Also, at least for specifically the united states legalizing all or most drugs would end up destabilizing drug cartels especially to their southern boarder increasing relations. Maybe there’s a game mechanic in there somewhere? Otherwise it’s a neat fact
There was a vice mod for 3 that added a tourism modifier to the legalisation of drugs.
I definitely feel like it’s peculiar that prostitution and gambling can contribute to the GDP, yet alcohol, tobacco and narcotics don’t, so legalising some of them is a must-do, but totally illegalising others is a similar net gain. All these vices are theoretical enterprises though, right?
As for crime, alcohol currently influences crime and productivity as drugs do, so I don’t think it’s ridiculous drugs do the same. Though the values might be a tad exaggerated.
I think propaganda is too strong; the developer is striking a balance between the probable effects of drug legalization. If anti-drug propaganda were the goal, then why would legalizing drugs lower organized crime? Drug legalization would increase crime based on the idea that legalizing hard drugs would increase addiction because it would be more readily available to certain people who would have never tried it because it was illegal, or not easily obtainable. And people who are addicted to drugs are more likely than others to commit crime to obtain money for drugs, for one, and more likely to commit lower-level antisocial crime (which is what the “crime” stat measures, unlike violent or organized crime) which doesn’t take a lot of imagination to understand https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/06/28/drugs/
It doesn’t cause a problem in game as long as you have a well-funded police force, or lower poverty, or use the many other polices you can use to lower crime.
I would like to see one or two polices though that let the player adequately address drug addiction without the State Health Service.
Some of that crime for more money for drugs stuff is due to drugs being made far more expensive, and also less safe (because people try to stretch them to make more money off less drug), than they would be if they were legal and, perhaps, properly regulated.
And there is some evidence that addiction isn’t as much a factor in the first place, if people get to be in a good place even without the drug. Like plenty of soldiers who had a stint with opiates during some war but then came back home to ultimately be fine, not depending on that drug to keep on functioning.
So I’m not sure that argument holds that much water.
But yes, at the very least, just as there is an alcohol awareness program and a tobacco awareness program, there should be one for drugs too. (And on the opposite side, it should totally be possible to totally outlaw tobacco and alcohol, as bad as that would no doubt be.)
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