Should drugs be legalised?

[Guest Anonymous]

I find it quite interesting that recently a man of lerwick origin who was caught with a considerable quantity of heroin concealed within his body was let of with community service.

Now lets turn the clock back about 15 years or a bit less i canna exactly remember when a young man of lerwick origin was caught with a quantity of cannabis resin , it was more in wieght and less in value than the later heroin case and could not have been distributed to anywhere as near as many people and also if you consumed to much of it there was no danger of death regardless if you had drunk or taken any other substance.

15 years ago this lad with cannabis spent 18 months in jail ???

Can anyone explain what has happened to the justice system ??

I have an explanation i have arrived at ... , but ultimately the law is an ass and will never win with its current approach and sadly justice can never properly be dealt out with there current approach to prohibition and drug law.

[KOYAANISQATSI]

[Fjool]

On it's website, the government has recently responded to several ePetitions concerning the legalisation of cannabis:

 

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page13948.asp

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page13949.asp

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page13950.asp

 

They pretty much all say the same thing: "The Government has no intention of legalising cannabis."

 

Reading these official responses becomes a game of 'spot the fallacy'. The level of ignorance and deliberately misleading statements found in these statements is pretty shocking. Notice how they draw their support from a report from 2002 when, in actual fact, the most recent review (which does not support their position) comes from 2006.

 

It is increasingly apparent that the government are considerably more out of touch on this issue under Brown. This is not a government that properly understands the issue. More worrying, however, it is a government prepared to ignore strong medical, social, legal and economic evidence.

[Ghostrider]

^Stealing is less of a leap for users who are already marked as criminals.

Take away the drug laws and 'bingo' millions of instant law abiding citizens.

If you mark the whole crate as a bad batch, the real rotten one's have more space to hide.

 

There are plenty of laws I don't agree with but certain drugs do need to be illegal. Dope smokers much as I don't agree with it are generally harmless enough but my experience of smack heads makes me think allowing it to be legal is going to cause a whole load of other problems.

 

Do you realy believe that the fact it's illegal stops anyone from becoming a smack head? IMHO anyone likely to take that route isn't going to give a flying whatnot what is, or isn't illegal.

[JohanofNess]

 

Do you realy believe that the fact it's illegal stops anyone from becoming a smack head? IMHO anyone likely to take that route isn't going to give a flying whatnot what is, or isn't illegal.

 

Look at it from the other angle though, if it were pefectly legal do you not think more people would be doing it as the drugs would be more readily available, there would be no penalty for buying or being in posession of them and no consequences for taking them. Just because you don't see yourself being bothered about it being illegal doesn't mean some 17yo who's mate tries to get him to take it doesn't think twice.

 

Don't know about you but I can't say I know lots of junkies and a lot of that is to do with the consequences of what comes with it. Legalise it all and that will change.

[Ghostrider]

 

Do you realy believe that the fact it's illegal stops anyone from becoming a smack head? IMHO anyone likely to take that route isn't going to give a flying whatnot what is, or isn't illegal.

 

Look at it from the other angle though, if it were pefectly legal do you not think more people would be doing it as the drugs would be more readily available, there would be no penalty for buying or being in posession of them and no consequences for taking them. Just because you don't see yourself being bothered about it being illegal doesn't mean some 17yo who's mate tries to get him to take it doesn't think twice.

 

Don't know about you but I can't say I know lots of junkies and a lot of that is to do with the consequences of what comes with it. Legalise it all and that will change.

 

That's one side of the argument, but the flip side is that almost certainly some are pushed towards becoming involved simply because it is illegal. The "they say don't do it, so I have to do it" and "they say it's bad, so it must be good" philosophies.

 

One would hope, expect even, that legalisation would be accompanied by an attitude change which facilitated a far greater availability of comprehensive, accurate and unbiased information and knowledge of substances to be very freely available, whereby everyone could make an informed decision on whether to use or not, based on the positives and negatives of the actual substance itself, and not on misleading, over-hyped, sensationalist, agenda-driven mostly heresay as at present.

 

Surely having your 17 year old convinced not to accept when his mate asks him to try something, based on logical, reasoned, factual information of the substance itself, is a much better position to be in than relying on hoping that the very slim chance he is signing himself up for a trip to court, is going to be enough to twist his arm far enough behind his back to scare him off.

