Something needs to be done about drugs in UK

[RegretMisery]

Drugs are killing healthy young people. How is it that a drug dealer is not tried as a murderer?

It's not limited to class. It could be your own son or daughter.

You know how many people in Singapore die from overdoses? Almost none, because drugs are actually illegal there.

This is a strawman, because how many people die parachuting or rock climbing compared to those who use drugs? A negligible amount.

I was given morphine in hospital for severe pain - it got rid of the severe pain plus all the minor aches and pains I normally take for granted, and made me feel as though I was floating about on a soft cloud. I can see how it is addictive.

Still don't understand how people get addicted to it.

No one knows why some people get addicted and some don’t. Lots of people are prescribed opiates after an operation or for pain and some people can stop taking them and some can’t.
Likewise, most people can drink moderately and but some become alcoholics.

I agree there should be more NHS rehab facilities but an addict still has to want to give up if rehab is to work.

Are drugs killing lots of healthy young people? I thought the increase in drug related deaths was in part due to an aging population that are using drugs. That doesn’t mean that we don’t need to sort things out though.

I’d agree we definitely don’t have it right at the moment, though I don’t know how to improve things. In addition to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids there is a challenge of all the people addicted to prescribed medication (opioids, benzodiazepines, z drugs etc.).

It's really not. How many people like a beer or a glass of wine on the weekend. It's got to be a good half of the population at the very least. Last I checked half the population aren't dying of alcoholism or liver failure.

People die of ODs primarily because they have no guarantee of what they're taking, how pure it is etc. This is what happens when you make something illegal, you generally make it more dangerous.

(The one exception to that I'll grant is weaponry, particularly gun control)

Do alcohol and cigarettes serve a purpose?

no

So should they be banned?

Many more people die of drug poisoning than as road casualties in the UK.

2022 road fatalities: 1,711 (Great Britain numbers)
2022 drug poisoning deaths: 4,907 (and that's just England and Wales so the figure once you including Scotland and NI is substantially higher)

It really is awful. But there’s no quick fix and harsher penalties won’t touch it. As other posters have said, we need to look into the root causes and actually support addicts, but it’s just not possible when services are on the bones of their arse.

^

However, OP is way off the mark with the "beautiful young people" rhetoric - the peak age for dying of an OD is 40-49.

So why do you get to rule the world ?

Morphine and other products derived from opium are highly addictive, it's not up for debate, they are, it's a fact, there's nothing for you to understand.

Of course you won't get addicted if you're given a dose once to relieve acute, short-lived pain, but it really doesn't take long.

girl what? I'm not an MP I have no power

All dwarfed by the 70,000+ a year dying from smoking.

Surely by that logic drugs also serve a purpose - to get high (or low in some cases)

My BIL is a drug user in a developing country. He has been known to use crack and heroin, but these are expensive so not routine. His drugs of choice include aviation fuel, glue, khat, weed and copious quantities of alcohol. People will get high on something if they want to. You can regulate access and tackle route causes, but prohibition has never worked.

You'll never effectively address the harms done by drugs without first meeting the care needs of people with serious mental illness, who make up a vastly disproportionate percentage of users.

We've lost 25% of mental health beds in the UK in a decade.

Drug rehab in the UK has been hugely harmed by cuts to local authority funding under the Conservatives.

Well quite - although that is going to tail off as smoking is now such a minority hobby and the new progressive age limit for buying tobacco will see to the hardcore remainder.

Singapore have a mandatory death penalty for drug dealing: www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/04/singapore-unlawfully-executes-national-for-drug-offences/

I don't think that's a step forwards.

But as we've seen, the "war on drugs" is morality dressed up in faux concern for "other people.

I know what will stop them dying from drugs!

Killing them for selling drugs!

Air pollution is harmful to human health and damages the environment. The researchers estimated that 48,625 adults die prematurely each year in the UK due to particulate matter pollution. Over 1,200 deaths in people under 18 years of age are estimated to be caused by air pollution every year.
Better ban cars and industry then.

Which drug dealers would we charge for murder? Is that the man at the top of the food chain or the peddlers on street corners, dime a dozen, that the law already penalise?

Like every business of demand and supply, you first need to deal with the appetite for drug taking. It seems a casual sport for many. People indulge in drug taking all around us, but find the drug trade abhorrent 🤔.