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!!

Why would it be cheaper on the street? You haven't thought this through at all. Where do you think most of the overheads lie in the drug trade?

You realise that the drug deers now will still be drug dealers and they won't do it legally because they will be taxed on what the earn?

You realise that there is no reason to think this at all? I am astonished that people think the legalisation crowd are the niave ones.

Making them legal won't make them less addictive.

We need to tackle the causes of drug use so much better care for mental health and poverty prevention.

And yes, anyone who takes drugs is to blame for fuelling this trade. Including Mr and Mrs Smith who like their cannabis in their home after their day at work...

Plus it'd be mixed and cut with all kinds of crap on the street, as it is now.

If alcohol was illegal people would use bootleggers. There's a reason criminals aren't making their fortune selling alcohol.

Yes but legalise and regulate it is the first step and an easy win to drastically reduce violent crime and get it out the hands of organised crime.

Next step is improve drug treatment facilities, rehabilitation and mental health privision.

@Miffee I honestly can't fathom your line of reasoning!! Tax = more expense. Have you ever known someone addicted to heroin? They will do anything to get hold of the cheapest, easiest high.

It's not like buying a paracetamol.

@User135644 alcohol is a bad example, yes it's legal but there are just as many problems with addiction as with drugs.

Heroin and cocaine are also more addictive than alcohol.

I think the problem of addiction needs to be split between helping the people who are currently addicted and reducing the numbers who could become addicted in the future.

Legalisation and control reduces the number of people entering the vicious circle of addiction, prostitution, drug debt, petty crime.

Legalisation and control would see more people buying recreational drugs but in a similar way to people's alcohol purchases. Just because someone drinks recreationally doesn't mean they are automatically drawn to the strongest alcoholic drinks.

Legalisation and control would mean consumers could go to their local recreational drug shop and say to the assistant what effect they are looking for. Or even read the label like you do when buying wine. 'Goes well with trance music' 'Enjoy with some mellow sounds and good conversation'.

Legalisation and control would make it far easier to help people currently addicted to get access to an affordable, clean, legal, maintenance supply of the drug they are addicted to.

@User135644 "an easy win'

Nothing easy at all about persuading someone addicted to Class A substances to use a reputable, taxed service where it's all above board. A more expensive service?

I'm talking about organised crime. Imagine how richer organised crime would be if alcohol was illegal and the evil middle class MN dinner party that bought 2 bottles off wine off that bootlegger having blood on their hands etc etc.

I hate drugs but our drugs policy is the definition of insanity.

When something becomes legal people do start to think it's okay. Look at alcohol, hundreds of bottles in the supermarket and it all seems harmless.so many alcoholics though, people with drinking problems.

Even buying hard drugs from a reputable place that 'monitors' how much people use would result in addiction. Then are they going to admit this? Or will they turn to back street dealers who can sell them what they want at a better price?

You'll have lots of rehabilitation clinics for this reason yes. More than we have now probably.

You don't need to imagine. It happened. It was stopped because it was terrible. It still is a terrible idea.

Look at places where weed is legal. Legal shops do most of the trade and bring in billions in tax. Billions Taken out of criminals hands. No one in Amsterdam is buying weed from dodgy guys in back alleys- they just buy it in a coffee shop

I cannot fathom yours. The major overhead of drug production stems from the fact its illegal. Manufacturing and supply would be much cheaper if it was legal.

Legalise and control the supply chain from port to consumer and I would doubt the drugs would be more expensive even with taxation on top.

No costs involved in hiding any part of the legitimate process. No paying for bribes, 'protection', inefficient supply processes.

Anyone who takes drugs is fuelling this AND the exploitation of vulnerable children via county lines drug running all over the country.

Being an addict is now excuse. You weed/coke/spice/MDNA/heroin fix has probably cost others much more than it cost you.

Anyone who says otherwise is entirely ignorant of the true nature of the drug trade.

Marijuana is legal in Canada. However, there are still addicts who get hold of it via dubious means because they can’t afford the cost of buying it legally. I was shocked at the sights in some parts of Vancouver where users were gathered. Crime still surrounds the use of marijuana because it’s not free.

Completely agree OP. We also don’t talk about the victims that are targeted to bring the drugs into the country either- often vulnerable people that are very poor from other countries. Their stories are often very sad and they are then put in prison here in a country they do not know. Middle class recreational drug users make me so angry- the ones I know pride themselves on being ethical with food and pro womens rights but then take drugs and ignore the real impact their choices make.

This is a strong argument against and one I don't really have a response for.

I think we can confidentiality say drugs like Ecstacy, cannabis and LSD are less harmful than alcohol but my argument falls apart with heroin and meth which are just as bad as alcohol (not sure about cocaine but would lean towards grouping it with herion).

Herion becoming half as popular as alcohol is terrifying. The only thing is I wonder if those hard drugs would replace rather than add to alcohol abuse. Still not great though.

But then if you aren't legalising hard drugs the drug trade remains. I still don't think it's a good enough reason to not make soft drugs legal but it definitely becomes a trickier problem.

You can apply this logic to mobile phones. It doesn't help. You really want a mobile phone and talk yourself out of responsibility for the misery they cause. Drug users do the same.

I suspect that some of the same posters who are blasé about paying to have children flayed and burnt to death in Mexico feel quite smug about buying free-range eggs and fair trade coffee.

@Miffee
That is totally stupid whataboutery. Drugs are dangerous at production, supply and use.

The little bag of weed that someone picks up on the streets has been through a modern Albert production process, used vulnerable children as mules to take it to suppliers and then robs families of money for food. It destroys lives at all ends.

But this is exactly like the arguments about hard core porn. The people who get pleasure from it refuse to see that their pleasure is tainted by that pain of others. It’s pure selfishness.

Look at places where weed is legal. Legal shops do most of the trade and bring in billions in tax. Billions Taken out of criminals hands. No one in Amsterdam is buying weed from dodgy guys in back alleys- they just buy it in a coffee shop

Yet criminals are still often heavily involved in coffee shops.

www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/06/banning-tourists-from-cannabis-cafes-will-cut-back-on-crime-halsema/

Miffed

Some valid points and a few things for me to think about. Thank you.

I do see some similarities between the gangs that control drugs and those that control women.

Both trade in human misery. In the drugs trade that human misery is often 1 or 2 steps away from the consumer. In prostitution it's directly in front of the consumer.

In both cases the human misery is there and either people are OK with it of they're not. Something can't be slightly morally wrong.

The rerecational drug users are OK with human misery provided they can't see it.

Legalise weed and use the tax profit to fight the rest. I mean Philip may is already the biggest weed supplier (dealer) in Europe out of his Norfolk farm.

People don't turn to heroin, crack, spice for fun. They do it because their lives have been so intolerably shite through abuse, poverty, mental health issues they can't get through life. If you honestly believe they are just selfish, you are part of the problem and the reason society will never change. You are truly ignorant, full stop.

As for the middle class wankers/bankers in their droves snorting lines upon lines in secret but not daring to tell anyone so no one thinks less of them - they are just as bad as the ones bleating 'but ten bits fuel traffickers' without the first clue what they are talking about.