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.

[Luggagecarousel]

Neofaust, there may be a case for the use of cannabis as a controlled medication, but not as an over the counter commodity.

[dawndonnaagain]

I do think drugs should be legalised, as did the person that wrote the controlled drucs act. Not just revenue, it removes the criminal element too, which removes cutting drugs with other substances that are dangerous in different ways. It removes the power from drug barons. These, in the world of drugs are big issues. It does make it cleaner and safer and as others have cited, evidence does clearly demonstrate this.

A couple of minor points. THC, the element of cannabis that gives you the high, is addictive, it's not just a case of overuse.
Stating that it's okay to use as it's a naturally growing plant, is not a valid argument, so are deadly nightshade, foxgloves and poppies, we use them when we synthesise them, they're still deadly.

[Imsuchamess]

I can't believe people are advocating legalising drugs.

I watched my father commit armed robbery to get money for amphetamine. I watched him become a dealer to pay for his habit. I watched the man I loved slowly die inside till all that was left was the need for drugs and nothing else mattered. I watched him suffer amphetamine psychosis and I at age 13 and 15 when it happened had to get in the way to stop killing my mum he was putting her in the boot of the car. Luckily as I suffer severe psychosis anyway I knew how to talk to him. What to say what not to say. The amount of times I had to sit and talk him through it when he had taken to much from as young as age 8. Holding his head up so he didn't choke on his own vomit and keeping him cool.

I am helping my cousin overcome a heroin addiction. She lost everything including her daughter. As a addict she was whoring herself out for a tenner a time. She is now on a methadone program. She still slips and sometimes when we go to a dealer (I take drugs which I will explain in a moment) if she isn't out in 5 minutes I know she has slipped and used heroin then I end up dragging her arse home. Staying with her to make sure she is ok.

I smoke cannabis a nice mild drug right? Which should be legalised? No I have a psychotic illness and every time in smoke it I become psychotic because it's like a double edged sword and while it makes me more psychotic it calms my moods down. But in the long run it is very damaging and likely to make me illness worse.

I rush home from dropping my kids at school to smoke it. Avoiding contact with humans who don't smoke it . It takes away my drive to do anything including clean or work. Oh and I spend £50 a week on weed.

I am now two weeks clean. People saying drugs should be legal are up in cloud 9. The biggest crime because of drugs is not the actual dealing and buying it's the crimes committed to sustain a habit.

[Rhine]

I've never been able to understand why canabis hadn't been legalised for medial purposes? So many people would benefit from the pain relief it would bring them, terminal cancer patients, MS sufferers, people with arthritis etc.

[dawndonnaagain]

I can't believe people are advocating legalising drugs.

For exactly the reasons you describe, Imsuch.
Well done for your success, it's very hard. Far, far fewer people would start on the drugs route if it were legal, too. Take a look at some of the evidence that has been provided on this thread.

Are you getting any real life help?

[Moodykat]

YANBU OP, I completely agree. I have read through all the comments against it but I really do believe that it would help people. My DH smokes cannabis every evening. To be honest I see it as no more harmful than the glasses of wine my friends have. I used to smoke a lot of it but had to stop as it wasn't helping my state of mind - but then again I doubt the fact that I had an abusive partner helped it either. It's like everything and effects people in different ways.

I think Ben Elton's High Society is a brilliant book to read on this subject, even though it is fiction I think lots of it rings true.

Despite my parents best efforts, I tried most recreational (and not so recreational) drugs when I was in my late teens/early twenties. I am not so naive to think my children won't do the same - I would sleep much easier if I knew that the drugs they were dabbling in were regulated and controlled. I know in an ideal world they would not take drugs at all, but my parents didn't want me to take drugs at all and I still did. Was not in the "wrong circles" or in with "the wrong crowd" - it is just so common that it is hard to avoid.

Anyway - am rambling but hopefully someone gets what I mean!

[sezamcgregor]

I'm not sure that I agree that legalising drugs would be any better than them being illegal.

I think there would still be a black market and people pushing cheap drugs onto children and under age users.

Better drug education would be better IMO - photographs of users and stories about their lives. Letting teens know the risks of taking drugs and helping them to have skills to deal with peer pressure.

[Imsuchamess]

Excellent post sezam

No I am not getting any help at all.

If drugs were taxed then they would be more expensive leading to people committing more crime to sustain their habit.

[Suzannewithaplan]

Who knows how it would actually pan out?

Certainly drug dealers and the associated criminal networks won't be in favour of across the board legalization!

Seems fairly likely that cannabis will be legalized, perhaps some other drugs too.
Then again my understanding is that so called legal highs are gaining in popularity and very difficult to legislate against.

Certainly this is a very complex issue, most cultures have used some forms of intoxicants, so we could say that the desire to get high is very common and a normal part of human behavior.
Then again it often leads to problems, I guess it often comes down to personal freedom vs paternalism?

I don't use any intoxicants, I'm just naturally high on life :o

[Suzannewithaplan]

But really
This thread
Yawn yawn, same tired old arguments, doesn't any have any new perspectives?

