To believe that all drugs should be legalised?

[TheWaryOchreRobin]

If alcohol and cigarettes are legal, why not regulate and tax everything else instead of letting criminal gangs profit?

Isn't that effectively how it was until 1971, with a few drugs being controlled by the 1964 laws?

Maybe those laws were enacted for a reason...

How would it work? Would one be able to go into a shop and buy whatever one wanted - heroin, cocaine, marujiana - like one can buy alcohol and fags?

Crack, crystal meth etc?

Not legalised, but all drug possession for personal use was decriminalised in Portugal in 2001.

https://transformdrugs.org/blog/drug-decriminalisation-in-portugal-setting-the-record-straight

Yes.

So nothing dubious included with it. Has to follow the same strict guidelines applied to food manufacturing.

All profits go to NHS, not some low life on a street corner.

I am in favour of it.

No idea how we get there though.

I agree, if druges were legal they would be safe and the user would know what they were buying.

To often illegal drugs are contaminated with highly dangerous cheap additives.

Agree. Alcohol is arguably the most dangerous drug and that's legal.

I studied drugs and alcohol as a post grad student and tobacco is the most dangerous with virtually zero positive benefits.

After graduating I worked helping people reduce or stop their use of illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco

I'm not sure about the ethics of selling crystal meth or heroin tbh.

And what about medications? Should we legalise otc sale of say diazepam, zopiclone, morphine? We have controls for a reason

You could make a convincing argument for legalisation of weed but I don't think we can just blindly legalise all drugs

I would argue the other way if I could. Criminalise fags and booze. Never happen of course but I think we need fewer substances which damage health and make many people behave dangerously not more.

Terrible idea. As soon as you go soft on drugs you become a hub for drug gangs to smuggle drugs through to other countries where it isn't legal.

It hasn't worked well in Amsterdam.

I used to think this but having visited the USA since some states have legalised cannabis I’m not so sure.
There seemed to be a lot more stoned people wandering the streets and on public transport.
Maybe it was all still going on beforehand but behind closed doors 🤷‍♀️

Why stop there? Let's legalise murder and theft too.

Alot of posters on here dont know any meth or heroin addicts clearly

Nah, folk can’t even make the right choices with things that are legal. No point in adding more shit that isn’t good for you, in to the mix otherwise we’ll all end up paying for it through our taxes.

Keeping it illegal will at least stop some people starting and getting hooked.

Yep, decriminalization is working out great in BC!. My kids can walk downtown and see folks smoking meth & crack In full view of the police.

Thoroughly agree - I work in MH and have long thought that this should be the case. Legalization would give a chance to ensure the product is pure and people are getting what they expect, would stamp out a lot of criminal activity, could bring better standard of living to subsistence farmers and open up a new tax revenue source. Nastiest detox around? alcohol.

You could argue that a glass of red wine had some health benefits, crack cocaine not so much…

🤣 that makes me worry for the state of education in this country

BMW6 · Today 18:42
It hasn't worked well in Amsterdam

Nor in various cities in USA.

Apparently, San Francisco is like something out of a zombie apocalypse these days. People literally just lying off their faces in the streets, defecating all over the place.

I used to wonder this

now I think the big problem would be tons of addicts, still stealing to pay for it.

and a lot of people would fall out of the workforce

like descriptions of San Francisco at the moment which are scary

Years ago I read an interview with the then-Commissioner of Police in Portugal about his tenure during drug decriminalisation.

He was so straight-forward and humble, saying "all the things I was afraid of happening, never happened. I was wrong."

It’s working great for San Francisco… I mean who wouldn’t want to visit or live in a city with shit in the streets and junkies shooting up on the street corners.