Should drugs be legalised?

[Fjool]

^ This is exactly the kind of broken logic which perpetuates the problems we are experiencing.

 

I could clean these isles of most it's drug dealers in a matter of months

Go on then.

[Ghostrider]

If three police officers in the drug devision on £34K a year each can't eradicate drugs as a problem in Shetland.....ask ourselves why?.

 

The same insincerity and hypocrisy at the highest levels of government filtering down to Plod, that also filters down to warders and hinders the eradicating of the drugs problem in H.M. Prisons.

 

Round up a few mules and small time dealers now and then, they're easy meat and no-brainers to bust and put away, it makes for glitzy "we're doing something about it" headlines, the perfect PR and spin material to feed to the gullible as a vote winner. Let the lags get stoned, wasted, whatever, they're out of sight of the voting public so it doesn't matter any more what they do, and they're more docile and easier to control when they're out of it.

 

The scariest thing is there are so many naive/gullible/ignorant people out there who swallow the garbage hook, line and sinker....

[Styles]

I have tonnes of pals that take drungs none stop at the weekends and have a good time and are the most nice, pleasent people you could ever hope to meet. They all work full time jobs and a lot of them have families and none of them have a criminal conviction or any problems.

 

Why should they be demonised and criminialised for somthing that has no negative impact on them or their families.

 

If they were caught though the impact would be savage and totally disproportional, but thats only because its not legal and so stigmatized by the older generation.

 

We use drugs like aspirin and no one bats an eye lid. Asprin makes u feel better, other drugs do the same, whats the problem?

[Salmon]

"We use drugs like aspirin and no one bats an eye lid. Asprin makes u feel better, other drugs do the same, whats the problem?"

 

Oh dear, if you can't see a problem with the above statement ....we all have a problem.

[KOYAANISQATSI]

Drugs are a blight on these wee isles

 

Bet you use the same excuse when it's your round at the bar.

 

With your zealot fan outlook on Tescos, did it pass your notice the booze section is chock a block with lethal drugs. Would you clear out these dealers as well ?

[Muppet]

Excellent letter to the Shetland news here

 

http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/letters_08_2008/Dogs%20make%20drug%20problem%20worse.htm

 

I don't claim to have much insider knowledge of the drugs scene in Shetland, but as a Parent, i've given it an awful lot of thought. It's fairly obvious to me that what's being done to prevent harm from drugs just isn't working. When I was growing up in Shetland, drugs simply were not an issue. This puts me at a disadvantage now though, because I really dont know what I might be dealing with. I do keep my ear to the ground though, and like to think I'm in touch.

 

I know this might not be a pleasant thought for some, but i'd ask anyone concerned about drug use in Shetland to do a bit of soul searching and ask themselves if we're really doing more good than harm by funding these dogs.

 

How many children do we have to lose before we sit up and wonder if we could do things better?

[KOYAANISQATSI]

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/julian-critchley-all-the-experts-admit-that-we-should-legalise-drugs-894367.html

 

Julian Critchley

"All the experts admit that we should legalise drugs"

 

I left my civil service job as director of the UK Anti-Drug Co-Ordination Unit. I went partly because I was sick of having to implement policies that I knew, and my political masters knew, were unsupported by evidence.

Ultimately, people will make choices which harm themselves, whether they involve diet, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, sexual activity or pursuit of extreme sports. In all these instances, the Government rightly takes the line that if these activities are to be pursued, society will ensure that those who pursue them have access to accurate information about the risks; can access assistance to change their harmful habits should they so wish; are protected by a legal standards regime; are taxed accordingly; and crucially, do not harm other people. Only in the field of drugs does the Government take a different line.

 

The reality is that for millennia societies and cultures throughout the world have used mind and mood altering drugs.

There is, always has been, and always will be an insatiable appetite for drugs, illegal or otherwise, in the world as long as mankind exists.

This appetite gives rise to a market like any other.

Prohibition of drugs does not destroy this market, it merely pushes it underground, where it cannot be controlled by legitimate authorities. Instead it is controlled violently by criminals who enjoy incomparable profit margins for an unregulated, untested product.

If there is in fact a "war on drugs" it was lost a long time ago and along the way its worst casualties were our family members, friends, and the most indigent in our societies.

I wish to commend Mr. Critchley for an excellent article. A policy of regulation, taxation and harm reduction is the way forward

[khitajrah]

Excellent letter to the Shetland news here

 

http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/letters_08_2008/Dogs%20make%20drug%20problem%20worse.htm

 

 

Sorry, I don't quite understand how this is an excellent letter at all. "Let us have our cannabis so we aren't forced to go on harder drugs?". No, I don't think so. It would appear[from my personal experience] that the people very keen on having drugs legal are the ones partaking in them themselves. And the notion that you can live a normal life and carry on without damaging anyone is utterly ridiculous and not based on reality, perhaps a side effect of the drug use itself? How is sitting there rolling and smoking a spliff in front of your kids not damaging anyone? What kind of role model does that make you? I've seen cannabis induced aggression destroy marriages, induce schizophrenia and cause countless other problems... the priority cannabis takes over paying the household bills, never mind the anxiety wives have to deal with waiting for their husbands stashes to arrive through the post - is it going to be the postie or the police? I doubt any of these incidents made any "statistics".

