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.

No it's obviously a terrible idea, and it's just no suprise that the current bonkers incarnation of the Greens are the ones proposing it.

I do very much agree with you. The mental health impacts of drugs is a real problem. Do you not think though that access to education and services could be improved if it wasn’t illegal?

people who stan the Netherlands model maybe don’t realise the disaster it was in reality, one impact being mental health. However again, long term thinking, that has also stabilised and improved.

finally there are trends over time that need to be taken Into account. We are all older people and the heroin addicts of the 80/90s ARE still going un recovered. However there is a significant drop in the younger generation becoming heroin addicted. It’s an old persons drug. They will die out.

Oh absolutely there is a trend in drugs and keeping on top of the latest thing is almost impossible for those trying to get things safe. Yep heroin will mostly die off - shows how resilient some users are though that habits of 40/50 years are being managed.
The ketamin issues are really starting to show now (bladder and kidneys mostly).
It would be utopia if money was used to address access to education and services but it would be a vote killer (I would imagine).
We have made 2 billion from legalising and regulating certain drugs so we are going to spend it on education around those people who may use drugs- would be bad optics as the phrase is now.
Also - whoever says about heroin etc - most people can use it opiates as a prescribed pain killer in strictly controlled settings (hospitals etc) without leaving hospital and suddenly needing to be buying 500quids worth of crack before falling asleep on a bus.

The evidence suggests that if done properly, it is in fact a very good idea. The dogmatic war on drugs has failed and continues to fail.

I think you are talking about decriminalisatiom which is very different to legalisation.

I think its hard to say "the war on drugs" has failed when we haven't got "the peace with drugs" to compare it to. For all the problems we have, it could easily be a lot worse.

Very quick google shows theUK drugs trade is estimated to be £10bn PA (as in that what users spend) but the cost of it is approx £19bn, so it would’ve cost avoidance as well as tax revenue.

legalising drugs would give people choice to some extent- there is no need to try whatever your dealer pushes, or whatever the club are selling. You can pre plan with “safe” drugs of choice (of course the risks around them means they’re not entirely safe, but safe product)

Totally agree. I think the Portugal example is limited in its use for this reason

Yes decriminalize it all

If you decriminalise but don’t supply the drugs, offences like county lines (using teens as drug runners) will continue. Do you want that?

Absolutely - this is what so many just fail to grasp.

It would be legalisation in the sense that end users would no longer be prosecuted for use and possession for personal use, and that any arrest would lead to provision of treatment rather than jail. The Portugal model is not full legalisation in that sense, and I very much doubt that full legalisation is what the Greens want.

There are models of managing drugs in use in other coungtries which have better outcomes than we do. Why are people on here so wedded to continuing with a model that is failing literally everyone?

in practicality though, ads drug users prosecuted in the uk? It is effectively decriminalised.

I'm with you on this.

If drugs were legalised, we wouldn't have idiots with guns having turf wars. And the quality could be controlled so that (eg) the incredibly strong strains of cannabis that can lead to psychosis wouldn't be available.

Legalise it all then

@pointythings
"The Portugal model is not full legalisation in that sense, and I very much doubt that full legalisation is what the Greens want."
That's exactly what their comments suggest they do want. If full legalisation wasn't their intention they would have asked the BBC to correct their headline on it by now, and ZP wouldn't have made comments on TV about people being allowed to take whatever makes them happy. These don't sound like proposals for tightly controlled decriminalisation with a view to rehabilitation.

The only drug that could be legalised would be cannabis- relatively harmless, it would be good to get the tax from this for the government however it would mean the dealers would start dealing harder stuff instead?? Tricky one..

There is a lack of clarity in the OP about the meanings of the terms being used.

It would for instance be perfectly possible to ‘legalise’ prostitution by removing all penalties for sex workers, while still providing for it to be a criminal offence for a ‘punter’ to kerb crawl or solicit prostitution. In other words the exploited victim would not be subject to penalties, but the exploiter would be.

Similarly it would be possible to ‘legalise’ drugs by decriminalising drug possession for personal use, while retaining penalties for the supply of drugs, or for the supply of drugs otherwise than in a licensed setting, or even otherwise than in a medical setting, or perhaps even the supply of dangerously adulterated drugs - lots of options.

The point is that there are so many possible permutations and policy objectives in each case that it is simplistic to try and compare the two as the OP does. Different social problems require different solutions, and words like ‘legalise’ and ‘de-criminalisation’ and ‘regulation’ will have different meanings in different contexts. To call for some sort of imaginary ‘consistency’ between how we treat drug use and how we treat prostitution ignores this real world complexity & is not useful in discussing & assessing policy responses to these big social problems.

It’s great Daily Mail style shit stirring though.