Green Party wanting to legalise drugs.

[YorkieTheRabbit]

Maybe I’m not thinking this through correctly, so could anyone explain to me how legalising heroin would work.

It’s highly addictive, causes physical dependency and can damage to the body.

Then, who is supposed to be paying for the supply? Would it be taxpayers basically paying for people to become addicted then paying to treat the addiction?
I know that people will take drugs regardless but I just can’t get my head around this.
Surely the Greens don’t think that drug dealers will just shrug their shoulders and go and get a proper job 🤷‍♀️

Will they be delivered by deliveroo, along with a KFC?
Or will people be able to buy drugs from dodgy Dom down the road, who’ll pop round in five minutes with whatever you fancy,. Plus Dom will need to fill in a tax return. Or will people need to catch a bus to the nearest dispensary? The mind boggles

Are they planning on charging VAT the same as alcohol or will it be free on prescription?
Please excuse my rambling as I’m sleeping deprived but this really has me pondering.

Okay so don’t tackle them then? They may not go quietly, but it doesn’t mean we should let them continue surely.

No one is saying there should be a drive though Heroin shop but it would be nice if users were treated and not just sent to prison, they’ll only be bang on the drugs in prison as well.

@PevenseygirlQQ i completely agree that users should be treated, that should never be an issue.
The problem is that legalising all drugs must surely come with an enormous cost.
Anyone can legally buy meat, toiletries, razor blades and baby formula in any supermarket. But a significant number of people would rather pay less for stolen goods.
Won’t it be the same for heroin? Buy from a legitimate source and costs x or buy from Steve wearing a black hoodie and riding a bike, for half the price.

Horrible experience.
It's not necessarily to do with heroin though.
Or something that can and does happen only in Lisbon.

Drinking wasn't illegal, just the manufacture, transportation and sale of it.
But I don't disagree it didn't stop people drinking, and it opened up opportunities for people to exploit others by selling it 'under the counter'.

It's worst effect was to make regular law abiding citizens into criminals, and make them associate with criminals. Laying the foundation for US society today.

To me, here you are just hitting on some of the problems that make this whole thing a terrible idea.

You're right that a legal drugs market could only replace an illegal one, if it was similarly priced (or cheaper). And if that were the case it would hoover up existing users and no doubt create many more.

Agree with all your points totally, I don’t disregard the cost/people will steal it anyway. I think there really are pros and cons to it.

Not sure if I’m pulling this out of my ass did Scotland treat the drug epidemic as a public health issue and have success? (Off to google)

In an ideal world I suppose addicts would get proper rehabilitation and continued care after, but again this would be at a huge cost.

In dreamland dealers and growers would be reformed and work in the dispensaries and all would be well! 😂🧚‍♀️🦄

No one is saying there should be a drive though Heroin shop but it would be nice if users were treated and not just sent to prison, they’ll only be bang on the drugs in prison as well.

Are many drug users sent to jail for possession? Genuine question as I thought nowadays it was only dealers who were prosecuted. I’m happy to be corrected.

I think drinking was also illegal in some states.

Scotland did/does treat it as a health issue and their rates of drug deaths have doubled in the last decade.

Yes, not federally though, and we're talking here about a UK-wide thing.

okay, but the way the US is set up, each state is more like an individual European country.

But absolutely nowhere near on the level we see today.

Sure, OK

How many heroin addicts do you know?

I have encountered hundreds, probably thousands at this stage.

They do not want to be rehabilitated. The services on offer are far better than you think, as well as the methadone program. Their addiction is so strong despite help very few of them get permanently clean. They might manage a few months, even a year but 90% of them relapse. They don’t turn up to appointments. They don’t engage with their support worker. Most are of no fixed address, you can’t even get hold of them.

A lot of them are very scary. Their primary goal is feeding their addiction and addictions are expensive. They rob shops, assault the staff who try to stop them, steal and burgle. They can be very violent and often spit/bite people who try to restrain them, such as police officers and nurses.

I have human empathy for them as I don’t think anyone WANTS their life to end up like this. But this romantic notion that they’re all just 1 offer of help away from a productive life, sadly couldn’t be further from the truth.

There would have to be a raft of new laws. Would taking drugs in public be anti-social behaviour… or not? What about on the bus? In the cinema? Would it be futile to try to stop drug use on the streets and we’d end up like some US cities with people on zombie drugs wandering around?

I can’t see it’s the price that has a connection to addiction. 50p or £50 per hit - once hooked that’s it really.

Absolutely this. Would it be legal to smoke weed then teach a class of primary school children? Take cocaine and then board a flight? Be stoned and in charge of your children?

‘They’ll do it anyway’ could be used as a reason not to make anything illegal, as people break all laws regardless… but that’s why we have them. So when somebody does something which is detrimental to society, they receive a punishment. And it hopefully signals to others not to do it.

Not all drugs addicts are devil-may-care heroin addicts with nothing to lose either. Some are very wealthy coke heads with well paid jobs. I imagine more would probably do it if they knew there would be no repercussions.

Also please don’t forget unless we agree to mass produce all manner of narcotics on home soil, we will be legalising purchasing a destructive substance that is dripping in the blood of South American street children. Do you want that? The production alone should make it illegal. The cartels are horrifying. Meth labs have melted the face off many a person working while trafficked.

Drugs cannot be legalised as they are very inherently damaging, just because our system isn’t foolproof it doesn’t mean any other approach would be better.

Polanski and his ilk do not understand the raw nature of drug use, they see it from their priveleged ‘doobie on a Friday night’ type position. They are snake oil salesmen here, don’t fall for it.

And I find it interesting nobody on here feels similarly about prostitution 🤷‍♀️

Thats why I said in an ideal world

That's not true on either account.

Drug deaths per capita were rising until 2020 when they began to fall. And it doesn't really treat drugs much differently than England. The government wanted to introduce some measures but have been struggling to do so on the whole.

You're right, drugs are easier to obtain than ever. Doesn't that illustrate to you that the measures in place since 1971 have been less than successful?

The 1971 MDA Act isn't being followed much anymore. It's been hollowed out. Shame - it was held up globally as being a well thought out piece of legislation. Which is why it had to go.

If you remove the “taboo”
around drugs, especially hard drugs, then there is more chance of kids trying them. What will result is more addicts and more parents struggling to rein in the behaviour of their children because it’s legal. We can all see the harm we have inflicted on kids through social media which is a Pandora’s box we now can’t shut. Why the helll would we want to do they with drugs. Polanski is talking about having lessons in primary school to “teach children how to use drugs responsibly” because he believes that “drugs can enhance relationships”- WTAF?! He also wants brothels on the high street. And open borders. You can see where this is all going and it scares the shit out of me.

Given that Scotland has the highest rate of drug deaths in Europe, I’m not convinced ….

He’s basically an anarchist. These types of societies don’t work well for women and children.