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.

And? What's that got to do with smoking a joint before work which is what I was replying to.

Your point was daft.

At bit of reading around the topic will tell you why it is bound to fail in the UK. We don't have the support structures in place for legalised drugs. Where it has been moderately successful drug user focused support infrastructure exists covering everything from housing and safe spaces through to treatment. Our NHS is as breaking point - we can barely treat cancer patients or house low income families.

It also doesn't stop exploitation and the criminality around drugs.

Didn't mean to tag this posters.

Well you’d probably have to ask them! But, for example, someone taking a pill on a Friday night at a club. Someone having a joint and a pizza with friends. I like wine with food, a cocktail after work. Some people drink a bottle of vodka at 7am. The possibilities are endless really!

Ok, so what pill and would you be happy with your child doing this?

Of course they can, just proper controls need to be in place. Most supermarkets have full traceability, showing the farms the fruit was picked. These places are inspected and have to report to the inland revenue. There is trafficking and slave labour involved in many products (clothes, food, building materials), if the industry is regulated then people are more aware and choose accordingly.

portugal is significantly poorer then the uk so I don’t see infrastructure etc as a barrier- it’s just a case of choosing to build the infrastructure, which is certainly obtainable if the did it there.

i think the main barrier is they did it 25 years ago tbh. Who knows whether it would have the same impacts if started in 2026.

I agree around criminality- I don’t get the point that they help users and smash drug gangs instead. A drug user wouldn’t be criminalised in the uk- possession etc is effectively decriminalised and any addict in prison would be there for unrelated crimes (although almost certainly one motivated by their addiction) the focus is still on the dealers here?

I’d be a lot happier them doing it if it was fully regulated and tested!! Once they get to a certain age, there’s not really a lot you can do is there? Better to be regulated and tested, same with alcohol.

Would you be happy with your child drinking? Do you think you could stop them if they wanted to?

This is such a weird question.

pilll- er….ecstasy?
my child- presume you mean my adult child, as their in a club…. whether I’m happy with them taking drugs or not isn’t actually related to their legality?!?

Should we remove the age of consent? Should we make… well, everything legal? Because people commit crime anyway?

If people want to do dangerous things the government should just let them get on with it why should tax payers have to rescue people for their idiocy

Thry want to fry their own brain cells leave then to it

I used to think decriminalisation of drugs would be sensible, but looking at the experience of many North American cities that have tried it, I have changed my mind. Unless production and the route to market is very tightly regulated, and efficiently taxed. But I don't think it would be.

Actually to be fair OP I might be a good example myself. I have never taken drugs. If the were legal I would be eager to try them. This is partly my age (older and less frightened) partly because I’m sober so don’t use alcohol anymore, so would like a nice experience. I would try weed and psychedelics.

I quite fancy a trip to New York just for the gummies to be honest

when would I take them? At a weekend away, or a dinner with friends. On a Sunday afternoon to enjoy an experience before the slog starts.

Nope - local to me there was a managed zone where solicitation was permitted.

It might have stopped now as I've since moved away, but pre covid it was very much a policed area with solicitation permitted and good engagement between prostitutes who were regularly waiting on the street and police.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex,Drugs%26Murder:LifeintheRedLightZone#:~:text=Holbeck%20in%20Leeds%20is%20the%20feature%20of,at%20the%20centre%20of%20the%20managed%20zone.

ETA - the scheme was closed down post covid.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/26155402/britains-first-legal-red-light-district-2pm-sex-gardens/

Are you trying to equate someone having a glass of wine, or a joint, or a pill, to rape?

I think they have a dispensation of the law, rather than the law had been changed in that area to make soliciting legal

I had the luck of coming through the rave scene was new and AMAZING. I’ve been involved in the scene for the best part of 35 years. A lot of pills have been imbibed in that time

I would absolutely prefer my kids went out and took the occasional E than spent their nights drinking and getting in to fights and making shitty decisions. And actually, I’ve raised one very sensible, graduate, raver, and one who has no inclination.

