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Should drugs be legalised?


Should drugs be legalised?  

193 members have voted

  1. 1. Should drugs be legalised?

    • Yes
      74
    • No
      86
    • Its not a yes/no question
      43
    • Undecided
      2


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would hope theres little or no support for condoning class A drug abuse

Err... well.... abuse, by its very definition, is not to be encouraged. However, the word 'abuse' is often used where 'use' should actually have been... er... used. That is to say, the word 'abuse' is itself often abused. :?

 

Suppose someone said: "I hope there's little or no support for condoning animal abuse." Of course there isn't. But this doesn't mean there is no support for animal use: food, labour, clothing, etc. By describing any and all use as 'abuse', the statement is loaded towards generating the answers you'd expect.

 

Someone taking a recreationally substance once in a while isn't necessarily 'abusing'; whether that's dope, ecstasy or alcohol. Now if they scale this up to partaking every day, or to excess, then yes, abuse is probably a good definition.

 

Abuse is not a static, value-neutral term which means the same thing to everyone in all situations. It is subjective, and it is general behaviour, not the specific drug, that is important when words like 'abuse' are employed.

 

Also: (*** Mod - Merged with existing, broadly (although not exactly) relevant, topic ***)

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Personally I think heroin is the real concern, although I'm not sure what can be done about it, given all the failed campaigns and initiatives by successive administrations. I think one of the problems is with the umbrella term 'drugs' and the whole Drugs are Bad rhetoric.

 

If kids are repeatedly told that all drugs are evil and that you'll end up like like Zammo from Grange Hill (showing my age there) when you have a drag on a joint, then it's not long before they realise that their being lied to.

 

Once that trust is gone then a natural curiosity can take over, possibly leading to harder stuff like heroin, all because the kid was lied to about the perils of 'softer' drugs.

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This topic (or problem, if you insist) doesn't go away, does it? Broadly, I'm with Fjool - there is use, and there is abuse, irrespective of which chemical you're talking about.

 

A French family will think nothing of having a few glasses of wine with every meal, including the kids: Use. There is no problem. A lot of Brits (not only Scots!) go out of an evening specifically to get tanked up, probably end up brawling: Abuse.

 

A fellow I've known for years still sees one of his old University mates every Christmas for a "Christmas Trip" (LSD): Use. One or two I knew years ago took so many hallucinogenics they ended up (in one case literally) wandering about talking to trees: Abuse.

 

I know one or two people who are registered H addicts, who feed their habit while still holding down jobs, or who just enjoy a bit of coke or E or whatever when they're out having a good time: Use. But as fleabee has said, there are also those who end up incapable of leading a normal life and thieving from other people, etc, to pay for too much of a habit: Abuse.

 

When I was young and felt immortal, I found that, if things started getting rough, I could always pull myself up and ask "hang on, who's in charge round here, me or the drug?" - and make darn sure it was me. If you can make sure it's you, then you don't cause problems for yourself or for society, but once you lose control, you, and society, are going to end up with a problem. And as long as drug use is something "special" and "forbidden" and not talked about in polite society, there are going to be the casualties who cause the problems.

 

Get it out in the open, make it something more like the French approach to alcohol use so that people grow up learning to keep themselves in control of their pleasures, and the problems, for the individual and for society, will meet their boojum, and "softly and silently vanish away".

 

BTW ... snow ... that's a heck of a good name for this thread ... :D

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Guest Anonymous
I know one or two people who are registered H addicts, who feed their habit while still holding down jobs,

 

As registered smack heads are they getting meth and councelling etc that the rest of us are paying for?

 

without meth how long would they be able to hold down a job?

 

Smack controls everybody that takes it, sooner or later they will totaly in its grip and no damn use to man nor beast.

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rona, no matter how you paint these folk, they have a problem, which means we have a problem, as with all medical conditions, they can be unique to the indevidual.

 

There are many folk who have huge expensive prescribed pill habits, one of the most abused is di-hydracodine, a painkiller. The doctor normally starts the script, the patient will continue it if unabated, that too is an opiate.

 

It is not so simple to cure these, folk have to want to stop, same as smoking, but hey, that kills hundreds and thousands everyday, and yup, we all have to pay for that treatment.

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Guest Anonymous

am sticking solid to my statement, ive had to put up wi workmates claiming their weekend "use" of substances is only a few hours n thats it , boldericks, its wednsday afore theres any normality out of them. Am no cairn how the chemical kids dress up thier excuses , it wee wees a lot o other folk off. Plus there seems to be an attitude of "anything goes" , great, see where it gets you.

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As registered smack heads are they getting meth and councelling etc that the rest of us are paying for?

 

without meth how long would they be able to hold down a job?

 

Nope, they pay for it, and no counselling necessary. So who cares "whether they'd be able to hold down a job"? (They're self-employed, actually.) It's under control.

 

And shetlandpeat, I have dihydrocodeine on prescription, because it's a darned effective painkiller - beats the pants off ibuprofen. I take it only when necessary, maybe a couple of times a week, and don't take enough to turn my brain into Blu-tack when I do. The rest of the time I stick to ibuprofen, which just about keeps me moving on less painful days. It's all under control, no problem for me, or you, whatever *some* people might do with it. As I say, use, not abuse.

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Bombing the "Poppy" fields would be a good start

I would think that if they kept desroying the areas where they grow the stuff that would go a long way into interupting the sources..

The Agent Orange approach?

Is there a reason why the powers that be cant destroy these places?

Some kind of chemical could be used that renders the area useless for yrs to come..

 

These folk are the scum of the earth and livng of the misery of thousands

I think we should just buy the crop. It would surely be cheaper than an endless war. After all, it's not the farmers who are making the big money here, it's the criminals trafficking the stuff. The farmers don't make much more than they would for any other cash crop (assuming you can find another cash crop that'll grow there). Just buy the entire crop for a few years and burn it.

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am sticking solid to my statement, ive had to put up wi workmates claiming their weekend "use" of substances is only a few hours n thats it , boldericks, its wednsday afore theres any normality out of them.

There are plenty of people whose weekend alcohol use badly affects their performance at work. Should we ban alcohol ?

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These crops are sometimes the same crops that go to pharmacutical companies. It would be pointless to destroy a usable crop that can bring down the cost of chemist supplied drugs.

 

It could be better for the UN to purchase. But there will always be a scam...

 

Saxon, sorry for insinuating that all pills provided are misused, there are a proportion, I took the codene line due to its opiate nature. I know there is a synthetic replacement, but it is dearer.

 

Tho, I do know of someone who fell foul by them, and a lack of management by their doctor did not help.

 

Many, from what I have seen, that fall into unscrupulous hands are sold or exchanged.

 

It is a dark and murky world, I have seen some examples.

 

But, working drug addicts tend to pay for scrips.

 

even love can make you feel good, and be fatal sometimes.

 

A bit of it is opinion, and general acceptance.

 

But alot is ignorance. A fear perhaps.

 

I hope all stays as good as it can for you Saxon

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, folk have to want to stop, same as smoking, but hey, that kills hundreds and thousands everyday, and yup, we all have to pay for that treatment.

 

Seen the price of fags these days? Most of it goes to the government (£10 billion plus a year). The amount your average smoker pays per week in excess tax would be enough for full, private cover. I agree that smoking related disease takes up much-needed NHS resources, and I'm certainly not encouraging smoking, but in a round about way the smokers more than pay for it.

 

With illegal drugs, however, all profit goes to the dealers and suppliers...

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