Some notes on drug policies

Democracy 4 Alpha Feedback
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A few observations and ideas in regard to drug-related policies from playing the Alpha:

  • The effects on Youth happiness with drug policies seem a bit off: the negative effect from taxing drugs can easily exceed the positive effect from legalizing them. Maybe the Youth unhappiness from Recreational Drugs Tax should be reduced and/or multiplied by the current state of Narcotics?
  • Since the Recreational Drugs Tax displeases young people, perhaps the taxes on alcohol and tobacco should also do so. It could be argued that the effect would be less than for drugs like cannabis since they are less “in” with the youth, although I imagine the Tobacco Tax would also apply to things like vapes?
  • The only options to reduce Tobacco Use are taxation and the awareness campaign. A new policy to create restrictions on tobacco advertising or labeling, or even change the smoking age, would be nice.
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Adding to this, I think there are some nuances missing from the drug-policies:

  • Instead of straight up fully legalizing Marihuana, you could, for instance, allow it for medical use first
  • Just like alcohol and smoking, age restrictions may apply. If they do, and are set to quite high, young people probably shouldn’t care about the tax directly, but at the still present fact of them not having easy access.
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Hmmm interesting. I guess at the very least we could maybe have more slider options for the narcotics policy so you take more gradual steps, which likely models real life more accurately. I imagine its way easier to legalize cannabis if a government can say “whats the big deal, its been legal for medicinal use for years!” :smiley:

edit: added options to just have medicinal use, and age limits, and adjusted effects to compensate.

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There is also a huge difference between legalization and decriminalization. Take a look at the Portuguese model for instance.

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