Should drugs be legalised?

[turningright]

We should either:

a) legalise drugs, or

classify alcohol

because alcohol is basically drugs in liquid form, and does just as much harm to individuals and to society as drugs. If not more so.

IMHO.

 

simple as that? you are either an idealistic simpleton or you want drugs legalised for your own ends.

[MaxFusion]

^ he's right though....

In the current financial climate wouldn't it make more sense to tax the black market, which is essentially untaxable under the current regime, rather than hiking up taxes for everyone?

Instead they go untaxed and us poor tax payers that fork out for addicts (alchoholic or otherwise) are left to foot the bill of past govenmental cockups...

[shetlandpeat]

As soon as you start to tax a substance you open the floodgates. Then, drug dealers can be fined for tax evasion on various levels, drug dealing will then be a recognized job description, then the income would be taxed, you could cut dole payments but have no way of regulating it. As with home brews, growing your own drugs will be ok within the same realms as home brew consumption. Then if a drug dealer fails to sell his drugs then he/she could claim benefit. How many new quangos would be needed, how many new jobs required to monitor this.

I think to think that you can effectively tax drug dealing is a folly under the present laws. I have said before, this would require the whole judiciary system to be overhauled. Something none of us would ever be able to comprehend in a life time....

[ArabiaTerra]

^^^^ On the other hand, think how much money would be saved in law enforcement and by reducing the prison population. If drugs were legal then half the crime in Britain would vanish overnight.

 

Also, legalisation would allow the drug companies to take over the supply of drugs. This would mean pure product which could be taxed at source and which would cause much less harm to users saving money at the NHS. In addition, if recreational drugs were accepted in society, then there would be an incentive for drug companies to develop safer, less addictive drugs to replace those currently being cooked up in backstreet labs with no safety considerations at all.

 

Given that "the war on drugs" has cost billions and been an abject failure in it's stated aim of reducing drug use, isn't it time we tried something else?

 

The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

[shetlandpeat]

It would go to support the >40% cut in the Justice budget.

But, this country does this stuff ass about face.

 

The other argument is that folk who have mental difficulties will sink into the distance, some are treated because of petty drug crime. All that stuff will have to be put in place, we would need to spend the cash 1st, no other option, and you will get those small folk who think quite the opposite. Most of them however were indoctrinated to these thought by their parents ignorance in such matters because discussion was not allowed.

 

What sort of tax levels should there be?

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

There seems to be a refreshing wind of change beggining to blow with regard the prohibition of drugs.

Last night I watched 2 debates on U.K. news channels and I have just watched a 3rd tonight on R.T. Russia Today, a programme called cross talk.

The debate was squarely won by the persons calling for a radical change of direction in policy.

 

The war on drugs (stamping it out through prohibition & imprisonment) has been ongoing for 40+ years, cost trillions of dollars.

 

The latest reports estimate that it has been 95 - 98% inneffective in halting supply or use of currently illegal substances.

 

Since the American led invasion of Afghanistan 9 years ago opium production has increased by 33%

 

The only winners have been the criminals, businessmen and politicians involved in maintaining the blackmarket apparatus and the huge number of people employed in the drug enforcement agencies around the world.

I recommend watching the cross talk programme on news channel R.T.

to anybody interested, they will most probably repeat it a few times.

[ArabiaTerra]

The outgoing president of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, has called for drugs laws to be reviewed and the supply of illegal drugs regulated. Drugs charities tell Channel 4 News rehabilition must remain a top priority.

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

Just watched part 3 of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvtSEy57PvE&feature=channel

 

Our drugs war.

[DamnSaxon]

Now it appears that not only cannabis, but also magic mushrooms "appear safe" and "may improve mood among patients with advanced-stage cancer and anxiety". As far as I can recall (it was a very long time ago, yer honour) they can improve mood in people without cancer or anxiety, too ( ) - so long as you get your mushrooms right. (If you don't, then just ... so long ... )

[momo]

If you look at a drug addict & a serious alcoholic there is little difference between them. The vast majority of us though are perfectly capable of enjoying alcohol responsibly (well after the first few incidents of swirlin pits anyway). I like to think if drugs were legalised but treated in the same way as alcohol, i.e. same laws applied to them then the majority of people would use them responsibly. The government would gain income from tax on them to help those who, no matter their drug of choice be it alcohol or something else, who are bent on self destruction. I think it is a bit of wishful thinking on my part though and over simplifying the issue. One obvious problem would come from the influx of ‘drug’ tourists etc. And we think we have an immigration problem now? How much worse if we legalised all drugs? The serious high level drug dealers etc....are they just going to go away, settle down & get nice jobs? What will they deal in instead? Guns? Or should we all be trusted with them as well? After all it works so well for the Americans.....not. It’s something that is never going to change overnight, even legalising cannabis would take years of sorting out the legal and practical issues involved. The way the Government is going at the moment its heading in the opposite direction with a nanny state mentality towards drinking.

