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Post by jackie on Aug 20, 2010 16:26:18 GMT 1
Both the UK & France, along with many other countries have adopted the prohibition approach to drugs for many years now, but every now & again a senior Doctor or government advisor sticks their head above the parapet & calls for the decriminalisation of drugs. The latest to do so is Sir Ian Gilmore, the outgoing president of the Royal College Of Physicians who said that decriminalisation could drastically reduce crime and improve health. See full beeb report here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10990921I also heard a news report the other evening about the proliferation of large-scale cannabis farms in the UK tended by trafficked 'workers' i.e slaves. Surely if cannabis was made legal it would stop all this? Do you think this would be a good idea or would it encourage more people to take up drug-use? It seems that countries such as Denmark & Portugal (to a lesser degree) have successfully adopted the decrim approach. Also what a revenue generator it would be if a government could slap duty on a soft-drug such as cannabis....
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Post by ianh on Aug 20, 2010 18:04:38 GMT 1
If Walter Raleigh came back now with tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, which one would be legalised?
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Post by jackie on Aug 20, 2010 19:53:03 GMT 1
If Walter Raleigh came back now with tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, which one would be legalised? None of them?
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Post by Ali on Aug 20, 2010 19:55:32 GMT 1
I'm not sure legalising them would be a good move, I've not read any of the links so my comments are unbiased........ I just think that making it easier for people isn't the way to go, and I do think that if it was made easier the crime rate may go up as ways of financing the habit.
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Post by stavros on Aug 21, 2010 12:34:45 GMT 1
Some 40 years ago, heroin & cocaine were supplied on prescription to registered addicts. They usually received 3 day prescriptions from a limited number of authorised GPs - often issued on day 3 to be valid the following day, the first day of a new 3 day cycle. In London, you'd see them queuing in front of the Boots all-night chemist on Piccadilly circus, waiting for midnight to be able to collect their supply. Although there was some selling of part of this supply to other, unregistered, addicts, there wasn't a vast criminal supply chain, and no need to steal to get supplies. The product was of clinical quality, not cut with all the various rubbish that the drug barons use to dilute their filth.
Swiss addicts can feed their addiction in centres which supply clean syringes, and have medical assistance available for anyone that overdoses, or has any other medical problem immediately after injecting themself. Switzerland has a much lower drugs-related crime rate than its neighbours.
If governments legalised drugs, and taxed the purely recreational drugs such as cannabis, they would destroy the whole raison d'etre of many criminal organisations. This would reduce one focus of police effort, lower the prison population, and reduce the overall cost of the criminal justice system. If they were to tax cannabis cigarettes at the same high levels as tobacco, then not only would they benefit from the previously suggested savings, they would create a new fiscal revenue stream.
If they supplied hard drugs in a similar way to that pertaining in the late sixties, perhaps opening a few shuttered up high street shops as "shooting galleries", they would wreak havoc in the illegal supply chain, while at the same time ensuring that the addicts would be receiving clinically clean drugs with clean needles. This would have a knock-on effect to reduce NHS money spent on needle transmitted disease, including AIDS/HIV, treatment for addicts suffering the effects of impure drugs, etc.
That's the practical argument for legalizing, but it would need a joint effort from many countries acting together for the full benefits to be achieved.
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Post by tobyjug on Aug 21, 2010 14:25:24 GMT 1
Colombia would go bankrupt overnight
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Post by stavros on Aug 21, 2010 19:29:30 GMT 1
Colombia would go bankrupt overnight So let 'em grow something useful!
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Post by blu on Aug 21, 2010 20:11:17 GMT 1
I think that some people with health conditions should be allowed pot.
When it comes to stuff like heroin and cocaine I cannot see what good could come of it.
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Post by stavros on Aug 22, 2010 10:36:32 GMT 1
I think that some people with health conditions should be allowed pot. When it comes to stuff like heroin and cocaine I cannot see what good could come of it. De-criminalisation would remove many, perhaps most, of the criminals from the supply chain. It would also serve to diminish criminal influence in activities other than illicit drug supply, prostitution for example. Many prostitutes have a drug problem, and are kept under the thumb of their pimp, or gang of pimps, who control their supply. This keeps them in a continuing spiral of sexual abuse, where they have to perform to receive their daily dosage.
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Post by Cheeky Chops on Aug 22, 2010 11:04:09 GMT 1
My feelings are to hang the people who bring drugs into the country or make them here (illegal ones that is). My pragmatic ME says that we must do whatever works and if legalising drugs works then lets legalise them. A high percentage of the people I work with are mentally ill because of illegal drugs. It is a great shame for them as individuals and a real sod for all the rest of us that are paying for their care and upkeep.
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