Film, Media & TV3 mins ago
Decriminalise All Drugs?
112 Answers
the Scottish government wants personal possession and use of all drugs (including class A) to be treated as a healthcare issue rather than a criminal one
https:/
notwithstanding recent number decreases, Scotland still has the highest number of recorded drug deaths in all Europe
Drug laws are reserved to Westminster, but Scotland can legislate on healthcare issues.
Is this the right approach? or will it cause more problems than it solves?
https:/
notwithstanding recent number decreases, Scotland still has the highest number of recorded drug deaths in all Europe
Drug laws are reserved to Westminster, but Scotland can legislate on healthcare issues.
Is this the right approach? or will it cause more problems than it solves?
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Will our discrimination lawyers be rubbing their grubby hands at this proposed legislation. It wasn't that many years ago that the Royal Navy discontinued the daily rum ration carefully measured according to rating and age. The reason being that they didn't think rum was compatible with the sophisticated new bush button technology that could endanger a ship or boat
What if a matelot claims it is his legal right now to snort his drug of preference, or a Eurofighter pilot jumping in the seat to soar high as a kite. What if Tessie Typist turns up for work stoned, because she can, and has her position terminated.?
Who picks up the comatose bodies in the town square and where do you put those on the new Zombie drug 'Tranq'. Any suggestions?
What if a matelot claims it is his legal right now to snort his drug of preference, or a Eurofighter pilot jumping in the seat to soar high as a kite. What if Tessie Typist turns up for work stoned, because she can, and has her position terminated.?
Who picks up the comatose bodies in the town square and where do you put those on the new Zombie drug 'Tranq'. Any suggestions?
Zacs - // Yep I deffo have and I think Naomi has. How anyone can conclude that making drugs more prevalent in society would lower the number of people attending A&E is completely illogical. //
The notion that 'making drugs more prevalent in society' is automatically going to lead to a catastrophic rise in drug use is a flawed assumption in my view.
If the government added a proper education programme about the effects of all drugs - tobacco and alcohol included - it could start to steer people away from the mystique of drug use, which would certainly lose its mystique if it was suddenly not 'dangerous' any more.
The A & E numbers are caused because of the effects of illegal drugs - they are cut with any number of poisons, the strengths are variable, leading to overdosing.
If the government produced drugs under licence, then every drug would be pure and measured, and the overdose issue would dramatically reduce.
You can't eliminate overdoses, any more than you can eliminate drink-driving, a section of humanity are simply too stupid to live with the rest of us.
But that is how the world is.
We don't have perfect solutions, and contrary to the view of one poster, I do not live in a fantasy world where everything is wonderful.
We as a country, live with a health service that is vastly overstretched by the abuse of drugs - ironically, abuse of legal drugs is by far the main issue, but that can only be solved by education, and that will take several generations to filter through.
As it stands, we are spending billions of pounds on a 'war on drugs' that has, and is, utterly failing to come close to its objective, because its approach is entirely backwards.
If you remove the criminal elements caused by addicts robbing, and you make drugs safely available, at a cost, you will move society towards a situation where it can oversee and regulate something which has the potential to harm its population.
We manage to do it with cars, guns, and to a far lesser extent alcohol, but the systems prove that some control is better than no control.
As for the idea that everyone will suddenly rush off to experiment with drugs because they are available, I believe that to be a nonsense.
The vast majority of the population are simply not interested in drugs at all, and would not magically become so simply because they are available in the high street.
We would simply control and regulate currently illegal drugs in the way we do with legal drugs - alcohol and tobacco, and that allows people who wish to use them the freedom to do so safely, and earns an amount of revenue for the government.
Not a huge amount, because the number of illegal drug users is microscopic compared to the users, and their attendant problems and drains on the health service, of legal drug users.
We have drugs, they are here, they are not going away.
We have two choices, we can behave like sensible people, and assert some control over the situation, or we can carry on with our heads in the sand and pretend that the 'war on drugs' is actually going to be won.
I have argued my view for which of the options I would take, but I stress that this is hypothetical, I do not expect to see it in my lifetime, but change for the better comes eventually for most things, and it will here too.
The notion that 'making drugs more prevalent in society' is automatically going to lead to a catastrophic rise in drug use is a flawed assumption in my view.
If the government added a proper education programme about the effects of all drugs - tobacco and alcohol included - it could start to steer people away from the mystique of drug use, which would certainly lose its mystique if it was suddenly not 'dangerous' any more.
The A & E numbers are caused because of the effects of illegal drugs - they are cut with any number of poisons, the strengths are variable, leading to overdosing.
If the government produced drugs under licence, then every drug would be pure and measured, and the overdose issue would dramatically reduce.
You can't eliminate overdoses, any more than you can eliminate drink-driving, a section of humanity are simply too stupid to live with the rest of us.
But that is how the world is.
We don't have perfect solutions, and contrary to the view of one poster, I do not live in a fantasy world where everything is wonderful.
We as a country, live with a health service that is vastly overstretched by the abuse of drugs - ironically, abuse of legal drugs is by far the main issue, but that can only be solved by education, and that will take several generations to filter through.
