Should all Drugs Be Legalised????

[mac15]

Having watched the last 2 weeks of the Documentary on Channel 4 "The War On Drugs" it has certainly opened up a wide range of opinions from users and non users.

I just thought i put a post on here to hear you guys and gals thoughts and opinions!!!

How would it work? Where would you get it? How much would you be allowed daily? The list of questions is endless,an interesting subject for the forum i think!!

Regards  Stevie

[OP8S]

Yes,in my opinion all drugs should be legalised & regulated. Instead of having meth clinics or similar projects you should be able to go along to a professionally trained medical consultant who would assess your physical/mental health & if all was in order ( after signing a disclaimer ) be  prescribed the substance of your choice. It could easily be paid for by any taxes that the Government charged & you would be getting a pharmacutically made product which would probably still cost less than what you pay for your substance of choice now. Obviously there would still be a black market but it would be far smaller & a lot less of a problem to society than it is now. As well as the money saved by the decrease in petty crime/dealing which is clogging up our prisons at the moment. Keep them for the habitualy voilent offenders & sexual abusers who as far as I am concerned commit far more serious crimes than somebody dancing all night after having an e or having a dig in the privacy of their own homes ( but too often get lesser sentences ).
As far as I am concerned substances are not inherently evil, but where the arguement gets lost is in the lack of education available to the majority of the public. Everything can be used safely if people are properly educated in its use & if the individual doesn't want to use it safely then that is their decision, the consequences of their actions is in their own hands. Prohabition has very rarely, if ever been succesfull throughout history. It just doesn't work. As long as there is a demand for something ( & there always will be ) somebody will have to supply it. I would rather go to an arranged appointment to get my supply of preffered substance(s) than spend time hanging about street corners or sitting in somebodies house making small talk when all I want to do is go home & get high.

[wastedyouth]

I have offend thought about what i would do if all drugs were available legaly and im proberly going to go against the grain of everyone else in fact i wasnt even going to put my point in but i thought why not?  I personnaly dont think that it would make the stigma much less than it is the now.  If i had the choice to use drugs if/when i felt like it there would still be guilt there making them legal is not going to make me be able to look after my children any better other than the risk of jail, but if i choose to take so may drugs that i cant look after my children then , i should loose them, so still you have stigma, guilt, hurting other people and yourself.  I dont think that the fact that they are made legal will make me maintain my use be resonsible with it because im an addict i will always want more legal or illegal.  Money needs to be put into helping us understand why we take drugs, is it due to mental health issues, or unresolved issues of the past, i dont know i dont have the answers.  If i did i wouldn't be an addict.  I already worry about my son who is on Ritalin for his ADHD and it is well knowen that these children go on to experiment with drugs as young adults(like many other children) my child has a sore head he automatically thinks a pill will fix it, you can see him with in 5mins his sore head is away, now we no the parcetomal hasent even kicked in yet, its all in his mind, im so frieghtend that he will think that a pill will fix evrything for him, hes only 10 and im watching it happen in front of my eyes.  Even though there have been times in my life where ive though if i want to take drugs then why cant i who am i hurting in fact let them tax it let them make money maybe then i will be at least desent gear, but is that really the answer in this country anyway, i dont think so, and i know i will proberly be the only one to think like this but if drugs were legal how many of us on this forum would accually still be here, i wouldn't i would have taken everything i could saved it up done anything, i personnaly would not like to live my life in a state of oblivian.  On the other hand i think i should have more of a say in how i cope with my addiction and if methadone dosent work for me it dosent suit i should be allowed and given something else to try and keep trying till i find that thing that fills that whole in me, but not to the stage when im just a shell of a person, sometimes i think we do need to be saved from our own actions(that sounds sooo religious or something which im not)but i know i would not like myself if i was allowed to live the life i once pandored for.Sorry if this dosent go with the train of the thread but i can only tell my truth as i see it
Take Care
WY

[OP8S]

I disagree quite strongly KikiMarooni. Drugs are not bad, not when used properly & responsibly. The means of distribution & prohabition, putting these substances, (many which have been used for thousands of years & will be used for thousands of years to come) into the hands of unsrupulous, unqualified criminals is the problem. Merely decriminalising a substance doesn't take the means of distribution out of the big drug dealers hands, at best it serves to protect the user from imprisonment, or social stigma of using. It doesn't make any difference to the quality & doesn't reduce any harm that a drug user may inflict apon themselves by using to much, or by whatever crap that the big fat capitalist pig decides to cut the product with in an effort to maximise their financial investment. People will & continue to use drugs to experience altered states of conciousness, this will never change, it is a part of our evolutionary cycle which many people, creative or just ordinary folk like myself use to broaden their own minds. Releasing themselves from the reality that has been imposed apon us by the ruling classes or power hungry politicians. Where would we as human beings be without substances that have been provided for us by nature that has this effect ? Think of the positive ideas & beauty that so many creative people have provided us with, the artists, writers, musicians etc.
I admit that not all of them may have taken drugs but if they haven't I bet that they have been inspired by others who have at some point, enabeling them to think " outside the box ".
These plants that nature provides for us are a very important part of our evolutionary history & cannot be dismissed as simply being "bad" or somehow "evil". I would be more likely to be of the opinion that our society is "bad".
Drugs have to be legalised to get them out of the hands of the uncaring businessmen who are in it for profit only & then as I said before they can be regulated to a degree at least, by qualified proffessionals. Then it is up to the individual to be responsible for their own actions. It is the only logical way forward & one that needs to be addressed for future generations to come.
You obviously don't agree, but that is your opinion made from your own life experiences. We need to look at the issue in a more holistic fashion, prohabition has extremely rarely worked for any substance available to the human race & I cannot see how it ever will, therefore we need to look at it from the viewpoint of minimalising the harm that the use of some drugs can cause.

