If you think drugs should be legalised..

[Playingvideogames]

Do you think soliciting prostitutes/kerb crawling should be as well?

Personally I think both should be illegal. But the arguments on here for legalising drugs (‘they’ll do it anyway’ ‘at least then we can regulate it’ ‘the current system isn’t working’) can also apply to kerb crawling/soliciting.

Both are also industries heavy on using trafficked and exploited people.

It is legal to sell sex. It’s just illegal to illicit for it. There is nothing to stop me arranging sex for money with men/ women directly.

Illiciting as a crime does nowadays focus on the punter. It’s more about protecting women from pimps and unsafe working than actually criminalising them.

Like alcohol drugs should be made legal, some of them are very good for medical conditions. I think like alcohol they shouldn’t be used while driving. (You can buy all sorts over the chemist counter.) It would solve a lot of crime and help addicts too.

A lot of people don’t take them ‘recreationally’.

I work in a field where I see heroin addicts on a near daily basis.

If you legalise drugs you make it legal to be high. Would you want a primary school teacher who smokes weed before work?

Ok that’s a fair enough stance. Do you think it’s morally right that soliciting and sleeping with trafficked women (aka rape, as many people view it) should be legalised?

That’s really interesting to know, thank you. I hadn’t realised that.

Then I guess I think soliciting should be legal too.

A primary school teacher can’t drink alcohol before work so why would she smoke weed?

I'm not against controlled red light areas. I don't ever think that prostitution isn't exploitative, but if it is going to happen (which it is) I'd much rather sex workers have support systems.

I feel much the same way about drugs. The legality of them has shit all impact on people using them so I'd rather those who are going to can have access to support systems and have better controlled substances.

In both cases it would still be illegal for somebody to sell outside of those controls.

I wouldn’t want anyone to drink or take drugs before work. How is that relevant?

Because if you’re saying being high should be legal, then who would be getting high legally and when?

No, I'd be as against a teacher smoking a spliff before work as I would be against a teacher having a nice big glass of wine before work.

But legalised drugs wouldn't mean no restrictions.

Trafficking is illegal. Fruit is legal, trafficking workers to pick them isn’t.

But being drunk is legal? Nobody is condoning being drunk at work.

The two can’t be separated though.

Ok so when would these drugs be enjoyed and by whom?

This exactly. I'm in favour of criminalising the use of prostitutes, not the women.

The arguments for legally regulated and controlled drugs are strong. I'm not sure how it would work out in practice.

As an aside, it would mean I could safely buy old-fashioned weed (now only produced for medical use) and happily revisit the vice of my long-ago youth!

Did you know the UK is the biggest producer of medicinal cannabis?

I think the amount of money in drugs is just spectacular and a strong motivator to consider legalisation.

I recall watching a 24 hours in police custody about 3 kid “drug dealers” - they’d gone into the woods and killed one, taken his stash. They were about 20, and dealt weed. I wasn’t taking it seriously at all 😭 however, this young man was taking £4k A DAY dealing weed. And what happens when you earn £28k a week? You want to spend it. But he couldn’t spend it, since how can you buy a house car etc with drug cash? So despite this mans incredible wealth he was living in a dodgy rental, trying to launder, driving an illegal car. Crime after crime after crime.

and of course, he was killed for his £4k and the stash in his rucksack

And that’s one very small, quite silly example.

When you get onto the world of international organised crime- the money and value these criminals are taking out of the uk is astonishing. Tax them. Make them regulated businesses. Let Pfizer selll drugs.

the police spend most of their time dealing with drug related crime. Legalise drugs and that disappears.

There are compelling arguments. For me, like another poster, this is many years away, and not sure i would like to be the first adopter worldwide. The Netherlands, for example, had awful problems when they legalised brohels and weed. Subsequent countries like the US were able to learn from their mistakes and legalise with far fewer negative impacts.

You think it should be legal for somebody to take heroin then sit next to your child on a bus?

If they've taken heroin, they'll be asleep! Hardly a threat to anyone.

A lot of people don't use alcohol recreationally.

At what point do you think it's appropriate to ban something which a majority can use responsibly and with very minimal harms, with the (so far always unsuccessful) aim of stopping the (sometimes sizeable) minority who use it irresponsibly and harmfully?

It isn't, per se, illegal to be high. Possession is an offence, being high is not.

If you want to draw the analogy, drink driving is illegal, being drunk and disorderly is illegal, but just being drunk is not.
And similarly, being drunk at work is a sackable offence (but not a criminal one) in most cases. So why would it be any different for drugs?
Both are obviously not appropriate for a vast number of a situations in life. But then neither is, for example, wearing a bikini, but it's fine in appropriate situations.

whats the difference to drinking alcohol? Some people drink only on their birthday and Xmas to celebrate, some people drink from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed.
Why would legalised drugs be any different?

That’s legal now

That's a bollocks argument. Booze is legal but you would get sacked for turning up to work pissed

Of course I agree that women should be able to do what they want with their bodies in that they can sleep with whomever they want but I won't ever, ever agree with supporting/legalising/legitimising buying sex for money. It is not employment that can ever, ever meet the bare minimum H&S standards, it promotes exploitation, inequality and a culture that contributes to the absolutely catastrophic epidemic of violence against women and girls. If this inconveniences men and the 1 or 2 genuine 'happy hookers' that exist then I don't care. Legalising and legitimising sex work does not even reduce black market demand or make women safer whatsoever. Quite the opposite.

Ethically produced drugs are a whole different subject. It's hard to justify the production and sale of alcohol and not drugs. There would be issues around potential costs to the heath service and good testing to alert for drug-driving etc. same as alcohol. I did read an article a while back about how much the criminals and gangs who currently produce, traffic and sell drugs would oppose legalisation; imagine 'losing' your £multi-billion industry overnight and what lengths the cartels etc. would go to to stop that happening. Not suggesting any sympathy for them (!!), just wondering what is going on behind closed doors and are the politicians/ thinktanks/ media that are against legalisation, really opposed to it on health/moral grounds or are they being heavily motivated by bribes and threats to keep the status quo?

It’s not as addictive as heroin.

Prostitution in offerring sexual services in a house is legal but soliciting/curb crawling is llegal in UK