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?

I'm not sure the US is too interested in the social safety nets that have to accompany this kind of widespread reform.

Well the latest research is that no amount of alcohol is beneficial or safe - the only way to drink 'safely' is not at all. You could also argue tobacco has no benefits. But it is still legal and people choose to smoke. Fewer all the time, hopefully.

If we need more of a safety net then why would it be helpful to do it? what is the benefit of doing it? I used to think maybe police are wasting time on it but now I think that legalising it would cause more problems

And I’m glad we haven’t. Call me crazy but I’d like safety nets to be for those who aren’t hellbent on destroying everything around them.

Exactly.

I would also add my teen can buy vapes /booze( not 18) in so many shops .. if he could buy drugs as well it doesn’t bear thinking of ..

Mr brother was a Heroin Addict .. I would never advocate for legalisation. I do understand why people say it, it would partially remove the criminality, but the impact on health services would be enormous. It’s wrecks your body, for the rest of you life.

So when your teenager reaches the legal age to buy alcohol you'd be happy for them to choose to legally buy heroin/cocaine/meth instead? You can't see any problem there?

The thing with drugs is people too often assume it'll only fuck up other people, not our own children.

Nope, alcohol is fully legal and normalised, and the toll on society from that alone (financial and in the misery caused to the addicts themselves, the people who love them, the children stuck living with them and the innocent people mown down on the roads by them) is incalculable. Why would you want to replicate that with other harmful substances?

You and I might be fine, but you'd be opening a yawning abyss in front of plenty of troubled people without the ability to resist these drugs if all obstacles to them are removed.

I used to believe in decriminalisation but against it now for the many reasons people have already discussed.

Lovely, we can turn our cities into Portland, Oregon. They're not quite fucked enough.

They are making tobacco illegal though in the uk, for anyone born after 2009.

I'd like it considered as at the moment the war on drugs is not working is it? We need to think differently and outside of the box. Criminalisation, social scorn etc. haven't worked at all.

I think decriminalising drugs may be the way forward.

I used to be very liberal about drugs and then saw what they did to my family.
I have also lived in a country with legalised drugs. It doesn’t work. It just doesn’t. And the argument above also about your country becoming a hub for criminals who just use your country as a supply chain conduit is a very wise one.
It would be a disaster for the UK.

People can’t be trusted to stick to safe limits that’s why they have to say zero alcohol. I agree with what you say about smoking and they are phasing it out thankfully but not quick enough imo.

What? Are you classing people who have meth labs as farmers, or are you advocating farmers diversify?
Who's going to test every batch of these drugs? Produce and import them?
Next you'll be saying they should be free!

Well we could come down a hell of a lot harder than what we currently do. Most drug dealers get a slap on the wrist. We need a belt and braces approach supporting addicts, removing shame so people can access help, but coming down like a ton of bricks on the dealers.

Criminalisation doesn't lead to abstinence

Who's going to test every batch of these drugs? Produce and import them?
Next you'll be saying they should be free!

What?!!!! 😂

I guess they would be produced, tested, regulated and taxed like all the other mood altering substances which are currently legal!

But this hasn't worked - they've tried it and more dealers come and take their place. Even the big drug lords haYs someone to replace them when they eventually get taken out or arrested.

You've clearly never seen someone on heroin or crystal meth!! The addictive properties of these drugs are MASSIVE! More so than alcohol.

Who's going to want to be the first company to do that?
'When I grow up, I want to own the biggest crack producing factory in the UK!'

Yes it is depressing that there's constantly more coming to take their place. But that's defeatest- almost like saying let's not arrest murderers as there's always going to be murders!
The lower level drug dealing should be dealt with alot harder, first offence support given but then any following offences, serious jail time..half of them shifting major gear aren't even sent down anymore these days.

Defeatist argh stupid phone

Well, I guess people were making this argument before cannabis was legalized. You clearly are against the proposition, I am for it. Probably going to leave it there, tbh.