MDMA is one of the safest drugs there is. Millions of grams taken every weekend
either in pill or crystal form. No one ever took a pill and thought “I’m going to go and have a fight with that copper” or “I’m going to go home and start an argument with my partner”. It’s incredible for helping you to process your thoughts and build relationships with other people. It’s also been proven to help people who are suffering from PTSD.

As with every drug you need to understand it and know how much you’re supposed to take - that’s why prescription drugs have doses and leaflets. Legalisation would allow that.

Edited, wrong link sent
I will not contradict you however the legislation ssys is illegal.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/51A#:~:text=(1)It%20is%20an%20offence,the%20Street%20Offences%20Act%201959.%5D

That comparisson is ridiculous

You can presumably see some arguments for decriminalising drugs even if you don't agree.

Can you really see reasons for removing the age of consent?

For me the main argument for decriminalisation is that keeping them illegal has devastating effects on a small number of producer/supplier countries. The way it works now, those countries are paying a heavy toll for the rest of the world's drug use.

I think the first should be illegal because it morally degrades society. It would show our youth that bodies are cheap.

With drugs, I think it's tricky. They could be lagal to people over 25. I don't think there's anything wrong with drug use per se as long as you can keep a grip on it and not fall into addiction. And yes, it's true, a user or addict will always find a way anyway and this would keep them safer. I don't think drugs like LSD should be legalised because they can cause psychosis and suffering for a person's whole life, from doing it once. Perhaps at low doses in medical settings for treating addiction etc. .

We have a real problem in the UK in accessing pain relief and sleeping pills where they are absolutely necessary for some people but not prescribed. Perhaps, this is what should be addressed. So that people in pain and etc, don't have to self medicate

@Nincompoo I agree with you upto a point ,I was on the Nsoul scene for 14 years amphetamine drug of choice and used overall 20years.
I saw a about five fights in that time usually pissed up local yokels.The Nsoul scene was self policed I never saw girls getting grief unlike normal clubs with the beer monsters.
But unfortunately Amphetamine usage takes a heavy toll mentally.
It being illegal didn't bother me ,I steered clear of heroin and injecting because if you move in drug using circles you would know it's for mugs.

If drugs were legal there would still be certain drugs people would avoid.

I think it depends on drug. You can not put weed and crack in the same basket. Cocaine heroine fentanyl are some of the drugs that take hold and many can not get out of it until they die. It also turns your brain into mush and you become a zombie living for the next hit. Yes, you might be that person who can have it occasionally, but if you are not? The risks are too great. Weed? Yes it does affect kids brain as they develop but they incur a fraction of the sides effects of alcohool and cigarettes and many many big pbarma medicines. Families are destroyed by alcohool and alocholics, it makes you brave by removing social inhibitons, many people kiled on roads because of it. Parents and kids who cut contact due to growing in alcoholic families, the effects on the ones around is tremendous. Yet, alcohool is permited, advertised, glamourised. Every MAFS female is clinging to their glasses throught the whole serries like is taped to their fingers. That's cool, is fashionable. So a big hypocrisy in keeping weed illegal but keeping alcohool and cigarettes legal. Is all about money! I only had weed once, did not like it will never have it again, I tried that is enough. I did not like what it did to my brain, I like my head clear and to be in control of my actions and emotions. I was and am aware is not for me. But if it helps others with pain, anxiety and a pletphora of other conditons physical and mental who are you to stop people's access to them? Why not prescribed through GP in safe and well monitored doses? So swings and roundabouts, no straight answer

Edited for typos

I am on California where weed is legal. Companies have polices that can’t be under the influence. If someone appears stoned or reeks of weed there is reasonable suspicion and they can sent for a drug test. Same rules as alcohol, if someone is stumbling/slurring or reeks of booze they are sent for a blood alcohol test. It works very well.

I travelled to a country where weed is legal and controlled. The experience buying it, in a brightly lit shop, with a knowledgeable shop assistant was a world away from a geezer in a club.

What effect would I want, what would I bring doing afterwards, what strength in a scale of 1-5, did I want a full gram joint or just a 0.5g?

Would I prefer that for my 19yo compared to what I experienced at uni? Yes.