Following on from ban smoking, ban everything etc. what would happen if we legalised drugs. not the rights and wrongs, pretty sure we've been over all that before but if you were going to do it how would you go about it? the documentary "Our drugs war" got me thinking on it. loads of people use them, they are readily available, by being illegal they fund criminal gangs, they cause us to lock up loads of people and in the end the law is not enforceable (the head of the scottish DEA said that a target of removing of 3% of drugs from the streets was impossible). you could take the cash and plow it into detox/education or you could just leave the junkies to kill themselves as they are at the moment and spend the tax revenue on the olympics or something. you could get the police to target crimes like theft/burglaries etc
It's a fair point. Despite being illegal, they are very easy to get hold of. The reason I don't get smacked out my tits on skag is not because it is illegal, but because I choose not to. People who want to do it, will do it regardless. Might as well regulate it and remove the criminal element, with the added bonus of better safety and a boost to the economy.
As much as I'd love it, the drugs thing really wouldn't work... This country can barely handle its booze, let alone allowing everyone to be drugged up all the time.
yeah, i dont buy that if you legalise it we'll all be smacked off our tits within 48hrs, i think that now its so widespread its very similar to the situation with prohibition. you'd also save a packet on policing, they could they target any drug crime (muggings/theft etc) or you could cut the no. of cops. i'd do an adult drug test lottery. if you test as clean (you pay for the test) you get a lottery ticket and every wk you can win the revenue made from taxing smack/ saved on policing
my main point is that the law does not work and cannot be made to work, so whats the point? also if any of us wanted to get smacked up i doubt the law would stop us.
I think the problem is not down to us recreational users who would benefit from the change, but down to the people would would then have a justification to take drugs, as they are legal. The amount of teenagers that would do drugs they couldn't access before would rise, and coke/heroin are very addictive (I'm friends with a few ex-junkies).
agree with original post ; the constant " war on drugs " is not only impossible to " win " (quite what winning would be I dont know) but I think it is also a bit of a bogey man , used to feed the general publics paranoia , along with fear of asylum seekers etc, etc , thus making managing us all that much easier. Its just a huge political/law enforcement / health industry that keeps on feeding on itself.
There are no teenagers where I am from that can't access drugs. I truly believe the legality of a drug bares little influence on whether someone chooses to take it or not. It would be a high risk strategy though, but I seem to remember the Portuguese went down this path. Be interesting to know how that worked out. Will never happen here though, you can't have an open and sensible debate about drug policy (or immigration) with out people accusing you of being extremist.
There are the normal drugs you can access growing up (weed/pills/K/speed/...) but good coke and smack are pretty tricky to find in my experience, but then I've never lived in Scotland
i know what you mean but you could spend the money you save on rehabilitation as well as further awareness (as drug education wouldnt be from a zero tolerance stand it'd also be more believable, if someone turned round and went "this is very bad for you but if you dont take it more than once every x days you should be alright" etc. the most important thing is that you wouldnt criminalise people who become addicted as once you've got a record you're chances of getting a job etc are much slimmer.
Trust me LR I hate the criminal record side of using drugs. We only have 1 life on this planet and if you work to pay for it you should be allowed to ruin your own body as much as you want. I would love the law to change in my lifetime, but it will only be done for financial reasons, not because we should have the right to choose... I don't think it would help this country that's all (apart from saving loads of money)
If drugs were legalised, how would that help the local crack addicts? Would they be able to just pop down to Tesco's for their BOGOF drugs bag? Wouldn't they still just spend EVERYTHING on drugs and so be too gone to work, and so would still have to resort to crime to fund their habit? Or would the tax payers of this country be hppy to cough up for these peoples daily dose. There was a shocking documentary donw nby a bloke from Liverpool some years back called Crackhouse about the lives of crack heads. Would we suddenly be rid of such people if the drugs were legal? Drugs ruin peoples lives because once they become addicted they have to somehow fund their habit. That's the most tangible downside of drugs to society as a whole. If we legalise drugs, what next? Can we see the day coming then, given the sexuialisation of kids, when the age of consent is lowered to 14, 12? It just seems to me that as a society we are giving up, throughing our hands up, shrugging oiur shoulders. Much like a lot of parents do when they're kids start acting up.
it'll never happen. i dont think i'm even brave enough to vote for it if it came up. i just think that it doesnt work and that maybe a radical change is needed, also, could the drug problem get much worse? still like i said, i'd rather we werent the first country to try it
Maybe we should just drop hydrogen bombs on the major drug producing nations eg Columbia, Afghanistan etc. Sure, we'd kill a lot of innocents but you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs can you?
I have been saying this for as long as I can remember. I don't take drugs, I have tried many but they are generally pish, if they were legalised and taxed just like alcohol and tobaco are just now the government would make a lot of extra revenue as well as cutting out a lot of crime. If you draw a parallel with the prohibition era in USA then you will see the amount of crime associated with the illegal alcohol trade, once alcohol was legalised most of this crime was reduced due to there no longer being a need for an illegal supply. Most people I know would rather go to a licensed shop than go to some scummy crack den or some other scum bags **** tip of a house to get their supplies.
Can anyone with a bit of time on their hands look into whether Portugal implemented this policy and if so, how it turned out. In terms of addiction rates and impact on society, not simply stating that they need a bailout. I'd do it myself but I'm off out for a bit.
