LEGALISING DRUGS IS AN OPTION THE WORLD IS NOW CONSIDERING

[MindAstronaut]

LEGALISING DRUGS IS AN OPTION THE WORLD IS NOW CONSIDERING
by Paul Walker, (Source:Western Mail)

25 Oct 2006

United Kingdom
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The other day I found myself chairing a meeting on the topic of legalising drug use.

Reading the runes, it would seem that there is an international movement growing in opposition to the current United Nations-led universal policy of prohibition and, that by the year 2020, regulated use and supply will replace prohibition in many UN member states.

But the year 2020 is a long way away.

So can we expect any change in the present policy in the nearer future?

Interestingly, the Parliamentary Science and Technology Select Committee has recently produced a report, Drug Classification: Making a Hash of it? which calls for a major overhaul of the existing system.

The way drugs are currently categorised into Class A, B and C is done on the basis of the penalties they attract under the criminal justice system rather than on the harm that they do.

Common sense suggests that the penalties should be proportional to the harm done.

The Select Committee proposes that any classification system based on harm done must include tobacco and alcohol which together cause about 40 times the total number of deaths from all illegal drugs combined.

Applying a new categorisation system based on harm done proposed by the committee, alcohol would probably be listed as a class A drug, the fifth most harmful of all, and tobacco as a class B one, the ninth most harmful.

This report shows how illogical the whole system is and how confusing to the public.

On the basis of the current system, where drugs such as ecstasy and LSD are categorised as harmful class A drugs and alcohol and tobacco are not classified at all and are freely available, the public might reach the conclusion that alcohol and tobacco are not harmful.

This, of course, is not true and the proposed new classification system would make this apparent.

It is time for a mature debate about our attitude to mind altering drugs.

Alcohol use is legal but is increasingly problematic. Drugs such as cannabis, heroin and cocaine are illegal and, while undoubtedly they can cause problems, these are on nothing like the scale of those caused by alcohol and tobacco.

So why are they illegal when by being so a huge global criminal industry is given a licence to print money?

It is worth remembering that the United States tried alcohol prohibition and lived to regret it and repealed it.

In this country the equivalent of prohibition was introduced with the enactment of the Misuse of Drugs Act in 1971.

It is time to reconsider this and see whether it is not time to go back to the pre-prohibition condition that existed in the UK before 1971.

At the very least we should initiate a mature debate on the topic and perhaps not have to wait until 2020 for a change in policy. Which is what my meeting was about.

Talking of alcohol and smoking, I was disappointed to learn at the same meeting that the biggest drinks and tobacco companies in the world are British.

It seems paradoxical that a nation that is so pre-eminent in public health research and scholarship is also pre-eminent in profiteering from harmful products like alcohol and tobacco.

And on a slightly lighter note, I also learned that the pint glass was introduced by the brewers in the 1930s to boost the sales of beer.

Apparently, until then half pint glasses were the norm.



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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake


Source: http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v06/n1451/a08.htm

 

[forest]

that's a reaal nice peace of text

 

[Guest]

Yeah I've already read it, there's still hope for the future
It might take a while though...

 

[Siq]

It's sanity versus kapitalisation/economics .. this takes integrity which, sadly, is scarce in the world of politics and espescially economics. But I'll keep the faith .. even is that if naive

 

[Guest]

Wooot, 2020 is like, in 13 years, looks really soon for me, if only this could really be happening...

Would be REALLY curious to see how people would handle psychoactive if they were legal...

 

[Armaros]

that is somewhat believable in your guy's area. But I could not see that happening here in the United States without a major reform. The constant outcry of the media, general public, and government is that drugs are pure evil. they cant even live to stand cigarrettes, the only thing we have a chance of legalizing is cannabis. but that is still some ways off, our only progress is some cities lowering it to a misdeanor.

 

[MindAstronaut]

what alot of govnerments are sayin when you legalize drugs that you get massive drug abuse on cocaine and heroine but thats all just bull...
I think when you legalize drugs the people only get more intrest in psychoactives couz then it will come out of the dark where its bin for years (still is ) and will be available for a bigger audience, i think thats scares the
governments 8)

and then i think people are smart enough to realize that drugs like cocaine and herion aren't just the same as Psychedelics.

Peace..

 

[DevXavier]

I am in favour of legalization, yet, I have a problem with it.

A lot of drugs need to be controlled and shouldn't be widely available.

LSD, shrooms, MDMA, examples of drugs that should be legal.

Heroine doesn't matter whether it's legal or not, it's a loser drug anyway, propaganda around it has been succesfull.

Though I fear the power of the white powder we all call cocaine... I have a few friends of mine who'd prefer taking it more than they do, but because it's expensive and a big hassle to call the dealer and such, it's a big barier.
I am still fighting my cocaine urge quite often.

 

[MindAstronaut]

Maybe i have to come back of my statement of completly legalization of cocaine, what might dangers the people of taking more when legal becouse of the price drop of cocaine.

But on the otherhand when you control the drug flow of cocaine you still create a black market for the people who want more..

The only thing i can come up with is warn and educate people of cocaine
and its use and profide proffesional help for the ones who need it.

Cocaine is indeed a big problem when it comes to addiction, i see it in my hometown people who i grow up with are hooked on that shit.
Im glad i've met Psychedelics and forunately it helps me to fight it of..

