Anyone else absolutely shocked of three innocent people in Liverpool all drug related!!

[Toosadtocomprehend]

If anyone reading this that takes recreational drugs should be absolutely ashamed of the carnage that their habit is causing…an innocent 9 year old ,20 year old and 22 year old have lost their lives because of other people shitty pastimes …think think think before you snort or smoke that poison!!

So it’s tough on a few to act as a deterrent to the many.

That doesn't work on such a massive scale I would struggle to describe it.

If you think the UK is bad wait until you see the horrors that take place in other parts of the world.

I agree about people who casually and consistently find the vicious drugs trade. People who are genuinely addicted need help and are its victims, but of course they have some responsibility as well.

Fund!

"Addicts are a victim - recreational users are complicit"

Agreed.

Do you feel the same about prostitution?

I have never taken a recreational drug in my life and I agree with legalisation of recreational drugs.

Not simply decriminalisation but legalisation. License premises to sell. Quality control. Tax profits. As a trade, drag it out into the light.

Legalise the supply chain all the way back to UK ports. This will remove profitability of smuggling lines in the UK.

Legalisation, license and control will significantly reduce criminal activity around the supply of drugs. It won't get rid of it all but it will get rid of a lot.

Users become consumers. They will be able to go to a licensed shop and read the ingredients of their drug of choice. They will be able to buy with confidence that what they are buying has been quality controlled with no hidden 'extras'.

Many mumsnet users seem to think middle class drug taking is somehow acceptable. Nope you’re just skanky and are responsible for these deaths.

I have a feeling that everybody condemning recreational drug users is in a glass house.

It's hard to pick a consumer product that isn't directly leading to death and misery somewhere in the world.

I'm inclined less to blame individual consumers than I am the structures that foster these things.

‘It's hard to pick a consumer product that isn't directly leading to death and misery somewhere in the world.’

Is it? I quite like Jo Malone candles. When was the last time someone shot a 9 year old dead because someone tried to move in on their candle-making patch?

I don't and I do think we should legalise drugs.

I also recognise that a lot of the arguments I have for my latter position could be used in the former however I do think there are fundamental differences. For one thing we have examples.

Alcohol is legal in the UK and although there is, of course, a blackmarket for alcohol it isn't as violent or destructive as illicit drugs. We also have examples of places where prostitution is legal and my understanding is its pretty shit.

The issue with prostitution isn't the selling of sex in a vacuum it's part of a much larger problem to do with how society views women. I don't think drug use is in anyway comparable.

Unless you are typing your responses on a Jo Malone candle you're in trouble.

I can't believe the ignorance on this thread.
Only on Mumsnet!

Please think about what @TeapotTitties and @VyeBrator have said. The problem is much wider than 'a few lines' by the 'middle class'.

Legalisation and control gives government a huge tax raising opportunity.

Legalisation will also allow addiction problems to be more openly supported. This will have knock on effects into prostitution and petty crime.

In my view an adult should be allowed to be paid to have sex with another adult if that is how they want to make a living. Legalise the drugs trade and properly support addiction problems and fewer people will be drawn into prostitution simply to pay to support their habit.

Legalisation and control removes the economic purpose of County lines, cuckooing etc which currently blight poorer areas. This means fewer young and vulnerable people being drawn into criminality.

@thelittleapple

Yes I enjoy reading crime thrillers in my spare time and find no one's been shot due to this.

It's ridiculous for other posters to make sweeping generalisations about 'consumer products'.

Drugs are highly addictive and the people controlling that world make a lit of money and there's violence, corruption.

People saying we should legalise drugs are naive. I'm talking about class A drugs when I say that these users don't want the taxman hiking up the costs. Back street dealing will still be rife and the Police will then have an excuse not to do anything because the substance is legal!!!

What’s the alternative to legalisation?
Just letting the underworld crack on?

There needs to be a major crackdown on drug use in this country. Possession of any amount of drugs needs to be punishable by serious jail time, and dealers should get life meaning life, unless they provide information on their supplier which leads to a conviction. I'd honestly bring back the death sentence for anyone convicted of being major trafficker or wholesaler of drugs.

I wouldn't have a problem with cannabis being legal but heroin, cocaine, PCP etc should definitely stay illegal.

No, how about more resources to Police the problem? The Police are massively under resourced and under funded. Tackle corruption in the Police that enables many to 'not see' the issues of drugs. More education and support for younger people on drugs. A harder line on not even taking drugs to start with.

The drug war is causing this all over the country. Legalise, regulate and tax them.

Yes that's what we need, everyone legally walking around out their nut, legally carrying drugs 🤣

I grew up in a deprived area, lots of my friends took drugs. Once they used hard drugs many of them were addicted for life.

My dm sat me down when I was 11, before I started high school. She gave me a hard line talk about drugs. Told me the name of every drug and what they did to your body. She told me what happened to people who took them. I never touched a drug!!! I was scared but I'm so grateful now because I saw so many suffering because of drugs. School didn't tell us this.

Same as the alcohol prohibitionists for the murder and mayhem in Capone's days.

The difference between drugs and a mobile phone is you don't want to use the former. That's it.

You can try an justify it as much as you want but your concern about the impact individual consumers have on human misery only extends to other peoples behaviour.

@User135644 you seriously think that someone addicted to cocain or heroin will pay tax on drugs when they can buy it half the price from an illegal dealer? You're living in a dream world.

I agree @Florenz, however, more often than not the dealers at the top are still able to operate from inside their cell. I do agree that some corrupt police are equally to blame, it means that people who would like to report it are reluctant to do so because they do not trust that they will remain anonymous and may have doubts about any action being taken anyway.

The legal system needs to come down much harder on drug trafficking and dealing.

Yes to more education for younger people!