Those mumsnetters who apologise for drug use

[IslaSkywalker]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-66289905.amp

Read this, and change your minds.

Excellent argument for decriminalisation, legalisation and regulation.

Sure. But since it's not currently decriminalised, you can't deny the current harm caused by the illegal drug trade. And I'm assuming you don't deny those current harms, since you're using them as an argument for decriminalisation.

OP is talking about people who minimise the impact of illegal drugs.

Excellent argument for decriminalisation, legalisation and regulation

Except.....https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/23/california-legal-illicit-weed-market-516868

https://eu.courier-journal.com/in-depth/news/crime/2021/12/17/mexican-drug-cartels-move-in-on-californias-shadow-marijuana-industry/6036056001/

Legal drug trade in California being undercut by the illegal trade; which was always going to happen. Did anyone seriously think that the cartels and the rest of the drug trade would give up something that lucrative? they've no interest in being legal. Too much regulation and checking and payment of those pesky things called taxes.

But also weed is a grey area because yes it is illegal in the UK but also the UK is the biggest export in the entire world for weed ,The tories own the farms ,there's a huge one in Kent actually and we sell it elsewhere ,which does raise the question why's it banned? Is it really so bad idk

Precisely. It's perfectly sensible to think the drugs trade is horrendous and poisonous, but the single-minded 'DRUGS R BAD OK' thing is just dogmatic and silly. There are plenty of ways to indulge in drugs (i.e. weed or mushrooms) that don't involve the drugs trade in any way. The former can be grown at home, the latter picked in fields all over the country. I've enjoyed using both over the years, as have the majority of my friends, and none of us have turned into heroin-addled louts.

I presume the OP and others despise alcohol and those that drink it just as much as drugs? Given the vast, horrendous impact of alcoholism, alcohol-fueled violence, drink driving, etc etc?..

So some idiot stole money and drugs from drug dealers and this is being used as an example that the rest of us should take accountability for?

I think the world can stand to lose a few of its idiots, to be honest.

The casual way people talk about Cocaine .. a drug made by slavery, and murder. Children whose parents have been killed, then enslaved in the drugs trade. It’s extraordinary the way that people talk about partners doing “Coke every now and again” as if it’s ok. Legalisation will not stop the brutality of its creation, there is an argument that it would get worse if demand increased.

As the sibling of a former Heroin Addict, there is no way I would advocate for the legalisation of this sort of drug … people would still run out of money .. would still commit crime.. would still I’d.

Exactly. If you could get hold of the soft^
/ recreational drugs legally then there is no need to get into and criminal underworld. And no one pushing you to try heroin or other hard stuff when you go to buy a bag of weed

Put me in the bin, I don't give a shit.

I smoke weed I wont apologise for it, it has zero negative affect on mine or anyone else's life regardless of what your uptight arse may think.

All I have to say about weed is that it stinks so bad it makes people feel sick and users are oblivious to it

@PurpleButterflyWings *but many MANY people take them coz they think it's cool and 'edgy.'

Grow up FFS.*

The only one who needs to grow up are the people, like you, who use the ridiculous phrase like "slippery slope!"

As for "look at those people why would anyone take drugs" ... alcohol is a drug and I could drum up loads of images of alcoholics looking a state, but people are still going to have their glass of rose on a Friday night because the two aren't intrinsically linked.

i hope it is legalised so you can take capsules

so someone who has MS which is helped by smoking weed & grows it themselves is responsible in some way for the horrible things that happened to that poor man?

This!! The article exactly highlights that drugs should be decriminalised, regulated and taxed.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

I feel terrible for his mother.

Please explain how I'm deluded? My kids are grown. I never smoked around them when they were younger. It has zero effect on anybody else but me. Yet you want to demonise people like me (there are thousands of us)

It is normal. Demonise me all you want. It shows your own lack of knowledge or compassion. Also if you drink you are a massive fucking hypocrite. Alcohol is far far more harmful than marijuana. Both physically and societally. No matter how much you try and deny it.

This this this

No it’s not nonsense. A family member started on soft drugs, ended up on heroin and finally went to prison for acts caused whilst under the influence.
He’s now in his 50’s with mental health problems and needing loads of support.
Its such a bloody waste when you remember the lovely talented young man he was.

Age restricting to 25 would stop a lot of people ending up addicted to heroin. But at that, we wouldn’t be buying heroin just oxycodone etc

When alcohol (a drug) was illegal in America, there were huge amounts of violent crime committed by those attempting to control the alcohol (drug) trade. Were the people that wanted a quiet drink on a Friday night to blame or was it the government legislation?

The solution to drug crime seems pretty clear...

One anecdote doesn't mean anything. Do you know the sheer number of people who use things like weed recreationally and never get close to trying something like heroin or become an addict?

Are you advocating a ban on all alcohol and closing pubs because a beer after work could lead to you becoming an alcoholic? Or have you somehow convinced yourself that drug is socially acceptable and therefore fine to you.

Fine by me I don’t drink.

Maybe that's because you can't disagree with what I've said.

bury your head in the sand if it makes you feel better. You've already shown you don't give a shit about people like me. It's a very telling response to an issue you don't give a fuck about and just want to jump on the "demonise all drugs and users" bandwagon

Naive!

Or wilfully ignoring the obvious.

I have no idea what you mean by people "apologising for drug use". But I disagree fundamentally with what you are saying and advocating. And to be clear, I do not take nor have I ever taken illegal drugs (and to be honest, I am deeply concerned about the doling out of legal prescribed drugs without adequate consideration of impacts and damage).

It was not drug use per se that led to this appalling crime. It was the fact that the sale of certain drugs is illegal and is therefore firmly in the hands of criminals. Prohibition of any kind has been repeatedly shown to have absolutely no impact on the availability or sale of prohibited items; its only impact is to place the market for the items in the hands of criminals, with all that that entails.

There is only one way to change that, and that is to find a strategy that decriminalises drugs. I am not in favour of advocating widescale availability - we currebtly have far too much easy access to a wide range of drugs including recreational drugs (like alcohol). Personally I would legalise all use of drugs, and make most (except, perhaps, for the most dangerous ones) available for purchase through the NHS. I would have them sold at a market price - between the purchasing power of the government and trade deals with supplying countries we could reduce costs to well below that which criminals can offer, users and addicts would be better monitored and supported and the profits made could support better drugs and addiction services.

This would also have an impact on drugs related crime - given the amount of lower level crimes like burglary that are driven by the need for money to buy drugs, these would also reduce in number. And it would equally have massive impacts in supplying countries, because we could use economics to support and control the growth / manufacture of supplies, through offocial channels, and suddenly the big cartels have no drugs business - that would free many communities and families abroad who are held in trall to the big crime syndicates.

The bottom line is that we have tried making the supply and use of certain substances illegal for centuries. It hasn't worked. It will never work. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.