[OP8S]

I must of picked up on what you said previously wrong. I don't think any substance can be "bad" or "evil". It's the system of distribution that is all wrong. I agree with you that heroin should be available on a script, I think other substances should be available with something similar to a script written by a health proffessional of some kind. Simply as a form of quality control & regulation, because you can screw yourself & your body up with amphetamines, ecstasy, coke & alcohol just as badly as from having a habit. I've lost a friend to amphetamines & have another friend who has to have dyialsis (sp?) 4 times a week for 6 hours at a time. Neither of them ever had opiate habits, just burnt themselves out with life in the fast lane. Legalisation is the only way that drug consumption is going to be possibly controlled, like you said, if you can get the pharmacuetically pure drug from your GP then your not going to bother going elsewhere for an inferior product.

[monk]

Hell yes!!!! all drugs should be 100% legal. Legalisation together with LOTS of education in schools etc.but also strict licencing on production and sale of 'recreationals' is way to go in my opinion. 'Market forces' would rapildly provide an affrodable, 'known content' product which could be sold and taxed accoringldly.

To Wasted Youth, Yes people would still look down their noses at you if you were a heavy user with kids, much like they do with alcoholic parents now.

To Kikimarooni, As far as the safety issues are concerned, Well I would pay MY (hard earned) money, make MY (informed) choices and take my chances. Much like Alcohol, tobacco users do today. If and when there were issues regarding addiction, mental health etc.  Drug services would still exist (seeing much fewer people in my opinion), Maybe some of the money raised by taxation could pay for extra education/drug awareness programs. Far as central government goes, I think they have a bloody cheek, supposing to tell people what to put or not put in their own bodies. Would you allow yourself to be told what clothes to wear or what music to listen too. Should rugby, moutain biking, skydiving or any other 'dangerous sport' be made illegal on grounds that you risk your life/health? Obviously not, you enquire, you learn, you mitigate the risk and choose to get envolved, just imagine if these freedoms were 'controlled' the same way drugs are. Riduculous right? I rest my case.


,

[monk]

wasted youth, YOU got youself out of drug use, because YOU recognised the harm it was causing in your life, wouldn't you have done that if it was legal? I know I keep using this comparison but had you been an alcoholic instea of an opiate user, would you not have still recognised it wasent good for you or your son?

Your kid will be just fine, because he has someone like YOU for a mum, with the strength of character to recognise and then get out of a bad situation and look for something better. Not all kids are that lucky, I'm sure you know.

[welshshelley]

im new on here today peeps,and am just getting used to it,i think that drugs should b legalized it wuld stop all crimes on people trying to make the money to afford them exspecially now the price has gone trough the roof.thanx god its finally startd to come back in really had a good week this week hope it stays this week and forever and the prices drop

[OP8S]

Hi welshshelley, yeah welcome to the site, the Opiate Allstars or something that somebody mentioned in another thread. Think most of us here agree wholeheartedlly with you on the legalisation of drugs or at least radical reform to drug laws / treatment in the U.K. today. Am glad your managing to get buy now, it looks like there is starting to be less people affected by the drought. Pity the string of deaths that will more than likely increase as purity/quantity increases when people's tolerances must have dropped so much, not so bad if your scripted though. No doubt the media will add their own hype & we'll all just be classed as junkies. If they only knew eh ?

[hazell246]

Effort and funds can then be directed to educating the public about the hazards of all drugs.

Can such a change of attitude happen? Probably not, because the huge illegal drug industry has mountains of money for a media blitz and for buying politicians to sing the songs of "evil" and "danger" which is certain to kill any legislative attempt at legalization. Perhaps it will take some time before reality can prevail, but meanwhile we should at least do more to expose deception and to disseminate the truth. Legalization would result in:

purity assurance under Food and Drug Administration regulation;
labeled concentration of the product (to avoid overdose);
obliteration of vigorous marketing ("pushers");
obliteration of drug crime and reduction of theft crime
savings in expensive enforcement and
significant tax revenues.