Should drugs be legalised?

[shetlandpeat]

Opiates are legal, they are controlled.

[shetlandpeat]

of course it shouldn't be legalised

What is 'it', specifically?

 

illegal drugs.

 

You said it, now you are talking plural.

[OP8S]

jesus h i like a drink so why are you not paying for it op8s. I want to sit a drink all day so give me alchohol and money to keep me topped off whenever i want it. Or maybe i should put the needs of my family before my own like any right thinking parent would and stop pleepsin about how everyone else needs to fund my adiction.

" jesus h " to coin a phrase So you aspire to alcoholism do you ? Very unhealthy for you & very costly not just to you but to society also. Quite an assumption you're making about me. I certainly don't have the time to sit around drinking tea let alone booze all day, I'm far to busy working only to see the taxman run off with a large portion of my earnings.

Also I wasn't pleepsing about anything that effects me, I don't recieve my medication from the NHS. I do believe that those that do have to rely on the NHS for any addiction from cigarettes to crack should be given the same treatment nationwide.

SP is correct opiates are legal, but controlled & quite rightly so. This Government is going backwards in it's policies ignoring the successful research based evidence that is now being used by our European cousins.

Why ? Because of mass-hysteria produced by the media & the divisions they cause in society, not to mention the greed of the new "charitable " DSPs.

Keep up the opinions , unresearched as they may be.

[OP8S]

Terribly sorry if I've killed what should be a very important thread by not being the stereo-type drug user. There are thousands of people , possibly working alongside you who may be taking opiates legal, or illicit. We only hear the negative stories though, because of the stigma attached. I'm the first to critisize anybody who finances their habits using illeagal methods, but then they wouldn't have to if their substance of choice was legally available to them. With strict regulation & distribution of course, possibly even higher prescription charges which could be removed from benefits if they were not in employment.

My employers know that I am prescribed methadone, but none of my colleagues do & none obviously notice as I often listen to hysterical stories of " druggies ". I often feel like telling them, but due to stigma that surrounds drug use & the rubbish that you read in the media I refrain.

We as a country need to revise the 1971 Act, prohabition has increased about 1000 approx registered addicts ( mostly middle class, a lot of health workers, GPs etc ) to at least 100,000 people in treatment now & about 350,000 users who may or may not be in treatment. Check the figures out, it's true. That's a huge increase in 40years. The Gov. need to address the situation a.s.a.p !

If substances were available in a controlled form by the Gov. we would see a collapse in the illicit market due to people getting their substance of choice in a controlled way & the police could start investigating the real criminals that are now in control. Selling contaminated substances, which people still use, from cannabis to heroin & everything else in between.

The benefit to the country would be noticeable I'm sure.

[Dratsy]

sarcasm is wasted on you 0p8s must be all then sharn you are taking clouding your mind.

The fact is meth is subsidised by the gov whether you like it or not, but why not try a little willpower and give it up completely and provide a good example to your kids. why show them that it is OK to be addicted to a substance when all it would take is a bit of grit and determination to get yourself clean.

What will happen to you if for some reason your supply of meth dries up. what use will you be to your family then, if you are unable to function due to withdrawal.

I find your point of view very short sighted and I guess your family would too if your supply runs out.

toughen up for your families sake at least.

[shetlandpeat]

So, if he gives up and goes without that is fine. If the prescription suddenly

Dries up, he will be no good to anyone. So why give up? Surely if he stops himself he

Will be in the same senario and therefore .........

 

Perhaps the theory could be applied to drinkind as it desroys many more

Lives and families.

 

There is no easy fix, especially advice from

Anyone who may not have a great deal of experienc

In this topic bar just knowing one or two folk

Who generally are shunned until it is too late.

 

There are also other factors and those who have

Followed this topic and similar ones will already

Know the depths addiction can get into folk and families.

[unlinkedstudent]

I want me ciggies subsidised then by the Government. Oh, and not forgetting my dreadful caffeine addiction.

 

Whilst we're at it, abolish VAT on tampons.

 

OP, you are making the assumption that myself and others have a vision as to what a stereotype junkie is - I wasn't aware you possessed such clarity with your psychic abilities. What I do, however, believe, is that you could give up if you really wanted to but you give the impression that you are happy for tax payers to be screwed by supporting addicts who appear to have no intention whatsoever to give up, even though myself and others appreciate that it would never be an easy option.

[OP8S]

Sorry if you read the post you'll see that I don't recieve my medication from the NHS. I attend a private clinic, I thought I'd made that clear. Obviously my " drug-addled " brain got that wrong.

I don't drink so the fee's I might pay amount to no more than somebody who has a couple of pints after work, or smoke 20 ciggies a day. I work full time in a good job, pay my taxes like a good boy, the kids do without nothing that kids should have. I'm the first one to admit there are hundreds of thousands of problematic drug users out there, all I'm saying is that treatment is what they need & if they're not working then they should still recieve it.

This can only happen if the Government take control of substances rather than let the criminal underground " run the show ".

@Dratsy sarcasm is far from wasted from me , try looking up the pharmacology of methadone & see how it generally effects users. It's been proved to have no negative effect on cognitive abilities.

The reason I don't pull my socks up & be a man is because I like far prefer to stimulate the opioid receptors rather than any other, I believe in a Panorama programme not so long ago scientists proved that a night on the booze stimulated every receptor from valium, cocaine & finally barbituates if I remember correctly. Personally I don't fancy that much....call me fussy, call me what you want, but check out your facts first.

