Lovely New Britain

[gingerjedi]

What would you do with alcohol, that's a very dangerous drug, yet perfectly legal?

Leeds to psychotic episodes, violence, deteriation of vital organs, dependency. Quite nasty really.

I know this won't be popular but if need be the price must go up and the extra revenue should be used to educate people of the dangers, it’s been a long slog but it’s starting to work with smoking so why not alcohol?

It shouldn’t be like this and people should have freedom of choice but we as a society have created this mess and it may well take this sort of action to reverse it.

[The Lone Gunman]

What about the tax-payer funding of rehabilitation centres, asylums full of kids who become psychotic are smoking skunk etc Or is that a price worth paying so you can smoke a joint without harm to others?!?

There are no easy answers - personally i think cannabis should be re-criminalised.

It is best not to test the depths of ones ignorance using both feet. Nobody is proposing making drugs freely available. Licenced outlets and Government run clinics would be a start.
We are already spending way more than we would need for clinics on policing addicts criminal activities to fund their habits. We already pay for their rehab in prisons and emergency wards.

To whoever asked about success in other countries then I would point them to (I think) Sweden or one of the other scandinavian countries where addicts can go to clinics to get their fix. Almost overnight stopped drug related crime.

[richard-af]

Pray tell - why is it the 'only logical way'?

Should we 'logically' criminalise alcohol and apply the same rules?

yes. And televise it. Hmmm... who'd sponsor that, though, with the distilleries and brewers closed down?

[Old Greg]

I know this won't be popular but if need be the price must go up and the extra revenue should be used to educate people of the dangers, it’s been a long slog but it’s starting to work with smoking so why not alcohol?

It shouldn’t be like this and people should have freedom of choice but we as a society have created this mess and it may well take this sort of action to reverse it.

So why not legalise drugs (or some drugs like cannabis) and slap duty on them? You could do the same thing as you would like to with the more dangerous drug of alcohol.

[Pickle2]

Drug dealers and Peodo's are the scum of the earth.

you know a few then?

[richard-af]

The real problem with hard drugs, as Harry Hill so sagely said, is that they're just so moreish.

[Bagpuss]

No we're not. But deciding to roll over and play dead, at a national level, is inviting worse.

You make something people want illegal, and they will pay over the odds for it, thus creating a black market of scumbags. See the US under prohibition. If it were legal burglary would half overnight. Everyone would afford thier habit and anyone who'd need to steel for it would be consuming so much as to have an OD very quickly (hooray the world got lighter another moron got off).

So the downside is some idiots might die. The upside is;

a/ the scumbag gravy train would be over, at least in that 'industry'.
b/ all types of 'petty' theft down

[richard-af]

You make something people want illegal, and they will pay over the odds for it, thus creating a black market of scumbags. See the US under prohibition. If it were legal burglary would half overnight. Everyone would afford thier habit and anyone hwo'd need to steel for it would be consuming so much as to have an OD very quickly (hooray the world got lighter another moron got off).

So the downside is some idiots might die. The upside is;

a/ the scumbag gravy train would be over, at least in that 'industry'.
b/ all types of 'petty' theft down

I don't think it's so clear-cut with crime-related drug use. There's the whole lifestyle thing as well as the reason/s a person does the drugs. In Holland, they've had mobile drug dispensaries for ages; hasn't really worked - and it's this lifestyle thing that has been cited as the main reason.

[Old Greg]

You make something people want illegal, and they will pay over the odds for it, thus creating a black market of scumbags. See the US under prohibition. If it were legal burglary would half overnight. Everyone would afford thier habit and anyone who'd need to steel for it would be consuming so much as to have an OD very quickly (hooray the world got lighter another moron got off).

So the downside is some idiots might die. The upside is;

a/ the scumbag gravy train would be over, at least in that 'industry'.
b/ all types of 'petty' theft down

I disagree that deaths would increase through ODs. A regulated supply would mean that users would be certain of the strength they had which would decrease ODs. Another possibility is to regulate heroin in such a way that it is only available in smokeable (i.e. not injectable) form, which would decrease many of the health impacts (not the addiction, obviously) including OD deaths.

[gingerjedi]

So why not legalise drugs (or some drugs like cannabis) and slap duty on them? You could do the same thing as you would like to with the more dangerous drug of alcohol.

Um... read my first post on the subject of drugs I totaly agree!

I have an old school mate who grows weed in his loft for personal use, he works in a low paid job and can’t always afford to go out socialising so he sits in his flat and gets stoned once in a while, and he is a criminal?