To think drugs should be made legal?

[Justholdthesmile]

Maybe not start with all drugs, but then eventually progress to that stage. Obviously with an age restriction.

Therefore you can tax it and it would lower crime.

I think everyone knows the risk of drugs - but they will still take them regardless so being illegal doesn't stop them.

[DoJo]

If you combined the billions spent on the 'war' on drugs, the billions more spent on policing, prosecuting and maintaining people in prison for drug related offences and added in the billions of pounds worth of tax revenue which would be generated by legalising them, you could afford to tackle the problems of those who will become addicted to something whether their choice of drug is legal or not.

One of the major factor in the success story in the Netherlands is that people who wanted to smoke weed no longer had to have a dealer who would be inclined to try and encourage them to try harder, more profitable drugs. Therefore, whilst marijuana increased very slightly, the use of harder drugs decreased because people just weren't coming into contact with the people who would supply them.

Personally I think that adults should be allowed to make damaging choices for themselves if they want to, but that the impact of those choices on others should be mitigated by the state. Legalising at least some classes of drugs seems the easiest way to effect that, but it's a massive leap which I doubt I will see in my lifetime.

[VampyreofTimeandMemory]

Tara animals do a lot of things that humans wouldn't dream of doing - what's your point?

[MyBaby1day]

YABVU, drugs are bloomin bad, I think that is crazy!.

[sashh]

I think some drugs, maybe, should be legalised but not all. I also believe heroin should be available on prescription.

Heroin is available in hospitals in the form of morphine, it is an effective pain killer but if someone is using it on a regular basis is it still effective?

It is highly addictive, meaning you don't have to use a lot for very long before you become addicted, some people say one shot, I don't know because I don't have access to data, and I think it can only be collected anecdotally anyway.

Alcohol is addictive, but it does take time to become an addict and even longer, in many cases, for damage to show.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

All drugs should be legalised.

You'd have to buy from a chemist. Dosages would have been tested and set. Purity will have been checked. Unsafe on any dosage drugs would be banned (people wouldn't need them as plenty of others to choose from).

The vast amounts of money saved could go shooting galleries and into the NHS to pay for additional treatments.

The whole allure of doing something risky would be gone.
The whole having to go through a dealer would be gone.
No more needle sharing.
Far less over doses
No more contamination with things like anthrax
Addicts could be prescribed decreasing doses of heroin instead of methadone...

[NicknameIncomplete]

NO NO NO NO.

Drugs should not be legalised. I have seen the affects of what drugs can do to people.

Something as 'soft' as cannabis can be highly detrimental to someones health. So i wouldnt even think about legalising that never mind your heroin and cocaine.

I probably would also support banning cigarettes and alcohol.

[lyndie]

How does that work ItsAll? I'm 5ft 5 and weigh 9 stone, could you calculate a safe dose of heroin for me? Taking into account my other health issues. And while your at it, I'd like some cocaine for tonight, what dose will definitely be fine and not make me have a heart attack??

[HesterShaw]

No one's arguing that drugs aren't bloomin bad.

This isn't a moral argument. It's a practical and financial one. Though it would have the welcome added side effects of pulling the rug from under the feet of the dealers.

[Birdsgottafly]

Could you explain how you stop your children from taking these highly addictive, M/Health problem causing substances, if they are legal?

It will become like trying a drink or a cigarette underage.

I haven't yet heard how we would fund the Children's Services that we will need to keep the children of the growing number of addicts safe.

The new substances popular in America are responsible for the "Zombie" type attacks, people have bitten chunks out of their children, these will still be sought and how can we then say that those shouldn't be legal.

Also, there will be wars over who gets to control and manufacture these drugs.

If you think that big business ness are going to be more ethical than the existing drug barons, you are being naive.

I live amongst drug addicts, they commit crime else where, their lifestyle still impacts on me, in the form if anti social behaviour, aggression and violence.

Smoking a spliff in Uni, isn't the same as a kid in a crap Comp taking drugs to pass the time, which then is a cheap and time consuming hobby and the only "good" experience they have.

We would be removing the chance of thousands of people to build and have a life, by saying that drug use is a valid choice.

[Balistapus]

Alcohol and tobacco kill more people than other drugs do.

Mister, this is not because more people take them. Professor Nut carried out research for the government to calculate the mortality and morbidity of taking drugs - I.e. the risk of death/ harm as a percentage of the people taking the drug. The research showed that more people died horse riding than taking Ecstasy so the government sacked him.

[Birdsgottafly]

"The whole allure of doing something risky would be gone."

People want to take risks , so street drugs would become more dangerous, probably to MH.

Dealers would give drugs on "tick", they have an easy identifiable customer base.

We would still get foreign untested drugs flooding our streets.

So we legalise something, manufacture it, but still remove people's children and sack people if they indulge openly?

And there won't be a need for street drugs, still?

[Balistapus]

Could you explain how you stop your children from taking these highly addictive, M/Health problem causing substances, if they are legal?

