Tekhan wrote:
Thats not true, many people are victimes of drug crimes….just recently a meth head ran over 6 people in london rushing over to his dealer after a weekend off his tits…..
And also, the gangland thugs, yea they make money from drugs… but legalising drugs will not stop them committing crime… as you say they are into anything and everything that makes money… and they make plenty from all the other crimes you mention…its NOT that drugs fund people trafficking etc, but that people trafficking in itself is profitable…..they will not stop those crimes just cos drugs are legal…
I agree that when someone drives on drugs that is a crime. The crime is ‘driving under the influence’, a law that in my view is correct. The example you quote, while tragic, has little to do with the Controlled Substances Act. The stupid driver could just as easily have been drunk as is more often the case. The driver’s crime was to drive while high. Many users are somewhat more prudent (as are many drinkers) and should not be punished for smoking a joint with friends in the privacy of their own homes.
Drugs trade contributes massively to the capital used by organised crime. Drug trafficking and distribution allows the funding of many more crimes and directly leads to crimes such as murder within gangland.
I cannot recall making a case for legalisation. However, the ‘war on drugs’ is one of the most persistant failures of policy ever to be persued by any government.
Quite simply it does not work, at all, ever. Any user of any drug anywhere in the UK can get high whenever they want to. This has been the case ever since the ‘war on drugs’ began. The odd haul of heroin or coke does nothing to stem the tide. In fact drugs are now cheaper and more abundant in the UK than they have ever been in history.
The truth is people will behave like people, and people like to get high, fact. Using draconian measures like incarceration to prevent people from altering their mood through the use of any given substance is an infringement of their basic human rights.
If the illegal status of drugs is to protect people from themselves then surely this should extend to any activity that that could be harmful to health i.e smoking, rock climbing, drinking, motor sport. See the contradiction! Would you like to be told you cannot race your motorcyle because it may harm your health, and that if you do you may be imprisoned? That would be absurd. Just as absurd as someone telling you that you cannot take a leaf from natures garden, dry it and smoke for your personal enjoyment. The hypocracy stinks.
History is littered with examples of the outright failure of state prohibition and I can find no examples of success with prohibition, can you?
What is needed is through, honest, informed debate. There are a variety of methods for distribution of drugs that are already in place and have worked very well for many years. Regulation already works very well in the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries. A large portion of the profits from the regulated drugs industries go directly into the public purse. For the benefit of all. Not to gangsters.
There are many arguments against the ‘war on drugs’ and very few that are in favour. History and the current effectiveness of this phoney war makes this more than obvious.
The ‘war on drugs’ is an absolute failure, it always has been. Meanwhile many members of our society continue to be persecuted. To maintain the status quo is tragic, ignorant and a huge waste of public money.
Honesty, education and informed debate is what is badly needed not filling our overcrowded prisons.
Of course then there is the case for medical marijuana. Many older people in the UK and the world over find that marijuana is very effective in pain relief and the management of symtoms for many, many cronic complaints they suffer from. Some of these people find themselves in front of the magistrates and facing punishment for allieviating the pain they are suffering. This is not only absurd, yet again, but also an infringement of their basic human rights. A slightly different argument I know, but still that same law at fault.
Of course then their are the tragedies that occur because of the current laws and misinformation.
For example; heroin users all complain that methodone is more addictive and harder to kick than heroin. Of course the could cut out the middlemen (druglords) and have their heroin prescribed to them by their doctors. But not under current legisaltion.
For some heroin users death is the outcome because of wildly varying purity and toxic adulteration. Again avoidable if regulated rather than prohibited.
Then their was the sad case of Leah Betts who sadly died after taking an ecstacy pill. It was not the pill that killed her it was because she drank about 5 litres of water in a very short time. She did this because she had not been honestly educated about MDMA and was overly paranoid about dehydrating.
The list of tragedies due to Britain’s drug laws and this terrible ‘war on drugs’ just goes on and on.
Any sane individual that examined the current situation throughly would find it absolutely untennable and seek immediate change.
Right, enough already, I’m off to smoke a joint in my own home ( and will not be driving).
Peace y’all
