Recreational drugs

[Sportsman]

Most recreational drugs have been illegal in the UK for many years. Tens of millions of pounds have been spent by the police and customs to enforce drug law. The result is there have never been so many drugs available on the street, there have never been so many people using drugs, drugs have never been so easy to acquire and so cheap. Doesn't seem to be working does it?

 

In another thread it was suggested that dealers in class a drugs should receive the death sentence. Now given that drug dealers are much more likely to be shot and killed by other drug dealers rather than receive a sentence of death from the courts then the idea doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent. you would have to ask yourself why dealers get involved in the business if it is so dangerous. The simple answer is profit, there is a massive amount of money to be made.

 

This leads to the other major problem associated with illegal drugs, that is the level of criminality associated with raising the money to buy them.

 

Lastly we have the threat to the health of drug users from sharing needles (HIV and AIDS as well as hepatitis) there is also a major problem with people injecting adulterated drugs with no idea of dosage or content.

 

The answer, at least the only answer which presently addresses all of these problems, would seem to be legalisation.

 

it is only with legalisation that there can be any measure of control. If the user can go to his local pharmacy and legally obtain, by prescription, a controlled amount of clinically pure drug then he would have no further need for drug dealers. The drug dealers would not be making any money so would look for something else to do. Without having to pay the drug dealers most of the criminality, burglaries muggings etc would cease. The police could use their resources for doing something more useful. Accident and emergency departments would not waste time caring for the thousands of accidental overdoses seen every weekend.

Let's have a grown-up discussion

Edited June 28, 2012 by Sportsman

[poledark]

A good idea....75% tax on top and everyone will be happy. But also make sure that drivers can be tested the same as for drink.

 

 

Den

Edited June 28, 2012 by poledark

[corydoras]

Why do you want to tax it so heavily Den, that just plays into the hand of organised crime.

 

Belgium has what I think is a fairly sensible approach to cannabis.

 

Smoking in public, forbidden.

Smoking in front of minors, forbidden.

Being in a public place with more than 3g, forbidden.

 

The only legal way of obtaining the drug is to grow your own.

[Steve Walker]

We just keep repeating the mistakes of prohibition era USA. Didn't work for alcohol, made crime worse.

[Ken L]

I was only ever a very occasional user of anything but have tried a fair few including smoking opium.

My only drug of choice now comes in bottles.

My brother and his friends were all much more heavily involved in the drug scene and would get stoned on just about anything available including in one instance, the stuff they use in chippies to keep the potatoes from oxidizing.

Between them, they have grown their own cannabis and opium and collected mushrooms - all in considerable quantities at one time or another.

My brother now has three kids and his only drug of choice also comes in bottles.

His circle of friends however have almost all had their lives destroyed or rendered non productive through drugs. They've either become apathetic, paranoid loners after years of smoking draw, destroyed their nervous systems with strychnine from huge doses of mushrooms or just gone plain crazy.

I certainly wouldn't advocate making drugs easier to obtain and condemn another generation to the same folly.

[Emma two]

II certainly wouldn't advocate making drugs easier to obtain and condemn another generation to the same folly.

 

 

You are advancing with a good heart and a concern for others and that has to be admirable. However weighing up the balance of pain and misery I would go with 'Sportsman'argument for legalisation. Those bad things you describe to users are awful it's true, and some users end up that way after traumas, peer pressure, bravado and sometimes even sheer stupidity, but at some point in their lives they had a choice, and the ability and right to choose is so rigorously upheld in our culture, well we can't have it both ways. Under the present system of restriction it is all too often those who have little or nothing to do with the drug scene who suffer. Users steal from us in lots of ways in order to fund their high priced habits. Guns and violence catch innocents literally in their crossfire. We send users to jail at a high cost to us because we criminalise them instead of treating them as sick.

 

The case for legalisation must be strengthened by the overwhelming evidence that shows the laws dont work and may serve to make the problem worse.

 

Personally..cannabis and peyote. (but not for years )

[Phone]

Sportsman,

 

The use of the words "Recreational" and "drugs" in that context shows how permissive we are toward illegal drugs.

 

As Steve W suggests, One thing I believe for sure, you can't legislate morality.

 

Phone

[Chris Goddard]

One aty for me and that is VERY easy. Give them a taste of there own medecine! A LARGE TASTE

Edited June 28, 2012 by Chris Goddard

[corydoras]

I was only ever a very occasional user of anything but have tried a fair few including smoking opium.

My only drug of choice now comes in bottles.

My brother and his friends were all much more heavily involved in the drug scene and would get stoned on just about anything available including in one instance, the stuff they use in chippies to keep the potatoes from oxidizing.

Between them, they have grown their own cannabis and opium and collected mushrooms - all in considerable quantities at one time or another.

My brother now has three kids and his only drug of choice also comes in bottles.

His circle of friends however have almost all had their lives destroyed or rendered non productive through drugs. They've either become apathetic, paranoid loners after years of smoking draw, destroyed their nervous systems with strychnine from huge doses of mushrooms or just gone plain crazy.

I certainly wouldn't advocate making drugs easier to obtain and condemn another generation to the same folly.

Two things wrong with this.

 

1) I know quite a few people who have smoked cannabis for years and they are not apathetic, paranoid or loners.

2) Strychnine is only found in the seeds of the Asian tree Strychnos nux-vomica. Whilst there are many toxins found in fungi, strychnine is not amongst them.

 

Many people end up with their lives destroyed by ethanol, your drug of choice but we do not make it a crime to manufacture, distribute, sell, possess or consume it.

 

Prohibition of alcohol was tried by the Americans in the early part of the 20th century and it did not stop people consuming alcohol, it just made a lot of rich criminals. The same thing is happening today with drugs. Prohibition is not stopping people from consuming drugs, but it is making a lot of money for organised crime gangs.

[corydoras]

Sportsman,

 

The use of the words "Recreational" and "drugs" in that context shows how permissive we are toward illegal drugs.

 

As Steve W suggests, One thing I believe for sure, you can't legislate morality.

 

Phone

Do you smoke tobacco or drink alcohol Phone? If so what makes your drugs "moral" and other drugs immoral. What is the source of these morals? I know that you live in the bible belt, but I have a sneaky suspicion that if you are a believer you are not one of those YEC fundamentalist types. Even Fred Phelps would be hard pressed to find a biblical source that condemned the taking of any drugs.