Originally posted by jimmyb270b]Ah good, a nicely reasoned and well thought out post!
Ah good, a nicely reasoned and well thought out post!
But seriously, I agree with the point about decriminalising personal amounts. Or at least making the penalties less severe and drastically reducing the police time and effort devoted to weedling out users.
I caught the beginning of an American show called 'Cops' the other day. They showed a drug ...[text shortened]... s a deterrent, people like money, and medical bills can, I understand, reach phenomonal levels.
you are on drugs.😛
are we just talking about dope here...? i mean why is the dope thing such a big issue when doctors are readily handing out highly addictive anti depressants to kids all the time (some of which the side effects have had such serious outcomes ie suicide), and lets not forget the pharmaceutical companies who are making millions out of it.
I'd trust the guy down the road selling weed before i'd trust the advice of my own GP.
Originally posted by shavixmirIn terms of the legal position, I broadly agree with you. However, my personal opinions on drugs are very different to those of many advocates of legalisation: I definitely do not intend to take drugs such as marijuana and cocaine, even if they become legal, because I've heard enough about the health problems to scare me off. Similarly I will refuse any offer of a cigarette, even if this is taken as antisocial (goodness knows why it would be, but still).
I was debating this issue yesterday during a break at work.
The same old Legalise it and Criminalise it arguments seemed to pass the review, so then I added my two cents worth.
Let me make a few assumptions here and let's see if we can find a general consensus on the issue?
A lot of the more conservative elements within society point to legalising ...[text shortened]... of doing so, but that is a different discussion for a later date.
What do you all think?
In the same way, I think if we could somehow magically reduce consumption of non-medical drugs, it would be a good thing. But we can't, and I think the current approach is wrong because a) it doesn't work, and b) you can't just ban everything which isn't good for people, it's far better to persuade them of this by education.
Drugs are bad. Drugs are very, very bad things. Drugs do nothing but hurt people and ruin lives. I emplore you, do the smart thing and stop doing drugs. You can dispose of all of your current drugs by sending them to me where they shall be smok....er....disposed of properly by myself and company.
The concensus seems to be that legalisation will bring drugs out of the hands of criminals and out of the shaddowy underground (friends basement) and into the hands of the authorities where it can be be monitored & taxed. Fine; any medical or social problems it causes in the population can be offset by the tax it's sale will gain.
Most people who die from 'recreational' drugs do so because they don't know what is in the drug they are taking because it's been made in someone's bath tub, or they don't know the strength, or they don't know how it's going to effect them so they act in a way that kills them (like chatting up my girl), or people around don't know how to act to help them. Legalise it and the drugs are pure, known concrntration, and the social 'acceptability' will mean people are eductaed as to the effects on themselves and others.
But I can't agree entirely. The British legal system is based on the premise that we are free to anything we chose as long as it is not detrimental to others. Vices (sex, drugs, gambling, fast food...) fail this test because they are addictive, and as such it is possible that we cease to 'chose' to do them rather we are forced to do them by our addiction. Vices are therefore regulated and it is maybe this level of regulation that needs to be readdressed. Take the 'legal' vices as an example - you can't buy cigarettes until you are 16, buy alcohol or gamble until you are 18, because these are vices that are concidered controlable for adults (yeah, right!). Although no one has mentioned it directly I'm sure that when you said to legalise 'drugs' you meant with some controls in place, so that children didn't have easy access?
When people talk about legalisation of 'drugs' they always seem to have canabis in mind. How about the other end of the spectra - would you like to see heroin freely available in your corner shop? If not then you're not talking about legalising 'drugs', you are talking about legalising some drugs. What about the drugs in the middle of the ground, like cocain or extasy? Cocain is very addictive and long term use is very bad for your health; should we allow easy access to get addicted? What restrictions should be in place? Nobody knows the long term health cost of extacy because it hasn't been around long enough; should new drugs go through the same clinical trials as medicinal drugs? How about the illegal market while these trial are going on? How about the illegal market in the drugs that fail?
This is by no means a perfect argument, but I'm tryng to show that it might not be as simple as people make out...
Jon
nb. someone mentioned antidepressants for kids - last year (Oct 03) they stopped the prescription of all currently available antidepressants to under 14's in the UK (except in cases of schizophrenia) because the effects were rarely beneficial and the side effects common.