Peace

 

[Armaros]

I don't think any drug should be freely distributed. Opiates (morphine, heroin, etc) and several stimulants (amphetamines, cocaine, etc) should be kept illegal. Drugs I do think should be legalized, Psychedelics (LSD, Psilocybin, mescaline) and Cannabis should still be regulated. There are still to many irresponsible people in my country who cant handle a completely legal drug law.

 

[patilan420]

Common sense suggests that the penalties should be proportional to the harm done.

Yes, but after reading penal law codex of most of the countries and the cinventions of UN,
it's obvious that law-making has nothing to do with the common sense..
Goverments will alow psichedelick drug use and other alternative ways of life only after they totaly loose control over the situation.
They are truly loosing the control now, because of the free information and comunication the technology provided.
(the very existence of drug-related websites such this one and the Erowid proofs that)
There was times/places where telling the people that the Sun is just a star and that Earth turns was illegal. That's why Jordano Bruno was burned and Galileo Galiley escaped to the Netherlands, there writing such books was legal..
The drug-police is a doomed institution,( just as the "holy inquisition" was already doomed ,when the telescop was invented),
it's just a matter of time for the psichedelics to be recognized in the publick as the new technology, not the new danger.
p.s.
http://www.chaos-works.com/chchapts.html

 

[ProStoner]

I think another thing they should get out is Religion .. if there was no religion like katholism or christianity stuff like that
there would be 10 times less criticism on drugs..
I mean those religious people would probably go totally berserk if that above would happen ..
maybe that's way to solve religion -_-

 

[DevXavier]

I don't know where it will go the following years. A lot of voices lately that state the current scheduling doesn't make any sense. Yet even more voice that say we should follow Bush his retarded war on drugs.

I reckon it will either be a global war on drugs or there will be some room for discussion whether opium lists and schedules should be reviewed more scientifically.

I fear the war on drugs. Bloody European Union.

 

[WaseFraKa]

today in Switzerland they willl be talking again in the parlament about depenalisation of all drugs, to concentrate on prevention and information. I'll try to keep updated...

 

[SubstanceD]

Whilst the world is dominated by an aggressive, intolerant US and a US-dominated UN, there is little hope for any sensible drug policies.

 

[spice]

While many of you have made excellent points, the way I see it is very cynical.

Historically governments profit the most from these drugs being on the black market because they are usually the factor controlling black markets.

The moral aspect of it is what they want us to think it is, but the real answer is just money, pure and simple. In another thread on this board somewhere I talked about a reporter named gary webb who won a pulitzer prize in journalism years ago when he exposed in detail the role of our (US) govt in creating the crack cocaine epidemic here in the 80's and how that was related to war profiteering and reagan bush foriegn policy.
Cocaine was the fuel our govt used to create the cash that toppled a sitting govt after congress DENIED the money ( a requirement of the us constitution BTW) for a war in Nicaragua. Remember Iran Contra? Oliver North?

Eugene Hasenfus????

(he was the guy that got shot down over nicaragua and blabbed everything
about his planeload of cocaine and how he was on official US govt business flying this here military transport plane full of coke to california)....


When a person outright exposes everything rotten and evil and filthy in our govt to the light of day the way this guy did, you'd think that would be cause for outrage, but what did we do?

Collectively, we didn't even get interested. Apathy is and has been the problem from day one with the whole issue.Too wrapped up in our cars and tvs and pleasures to care. Therefore, the only real hope for an eventual favorable outcome lies in education. When enough people get educated things will begin to right themselves, but y'know what?
That route will require patience. I've been wondering how long it will take before the concept of civil disobedience as elaborated on by Gandhi will begin to show itself as an option in peoples psyches.

The real problem?

No one wants the confrontation 'cause everyone knows the shits gonna hit the fan if one ever happens.

 

[MindAstronaut]

I read something that the US government is invold in spreading drugs in communities ( dont know if Europe is invold to ).
The intoduction of heroin in the 70's for the ghetto''s to shut them up about the poor livin conditions, and coke in the 80's for the upperclass.

Money is the main reason for these actions, money profides power and governments do like power that's for sure. :x

But these advents happend 20 to 30 years ago,
maybe they have learned from there mistakes and found new dirty ways of makin money from the people.
honesly i dont trust them,
but we will recognize it , if it occures again.

For the rest we can only hope that the government slowly comes to a point that legalisation of some substances is the right way.
By telling the people from stratch what drugs is really about.
This is maybe naive but it is one of the few options we have left.

So keep up the hope.. :wink:

Peace.

 

[helios]

Goverment sell of drugs for profit only causes them to war against themselves. They would save themselves much trouble by simply taxing legal production much like they do tabacco.

It is rediculous in a "free" society to ban something simply because you cannot see the good of it. Even by the current schedule system, many drugs would be legal if they were logically considered.

(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
(B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Many illegal drugs are used to treat things like adhd, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and many other things.

Many are similar to legal drugs like SSRI's or Ritilin.

In a free society, it only makes sense that items would be banned based on harm, not lack of good.

Many illegal drugs are not addictive.

Many are safe.

Often they are used by the goverment themselves. (Amphetamines esp. among pilots of long range bombers)

Many of the problems are based on simple lack of knowledge because of little or no clinical testing.

In a place where freedom of thought should be key, the catalysists should not be banned.

These drugs should be logically considered with an open mind.

Though it would be a mistake to legallize all drugs overnight, it would be just as much a mistake to not consider a time table for legallization at all.

 

[sychopk]

Can't wait till the year 2020

 

[Psychoid]

wouldnt governments make more money if they were legally selling them and putting taxes on them?

I dream of the day I would go to a convenience store to buy a pack of 25 joints for like 20$