[shetlandpeat]

If you were to give up smoking, you would be applauded. Something you could be openly proud of. I don't think the same could be said for opiates.

 

As we know, smoking kills far more folk and ruins the lives of others than taking a controlled prescribed opiate substitute, even opiates as my links to the studies in the USA on folk with an addiction and how little they attend hospital.

 

One minute folk are screaming that "druggies" are ruining the area, when a solution is offered (in more than one way ) that is still scorned. All folks seem to gripe about then is money. You could say that your smoking habit bolsters up the countries coffers (that was an intended pun ) which not only you benefit from but everyone.

 

Say that each person who is addicted commits 20 crimes a day to fund their habit, the cost to all of us is quite high. Now, if you spend 20 pounds a week providing folk with an alternative (not a realistic figure, just a figure) you could be saving the community say 100 pounds a day. Once you can control that, and let folk find a way out without getting bricks thrown at them metaphorically speaking you can then move to reducing their needs.

 

There are folk who may never be able to completely stop. Or want to stop, similar to nicotine (don't start the legalities row, it is not about that at the moment) then there should not be a problem. At the end, the smoker will suffer or could suffer far more serious medical conditions that could out strip any tax that may have been paid, even more quickly when you see the sale of imported tobacco and products which of course do little for the countries bank balance.

 

Sadly, there will always be the little more personal digs within these forums when it comes to these topics.

 

The problem could be one of a lack of true understanding, addition is addiction, so anyone who cannot go the day with out smoking or 10ml of meth a day are in the same boat. Legal or not, the consensus seems to be if you are addicted to a chemical stimulant you are week, unless it is taxed. Then other folks misery who deal with this is justified because it is taxed.

 

As ever, there is not a request to make an open supply as indicated in previous posts.

 

As making cannabis legally available, the laws would have to be on levels, similar to drink. There would need to be a high tax on this too as it can cause more problems than smoking tobacco alone, go Google it, the answers are there.

That may be the reason there is a strong lobby not for legislation, it would make it too expensive for them.

[OP8S]

A lot of the answers are already out there. Countries like Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands all prescribe substitute medication for those that need it. There is loads of evidence based material available over the net which shows as our treatment system is failing theirs' is having far better results. With less intake & more people leaving the system.

There's a lot of differences between drug treatment in these countries, we're so obviously getting it wrong in the UK.

Prohabition just causes an unstable market controlled by criminals.

Regulation & distribution by medically trained professionals stabalizes people.

[ArabiaTerra]

I would just like to say, before anyone screams about the risks of decriminalization, please, please do some research on places like Portugal and Switzerland, where it has been tried.

 

Everywhere, where the drug prohibition has been relaxed has seen an improvement in the situation, Everywhere. Bare that in mind when you condemn those who advocate for a relaxation of our current position.

[Guest Anonymous]

@ArabiaTerra

You are spot on! It just seems there are so many people not willing to accept this.

With the current situation in Shetland, at least it keeps all the girls who work for the laughable drug service up here (CADSS) in a job, who have gotten away with bullying other employees of the service (who have proper qualifications and experience in the field) for years.

If folks in Shetland actually knew what was going on with CADSS there would be complete outrage in the islands. Its just a big 'Jobs for the girls' scam, and has been for years.

[OP8S]

I would imagine that's because of the Gov. Recovery strategy ( which includes alcohol mis-use ). Since privately run "charitable " organisations have been introduced rather than just seeing your GP. Dependants are reffered to these organisations who now get their " payments by result ". It's been coming to a head down in England recentley. There is a Gov. strategy available on the net if anybody cares to look for themselves. As usual the bottom line is the DSPs employees wages & the highest payout to the DSP is if the person who enters the service , leaves it substance free as soon as possible. If they don't return in a year then that's the big cash pay-out to the DSP.

The problem is addictions of all sorts & the issues that surround them do tend to take longer than a year for any real benefit to be made. Just yesterday I acted as an advocate for somebody who had entered the service & by no fault of their own was told that their treatment was finishing in 5 weeks.

Anybody with any knowledge of substitute medication knows that 5 weeks is hardly enough time to achieve the right dose, let alone stabilise & bring some normality back to the users life. It was all down to bully-boy tactics by their key-worker ( who don't have any medical experience, sometimes I wonder what qualifications some have ? ).

It's sad that this type of treatment has reached shetland if the previous posts are right.

The people at CADDS deserve a wage surely, but not if this is the only method they can achieve it then they shouldn't be there, if they're ambitious enough to be bullying other medically trained staff then they will stop at nothing pestering the user into thinking that they should start reducing if the user doesn't want to, simply to get their hands on the cash being paid out by the Gov.

Everyday now on differents sites another member joins because they are being treated unfairly, if you happen to be with CRI then should you miss an appointment through no fault of your own then treatment is stopped immeadiately, meaning a return to the black market. Every user in treatment saves the country £3 each, the UK needs to look at the systems used in other countries that have a far better success rate in treatment.

At the moment there's money to be made out of those junkies, by shoddily run DSPs who care more about their wages than they do about the servive user.

[Shetland_boys]

Got asked if i wanted some gear outside tescos on sunday, Tescos really do sell everything! Maybe drugs should be legal atleast the money wont be going into some dirty dealers pocket.

[shetlandpeat]

According to newspapers you will pay less for them there than in a poor area as Tesco have been found to have charged far more in certain areas...

 

Don't be a dope just say nope