As it stands, we are spending billions of pounds on a 'war on drugs' that has, and is, utterly failing to come close to its objective, because its approach is entirely backwards.
If you remove the criminal elements caused by addicts robbing, and you make drugs safely available, at a cost, you will move society towards a situation where it can oversee and regulate something which has the potential to harm its population.
We manage to do it with cars, guns, and to a far lesser extent alcohol, but the systems prove that some control is better than no control.
As for the idea that everyone will suddenly rush off to experiment with drugs because they are available, I believe that to be a nonsense.
The vast majority of the population are simply not interested in drugs at all, and would not magically become so simply because they are available in the high street.
We would simply control and regulate currently illegal drugs in the way we do with legal drugs - alcohol and tobacco, and that allows people who wish to use them the freedom to do so safely, and earns an amount of revenue for the government.
Not a huge amount, because the number of illegal drug users is microscopic compared to the users, and their attendant problems and drains on the health service, of legal drug users.
We have drugs, they are here, they are not going away.
We have two choices, we can behave like sensible people, and assert some control over the situation, or we can carry on with our heads in the sand and pretend that the 'war on drugs' is actually going to be won.
I have argued my view for which of the options I would take, but I stress that this is hypothetical, I do not expect to see it in my lifetime, but change for the better comes eventually for most things, and it will here too.
Look at the pictures of those who have taken a legal drug in Wrexham.
Probably since made illegal.
If an addict is now able to legally access as much drugs as he/she likes and is so incapacitated that they are unable to work how do they finance their habit to purchase more drugs?
https:/
Probably since made illegal.
If an addict is now able to legally access as much drugs as he/she likes and is so incapacitated that they are unable to work how do they finance their habit to purchase more drugs?
https:/
retrocop - // What if a matelot claims it is his legal right now to snort his drug of preference, or a Eurofighter pilot jumping in the seat to soar high as a kite. What if Tessie Typist turns up for work stoned, because she can, and has her position terminated.?
Who picks up the comatose bodies in the town square and where do you put those on the new Zombie drug 'Tranq'. Any suggestions? //
I am not advocating the legalisation of drugs without any form of control in tandem with it.
Your matelot or fighter pilot can get drugs now, if the want to - the fact that they are illegal does not prevent that.
But the fact that use of them in the workplace, for any profession, with legal sanctions to enforce that rule, means that drug use will be confined to leisure time.
If your matelot / pilot turns up to work drunk - via use of a legal drug, sanctions are imposed, and no-one would suggest that anything would change if a new range of drugs became available legally, to join the ones we already coexist with.
Who picks up the comatose bodies in the town square and where do you put those on the new Zombie drug 'Tranq'. Any suggestions? //
I am not advocating the legalisation of drugs without any form of control in tandem with it.
Your matelot or fighter pilot can get drugs now, if the want to - the fact that they are illegal does not prevent that.
But the fact that use of them in the workplace, for any profession, with legal sanctions to enforce that rule, means that drug use will be confined to leisure time.
If your matelot / pilot turns up to work drunk - via use of a legal drug, sanctions are imposed, and no-one would suggest that anything would change if a new range of drugs became available legally, to join the ones we already coexist with.
Andy, could you please desist with adding superlative adjectives in where I didn’t use any. Adding the word ‘catastrophic’ gives a ‘flavour’ to my point which wasn’t there. And it’s not the first time you’ve done it on this thread.
I can see you’re not going to be moved on this issue but extrapolating the decriminalisation of all drugs to resulting in an improvement on drug abuse and a reduction in hospital admissions displays the workings of an illogical mindset.
I can see you’re not going to be moved on this issue but extrapolating the decriminalisation of all drugs to resulting in an improvement on drug abuse and a reduction in hospital admissions displays the workings of an illogical mindset.
retrocop - // If an addict is now able to legally access as much drugs as he/she likes and is so incapacitated that they are unable to work how do they finance their habit to purchase more drugs? //
Addicition to illegal drugs is a drop in the ocean compared with the adverse effects on society from alcohol - but we legislate and control as best we are able. The system is not perfect, but nothing is.
There will always be sections of society who seek oblivion to varying degrees through drugs, that will not change.
But access to controlled dosages will alleviate the dangers of overdosing, and the additional revenue can be used to offer support programmes to people who are involved in inappropriate drug use.
We do it now for alcoholics, but alcohol is an 'acceptable drug'.
We need to stop pretending that illegal drugs are some sort of mystery known only to criminals and deadbeats - they are not, and of they are assimilated into society in the way that legal drugs are, then the criminal element will be largely eliminated.
Addicition to illegal drugs is a drop in the ocean compared with the adverse effects on society from alcohol - but we legislate and control as best we are able. The system is not perfect, but nothing is.
There will always be sections of society who seek oblivion to varying degrees through drugs, that will not change.
But access to controlled dosages will alleviate the dangers of overdosing, and the additional revenue can be used to offer support programmes to people who are involved in inappropriate drug use.
We do it now for alcoholics, but alcohol is an 'acceptable drug'.
We need to stop pretending that illegal drugs are some sort of mystery known only to criminals and deadbeats - they are not, and of they are assimilated into society in the way that legal drugs are, then the criminal element will be largely eliminated.
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