[sezamcgregor]

Thank you suchamess

There was a radio show on a few months ago with early twenties girl in tears telling how she was having an operation to stretch her hardened bladder due to Ketamin use while at Uni.

They simply do not know the risks that they are taking.

[TheSarcasticFringehead]

My birth mother is and was a heroin addict. She has had all seven of her children (including me) taken into care and although in my/my older brother's case that wasn't mainly to do with it, I completely blame heroin for ruining my younger sisters and brothers' lives. She can't seem to resist- everything and anything will and can be sold. Blankets, mattresses, toothpaste, our toys- if it could be sold, it was, just to get money for heroin. I doubt any of that would stop if it was legalised, it would probably get worse.

[Virgolia]

I'm not sure. I see why people are arguing that they should be (tight restrictions etc) but I like the fact that drugs have the illegal stigma.

[whois]

The current policy criminalises hundred of thousands of otherwise law abiding people. Generally hard working, high achieving, sociable and successful people who like getting a little bit high on some weekends. Most people who take drugs are not 'druggies'. They are people like your manager at work, that girl at uni that spanked you in every test and came out with a first, the nice young boy serving you in tescos or whatever. Just normal people, doing normal jobs going out and getting high in a club, at a party or at home every now and again. Most people grow out of it when they have kids or get older and can't be doing with lack of sleep or a come down, much like people grow out of heavy drinking usually. Big difference is of you bump into a man smashed on MDMA his more likely to apologise, hug you and ask how your night is rather than punch you like a drunk guy!

That is where the current policy fails, in criminalising recreational users.

Oh, and when people talk about legalisation reducing crime they are talking about the big business organised crime. Not about petty xbox theft which is quite frankly insignificant in terms of human misery when talking about the drug trade.

[whois]

Also love the mumsnet wisdom that canabis would be totally ok to legalise because it is a natural plant. Well, it's a plant that has been cultivated into various strains of various strength and type of impact. Not too much different from playing with chemicals in a lab!

Weed is also one of the few drugs with proven links to mental illness (although the correlation is there, the causation isn't clear). Plus it totally makes you not want to do anything, and most people smoke it with tobacco which in itself is harmful!

[Virgolia]

Think it depends on you area whois. I used to dabble in coke and pills, so don't get me wrong I'm not a complete anti-drug person, but if you go into town of a night in my area you'll see people gurning their faces off and they are extremely volatile, not the lovable happy people you might expect.

The thing is they affect people so differently. One person can be completely fine, whereas the other can go completely loopy, rolling around on the floor thinking they're a lion (I have seen this)

Anything that can alter the mind, and have such mixed results would be so hard to legalise because how can you legalise something that doesn't have consistent results, that you don't know truly what to expect from it? Especially from the likes of drugs like MDMA and LSD

[somewheresomehow]

if you saw my son when he cant even put two words together so that they remotely make sense I think you may change your mind about legalizing them

[maddening]

I think cannabis is only a gateway drug as it puts people
In touch with dealers - if it was obtained as alcohol is then less may try other recreational drugs - alcohol IMO would be as much if not more of a gateway drug if it was illegal - as you lose your inhibitions more with alcohol so would be more likely to try other drugs if they were around eg lots of non smokers smoke when drinking.

They did trial in one area prescription heroin - basically it undercut the dealers potentially dirty drugs with pure prescription drug at prescription costs - apparently crime dropped and the dealers moved out as anyone who became hooked could get it on prescription - which also meant that the addicts were seeing the dr regularly so health wise they were better
off with the chance to join schemes to come off heroin. With less dealers less people tried it too so less became addicted.

However - hard drugs I would be uneasy about whereas cannabis I would not bat an eyelid if it were to be made legal - I understand the MH argument but personally think alcohol is responsible for many more issues so it is hypocritical to have alcohol legal and cannabis not.

[maddening]

Icuchames - v sorry about all your experiences and the affect it has had on your family.

Just re the impact on your mh - if you have an illness where you should avoid something then that largely is down to you - you smoked it despite knowing the risks with your mh and it being illegal - how would legalisation of the drug have changed what you did? Some people have illnesses where they have to avoid certain food and drink and drugs which are all legal - it is down to the individual - there would be many health warnings and guidelines issued I'm sure if it were made legal - if it is acceptable for alcohol why not cannabis?

[LucyBabs]

The argument that one high dose of a class A drug could kill you? Well so can alcohol! The wrong dose of alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning and death.

Where I grew up alcohol was the gate way drug. I drank alcohol before I ever heard of a stronger drug.

I came from a working class area and most families had at least one alcoholic in the family.

I have only known two families that were affected by heroin.

I am more worried about alcohol when it comes to my children as its more widely available than any class A.

[FreeSpirit89]

Too me growing up illegal meant bad. It meant it could hurt me, or kill me. To make it legal says it's ok!!!

Not good. Although cannabis maybe