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?

It’s a fair point actually and now I am not sure how I feel.

Yes, this is an obvious risk.

But legal doesn't mean freely available, necessarily. Highly addictive drugs like morphine and heroin could be taken out of the hands of the criminal gangs without meaning they're sold in every corner shop.

Addictive drugs could be supplied via chemists with a prescription.

You'd be better off rolling a spliff or eating some brownies made with the homegrown you would be legally able to grow at home, than trying to score morphine.

Addictive drugs could be supplied via chemists with a prescription.

Who would be entitled to a prescription? Also, addicts’ tolerance increases and so they would need higher and higher doses which doctors might be unwilling to give.

"Who would be entitled to a prescription"? Good question.

I would suggest those who are addicted, as part of a treatment programme.

At the moment, heroin addicts are prescribed methodone which is actually EASIER to overdose on that heroin,

Yes, addicts' tolerance can go up. But why do you think legalising drugs necessarily means a free for all?

At the moment the creation and distribution of incredibly powerful drugs are in the hands of criminal gangs. That makes no sense, it's making the situation worse.

I would suggest possession be made legal. Addicts to get heroin on prescription. But the penalties for dealing it are made much tougher.

Anything's got to be better than it is now. You can buy drugs as easily as getting a pint of milk if you know where to go. And the crime and suffering associated with addiciton to illegal drugs is huge. You cut lots of that out if you cut out the criminal gangs.

Look at number of deaths in America and here from opioids (painkillers) addiction - and these are prescription drugs, not meth or heroin.

The deaths come from the doctors taking away the legal prescription drugs. The addict then scores heroin on the street, accidentally over doses due to the unknown strength and dies. A lot of heroin is mixed with

This is not entirely true though, is it. The problem is with doctors prescribing highly addictive strong opioids indiscriminately and these drugs being available freely. Cancelling prescription once the person is addicted does not change anything, the damage is already done.

In the US, you get a nice little jar fully of oxytocin tablets when having a tooth extraction. Like, wtf.

Alcohol and cigarettes are only legal under certain circumstances - cigarettes less and less so as they are being effectively criminalised via the increasing age limit, assuming it passes.

Alcohol is a strange one because it comes with this huge cultural and culinary connection. But it is reducing in popularity via the reduction in younger people drinking, I think?