[JohanofNess]

Surely having your 17 year old convinced not to accept when his mate asks him to try something, based on logical, reasoned, factual information of the substance itself, is a much better position to be in than relying on hoping that the very slim chance he is signing himself up for a trip to court, is going to be enough to twist his arm far enough behind his back to scare him off.

 

Don't disagree with you, information is the key to truly saying no, but that doesn't mean it can't also be illegal to take the drugs. Part of the problem is the govt has made such a pigs ear about drug information in this country a lot of kids don't even know "talk to FRANK" adverts are about the dangers of drugs they think it's a funny advert about your mum being dragged off by a SWAT team.

 

If we can't convince 15 year olds they shouldn't be binge drinking because of the damage their liver and kidneys sustain we've got little hope of getting across the dangers hard drugs can do to your body.

 

At the same time it doesn't mean legalising it all is going to make a positive difference.

[Medziotojas]

At the same time it doesn't mean legalising it all is going to make a positive difference.

 

Legal or illegal, the same people are likely to experiment. Making them legal decreases the risk of overdosing. Users will know the exact quantity they are taking, and drugs will not be cut with other dangerous chemicals. Assuming they were legalised, drugs would need to be issued with safety sheets containing all the necessary facts about safe use and possible side effects.

 

One of the main causes of death from users overdosing is due to the fluctuating quality of drugs. When a "good" batch comes on the market users judge by their previous tolerance and one similar sized hit can prove fatal.

 

Of course there will never be a perfect solution, but removing the criminal element and making drugs safer to use and introducing a comprehensive educational package isn't a bad place to start.

[sheepshagger]

With current overpopulation in the world why should we be trying to save the lives of damn fools that dig holes in themselves with needles.

Darwin has shown that for a species to survive it has to be suvival of the fittest, by mollycodling weeklings like this surely we are doing the human race a disservice, let them do their thing an if it kills them thats one less useless mouth to feed and more resources for the rest.

In fact maybe we should be encouraging some to dig holes in themselves and speed the process up

[Njugle]

I presume that's a wind-up SS, or do you really believe that the weak should be allowed to perish?

[Medziotojas]

Deserves a thread of it's own, but do you think trows should be allowed tae flourish

 

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9877/trollzj5.gif

[Njugle]

Looks awfy like it Medzy, again. Trows are great, when they dunna pinch your chickens, keep themselves to themselves and pass on the occasional fiddle tune.

 

Otherwise:

 

Drugs in Shetland?

[JohanofNess]

He may have been fishing a bit there but he does raise a valid point.

 

I don't live on the isles anymore but what drugs programmes are there on Shetland to get users off the drugs?. More importantly how much money is being spent, cash from your pockets is going towards helping people who either don't want your help or can do very little to help themselves even when they get assistance.

 

It's all well and good saying people should be making an informed decision through proper eduction but I'm stunned when I hear people say that someone should be legally allowed to inject themselves with heroin or smoke a crack pipe. Why don't you just take all their cash off them and put a noose round their neck cutting out the years of misery they inflict upon themselves and all their loved ones.

[Fjool]

how much money is being spent, cash from your pockets is going towards helping people who either don't want your help or can do very little to help themselves even when they get assistance.

And how much money is being spent failing to prohibit and making these drugs more dangerous than they already are?

 

I'm stunned when I hear people say that someone should be legally allowed to inject themselves with heroin

The increase in popularity of injecting is a consequence of prohibition. It arises because the user doesn't want to waste their heroin by smoking it, which is inefficient. And, quite honestly, if someone wants to inject themselves with heroin, who am I to say that they cannot? We do not stop people from hang-gliding, or rally driving; but we do place restrictions on when, how and where they do these things to make them as safe as possible.

 

Why don't you just take all their cash off them and put a noose round their neck cutting out the years of misery they inflict upon themselves and all their loved ones.

It is perfectly possible to be safely addicted to heroin for decades, with no ill effects; either mental or physical. For the greater part, it is the impurity, sporadic supply and poor hygiene which causes the health problems. And these, as we have already established are a consequence of prohibition.

 

I would rather see every penny that we currently spend on prohibition, plus a bit more from the taxes raised, go towards proper health provision and honest education.

[grumpyoldman]

"It is perfectly possible to be safely addicted to heroin for decades, with no ill effects; either mental or physical."

 

Do you have a reliable source for such a claim?