 

Now, this is illegal drugs - I'm not talking life-saving pharmaceuticals and before anyone starts taking the moral high ground I don't smoke or drink (and having walked down the alcohol aisle in Tesco's once I find it quite claustrophobic and frightening!). I rarely even take a painkiller. However, before I get deemed one of those horrible straight laced folk - I have indulged in all three in my younger, considerably ignorant days but I moved on - obviously I don't have the same addictive personality as some.

 

Why do you need your drugs? Adolescent curosity I understand, but come on, grow up! What on earth could drugs possibly do for you that you can not source elsewhere from less damaging sources? Drugs are not damaging, you say? Oh, worry about alcohol and tobacco instead - they're more damaging - that's about as logical as saying don't bother trying to get knives off the streets because guns are more dangerous, you just go over there and try and sort out those guns and leave us to play with our knives in the meantime.

 

/ducks in anticipation of backlash.

[Evil Inky]

How is sitting there rolling and smoking a spliff in front of your kids not damaging anyone? What kind of role model does that make you?

I wouldn't advocate having sex in front of my children ( or anyone else's ! ), but I don't believe because of that we should ban it.

[khitajrah]

 

 

How many children do we have to lose before we sit up and wonder if we could do things better?

 

We, as parents, CAN do things better. It's not the government's fault that these kids are on drugs, it's the kids themselves because they don't know better. If we teach our kids properly, taking the responsibility ourselves instead of blaming someone else (as folk seem to do with everything else) then the problem should disappear. There are, gasp, shock, actually kids out there NOT on drugs - how come?

[Fjool]

Part of the problem is that simply pointing at a thing and saying 'No!' is not an effective tool for parents. The social support is not in place; the subject is shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Society holds a horribly counter-productive attitude towards this subject.

 

The current policies fail enormously at reducing the number of people using drugs, and the severity of the problems encountered when they do. It is a lose-lose policy.

 

The aim should not be to completely deregulate the drugs industry but, instead, to bring these substances properly under control. The current policies leave control entirely to the criminal element, with the police working a dangerous and difficult job to stay ahead.

 

It would appear that the people very keen on having drugs legal are the ones partaking in them themselves.

This is a feeble and insulting argument. If you read the articles provided above, you will see that many police, social workers, health professionals, parents and teachers understand the scope of this problem. In fact many of people who 'get it' are those directly involved at the front line. Instead of listening to these people, however, the current policy is promoted by those who have very little information or understanding of the issue. The government are ignoring a huge wealth of social, economic, medical and scientific data in order to maintain the status quo.

 

I could just as easily dismiss your comments here by saying that anyone who disagrees obviously reads nothing but the Daily Mail. Is that a fair way to debate?

[khitajrah]

How could these substances be properly controlled? Sit a packet of joints next to the packet of fags on the shop shelf? 18 and over.

 

We know, as parents, that merely saying "No!" is ineffective. Kids need to be taught, properly, the consequences of going down that road. How, I don't know.. but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

[Fjool]

How could these substances be properly controlled? Sit a packet of joints next to the packet of fags on the shop shelf? 18 and over.

At least the newsagent would be checking for proof of age. I'm reasonably sure that not many drug dealers bother with this.

[khitajrah]

 

It would appear that the people very keen on having drugs legal are the ones partaking in them themselves.

This is a feeble and insulting argument. If you read the articles provided above, you will see that many police, social workers, health professionals, parents and teachers understand the scope of this problem. In fact many of people who 'get it' are those directly involved at the front line. Instead of listening to these people, however, the current policy is promoted by those who have very little information or understanding of the issue. The government are ignoring a huge wealth of social, economic, medical and scientific data in order to maintain the status quo.

 

I could just as easily dismiss your comments here by saying that anyone who disagrees obviously reads nothing but the Daily Mail. Is that a fair way to debate?

 

Fair point. I'll edit it..... to include [from my personal experience].

[Styumpie]

I dont think there is much point in debating this any more, the law absolutely is not going to change under any modern UK government, it will never change ever, that is a hard fact (unless we go independent so we can decide). People in the isles will continue to take drugs as long as it's available and affordable. The police will continue their failing efforts to try and stop drugs, but life will go on as it does now if the availability/price remains. If it becomes even more affordable, and more available we will see more people taking hard drugs etc and the reverse if it becomes more expensive/ less available.

 

Nothing we say or do will make any difference. 10 years time the "problem" will still be here as it is now, the severity depending on supply and price which is out-with our control.

 

Taking drugs is part of humanity, has been for thousands of years, its not going to change any time soon.