[Guest Anonymous]

The differance being that maybe 1 in a 1000 who drink regulary become alchy's but damn near everybody I know who dabbles with heroin are already junkies, and the rest are well on the way.

It costs them their job, they don't care and get another fix

It costs them their families, they don't care and get another fix

It costs them their liberty, they don't care and get another fix

It damn near costs them their lives, they don't care and get another fix until eventually it does kill them.

Those that dabble with coke, like alchohol it only seems to get a grip on a few but it does lead to paranoia in a lot of cases, even if its just "that bas***d had a bigger line than me".

Speed in the streangth it is available now is just as bad as smack its no longer the Danny 0.2% stuff that was on the go when we were younger.

Acid LSD mushrooms very entertaining but not something you want to do all the time.

Pot, hash, weed, mary jane, whatever you want to call it as far as I can see has no ill effects whatsoever, those folks that claim it turned their little johnny into a schizo are just unwilling to admit that little johnny was of his nut before he ever smoked his first joint.

So from my experiance which is quite extensive I would have to say you can not treat all drugs the same, pot acid and coke could very easily be legalised without society crumbling. but heroin should definately remain illegal and those caught selling it should be strapped to a gurney and injected with a massive dose of their own product. I would then hang their bodies from fort charlotte as a warning to others intent on selling that sharn up here.

And for any plod reading this you guys and your treatment of hash up here went a long way to making smack the drug of choice in Shetland.

 

p.s. not got a problem with guns just the idiots that use them on others without justification

[momo]

The differance being that maybe 1 in a 1000 who drink regulary become alchy's but damn near everybody I know who dabbles with heroin are already junkies, and the rest are well on the way.

It costs them their job, they don't care and get another fix

It costs them their families, they don't care and get another fix

It costs them their liberty, they don't care and get another fix

It damn near costs them their lives, they don't care and get another fix until eventually it does kill them.

Those that dabble with coke, like alchohol it only seems to get a grip on a few but it does lead to paranoia in a lot of cases, even if its just "that bas***d had a bigger line than me".

Speed in the streangth it is available now is just as bad as smack its no longer the Danny 0.2% stuff that was on the go when we were younger.

Acid LSD mushrooms very entertaining but not something you want to do all the time.

Pot, hash, weed, mary jane, whatever you want to call it as far as I can see has no ill effects whatsoever, those folks that claim it turned their little johnny into a schizo are just unwilling to admit that little johnny was of his nut before he ever smoked his first joint.

So from my experiance which is quite extensive I would have to say you can not treat all drugs the same, pot acid and coke could very easily be legalised without society crumbling. but heroin should definately remain illegal and those caught selling it should be strapped to a gurney and injected with a massive dose of their own product. I would then hang their bodies from fort charlotte as a warning to others intent on selling that sharn up here.

And for any plod reading this you guys and your treatment of hash up here went a long way to making smack the drug of choice in Shetland.

 

 

Have to agree, part of what I mean by its to complicated to ever happen is that all drugs are different. Personaly think you have to be nuts to even think of using heroin. All in all I think I will just stick to the vino thanks.

[shetlandpeat]

In previous posts I have commented on the use of heroin, I know of a few who use opiates without the auto becoming junkies. If the drug was made legal, to remove the stigma attached to it by folk who know not too much of what they speak then the problem could be addresses. But with the attitudes of some perhaps it would knock off a few of these folks earlier.

 

But, there are underlying reasons, there are many mental ilnesses that can lead to drug dependancy.

 

But, do you see the hospitals full of heroin addicts, no not on a friday or saturday, mainly the victims of habitual drinkers and binge drinkers. Out biggest concern is how to encourage folk to get off or stay away, there needs to be a substantial investigation and some one with the intelligence and balls to kick the media into touch and address the problems in a pragmatic way.

[Guest Anonymous]

But, do you see the hospitals full of heroin addicts, no not on a friday or saturday,

 

no just the morgues

 

you fool SP you can't persuade someone to come off heroin and if it was a mental ilness that drove them to taking drugs then how the f**k is making it legal going to help.

You do seem to spout a lot of wishy washy crap my friend

[Guest Anonymous]

clamp doon on drugs n druggies hard i say, cannibas to crack , aa the same , bring back the birch for the spineless deereesions (< spell chech)