Today's newsletter: on progressives' inconsistent attitudes toward safer nicotine and the use of other drugs. Plus books, music, and cocktails. You know, the usual.
Nicotine: the drug too stigmatized even for Portland
More than any other substance, nicotine inverts the attitudes toward drug use that typically hold among the political left and right. Liberals and progressives in Oregon made the state one of the first to legalize recreational cannabis, the first to legalize psychedelic therapy, and the first to decriminalize possession of most other drugs. Yet when it comes to adults using nicotine, progressives go right back to endorsing prohibition.
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