Is comparing social media to a dangerous drug over the top? Not according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, which in 2023 released an advisory titled “Social Media and Youth Mental Health” (download it now before RFK Jr. suppresses it!), which summarized extensive evidence of mental health damage to children and adolescents who consume excessive amounts of social media.

Okay, that comparison's still wayyyy over-the-top.

I read the first paragraph of this article and I already think it sucks. If heroin was fully legalized, zero restrictions, we’d be much better off than the current situation we have right now with the war on drugs, fentanyl analogs, and xylazine. Full stop.

Second paragraph:

Heroin distribution and sales would quickly become a huge, multibillion-dollar industry. They would become a significant part of GDP, even though heroin harms and often kills those who consume it. Given the increasingly naked corruption of U.S. politics, the heroin industry would be able to purchase massive political influence, enough to block any attempts to limit the harm it does — the harm it knows it does, because heroin industry executives would surely be aware of the damage their products inflict.

This is already happening. Who is this author and why is he so ignorant of the past few decades of opiate problems in the US? There is not a significant fundamental difference between heroin and any other opiate/opioid. I say this as someone who has experimented with many types of them.

Based on this I’m not gonna read the rest of the article because he’s already demonstrated a head-up-ass perspective.

Krugman is a worthless hack. Sensational headline with implicit endorsement of prohibition is a prime example.

Edit about the "nobel": Everybody who's talking about this "nobel prize". There is no nobel prize in econ. It's a phony award made up by bankers. That's how pathetic the pseudo-science of economics is. They need to make up their own fake awards for relevancy. So please don't tout the phony awards of this pseudo-scientists. I could make up an award for flat earthers but that wouldn't legitimize flat earthism.

(And even if there were a nobel for econ... Who cares about awards if the underlying "science" is still trash?)

So it would be OK to hit the suppliers with bombs like the US does in South America?

I'm not sure heroine is the right sample, I know digital products cause addiction like heroine, maybe cocaine would be more realistic when talking about possible increase in GDP, with all that heroin around the US population would be wiped out in a couple of gen

Damn Paul, from downtown!

As well as just your average narco state. We love our drugs

Seems like the Opium Wars all over again.