You can't stop them taking them if they're illegal either.

If someone wants to take drugs they will take them whether they are legal or not. I believe that people who don't take drugs choose not to because they believe the health risks outway the reward not because they're illegal. Would be interested to know if this is not the case.

[Birdsgottafly]

The drug death figures aren't accurate.

I have had friends die whilst taking large amounts of cocaine, if the proof isn't there what caused the heart attack, the drug won't be blamed, or mentioned.

The same with babies who die after living for a while, they died because their Mother took drugs, but in years past, that would if been put in the death certificate.

The same applies to children who have health conditions, through drug taking.

It's like suicide, if it doesn't serve a purpose to give that verdict, the family is spared.

[Birdsgottafly]

Bali, I know many people and teens who don't take drugs (or stop) because it will affect their chosen career path.

When they do research with teens, the illegality is what stops them and the fact that " they must be bad for you, if they are illegal".

I have heard, less informed/educated people stil deny that smoking is bad, because "if it was that bad, they would ban it completely".

[PleaseJustLeaveYourBrotherAlon]

I think being a drug user should be legal, i think being a piece of shit drug peddler should carry harsher penalties.

Like being a prostitue should be legal and selling women and buying women should not.

If cigarettes and alcohol were banned tomorrow would it stop people takinng it.. or would they become criminals?

[Birdsgottafly]

That should forced "wouldn't of been put on the death certificate".

My friend adopted a little boy whose life will end soon, he is 10, he has been blind from the age of seven, he has had complex health problems, through his Mothers drug taking.

She is a member if a support group, drugs are not mentioned on the children's death certificates and they won't be on her sons.

[Balistapus]

The drug death figures aren't accurate care to clarify this?

Are you sure that drugs were not cited for your friend who died from a drug induced heart attack? I believe that any deaths, particularly young people's, which occur outside a hospital have an autopsy/inquest. this is essential so that they can rule out foul play.

[elastamum]

I think that some drugs should be legalised. Then they could be properly developed, regulated and taxed.

You will never stop people taking them, so we have a duty to make them as safe as we can. There is no reason we cant develop short half life, relatively safe versions of ecstacy, which could be sold through pharmacy to adults.

[Balistapus]

" they must be bad for you, if they are illegal".

So it follows that cigarettes aren't harmful because they're legal?

I think you're talking anecdotally, either that or there's an awful lot of mindless people about.

[SaucyJack]

I dunno on this one. I'd certainly agree on legalization for everything up to and including coke..... but past there- there is a line. (No pun intended)

I dabbled as a yoof with a couple of very hard drugs and there is a difference between them and "party drugs". They do get under your skin in a way that other things don't, and I do believe that if they were more easily available then there's no question that addiction rates would go up.

[MadAsFish]

There are functioning drug users, addicts, even. You just never hear about them.
And no, one shot of heroin does not addict you, physically, anyway.
It would be worth thinking about why someone would choose to anaesthetise themselves with the strongest known painkiler. Painkillers kill pain.
I think nearly all of it should be legalised and regulated. Make it boring and daggy, rather than edgy and exciting.
And the point about the animals is that even animals will choose to alter their consciousness.

[az09]

the 2 main worries any parent has about drugs are that their child will take something bad and get ill or die, or that he/she will be caught and get a criminal record. Were drugs legal and properly regulated neither of these would apply. All parents should get behind a campaign - try Transform - to change a drug policy that does not work and puts our children at risk. Perhaps mumsnet could take this on as a serious issue that affects us all. Wwe have the power. There are a hell of a lot of parents out there. (non-drug-using mother of 4 aged 17 to 22.)

[Luggagecarousel]

YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVU

Cannabis needs to be eradicated, not encouraged.

More than half of the young people I have taught who fail their education and sink down to the bottom of society and stay there, do so because of cannabis. Even difficulties such as severe dyslexia, or ASD don't damage education prospects like a cannabis habit does.


plus, you would never establish a regulated legal trade anyway.

It is mostly grown in by the slave labour of illegal immigrants, trafficked into the country as teenagers, often from Asia.

How could a "legitimate" or " regulated" business ever ever ever begin to compete on price? If health and safety, employment and immigratio laws were adhered to, the price would be well over 10x as much.

[DogCalledRudis]

I think its gross hypocrisy in criminalising drugs, especially marijuana. At the same time, so many harmful, cancerogenic chemicals are going into our everyday foods and pharmaceuticals, which we are encouraged to consume.

[NeoFaust]

Luggagecarousel

I tell you most solemnly - I have aspergers syndrome. Without cannabis my social anxiety and constant emotional instability would have made getting my degree impossible. It also treats my insomnia and seems to have settled my guts, too.

Oh yes, and I've have had five incredible girlfriends, including my present long term relationship, because I'm no longer paralysed with fear by the idea of conversation.

I'd actually recommend that everyone on the spectrum at least gives it a try, it's proved powerfully beneficial to my educational and social outcomes.