Legalise Drugs?

[Dynamo Dan]

I cover the magistrates court in Tameside, Greater Manchester, twice a week and the amount of offences related to drug dependency never fails to shock me.

Criminals appearing at the court usually fall into about four categories:

Nutters: These are the paedophiles, wife beaters, stalkers, knife carriers and violent types. They make up about 15% of the list.

Liars: These are thieves and fraudsters who are carrying out their crimes because they're dishonest by nature not drug addicts.They make up about 5% of the list.

Drunk/Dangerous Drivers: These range from stressed out teachers who've made a mistake to alcoholics and reckless young drivers. These reprobates account for about 10% of the criminals in court.

Drug Addicts: People addicted to class A drugs, usually heroin. The range of offences is vast but it's usually theft (meat from Aldi seems popular at the moment) and sometimes it's possession. Addicts are by far the largest group probably 70% of all the crimes magistrates deal with are drug related.

If we treated these people instead of criminalising them surely we'd save a ton of cash, police time, court time and open up prison cells for the nutters to occupy?

I'm not saying we should become New Amsterdam, but that the approach we have at the moment is obviously failing. I see the same faces again and again.

Taking heroin out of the criminals hands and into the hands of health professionals, who could withdraw addicts from the drug slowly, seems like a better approach.

Investing in rehab programmes must be cheaper than all the time spent by the justice system on these people - not to mention the amount of pain and money it costs their victims.

But here's the rub - has any politician got the bottle to do it and take the flack from the right-wing press? I doubt it very much.

[The devil's own]

Problem is is Dan that however you control it a black market will still remain, only the price would be higher. There are many CD's (controlled drugs) that are easy to get hold of on the street and class a's would remain so.

[Dynamo Dan]

Problem is is Dan that however you control it a black market will still remain, only the price would be higher. There are many CD's (controlled drugs) that are easy to get hold of on the street and class a's would remain so.

You are right about the black market, but decriminalising drugs would at least give them another option. I'm sure some would carry on though.

[TurboTom]

It is a tricky argument here I suppose.

The advantages are:

- Massive taxation would be possible (prices in Amsterdam are roughly similar to prices over here, not that I would know)
-Less prison crowding/ bureaucracy and wasting of police time
-Increased liberty

Disadvantages

-Loss in profits from court fines (would this be negated by taxation???)
NHS having to deal with an increased mental health bill
People becoming stoners and sitting on their backsides all day doing nothing and claiming state benefits

[Danbert Nocurry]

I personally couldn't care less if it's legalised or not as I don't bother with any of it.

Before we do legalise any of it....i'd encourage the pro- legalisers just top 'take a trip' to their local mental health ward and see if they can explain why it's full of fruitloop males in their 20's and 30's.

I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation :w00t:

[Dynamo Dan]

-Loss in profits from court fines (would this be negated by taxation???)

Smackheads rarely pay their fines mate!

[noel]

I guess this opens up the quesion of why would you legalise drugs. If it's to prevent harm to society then there's an argument.

People are assuming that there would be an increase in use if they were legalised. What's the evidence on this?

Also, on the subject of price, it costs buttons to make heroin - it comes from poppies remember. The rub would be in how much you taxed it and how you controlled it.

If it were only legal through a doctor if you registered as a drug-user and were placed on a rehab programme, this isn't fully legalisation in my eyes. To me legalisation would mean that you could buy it from a pharmacy without prescription.

It's strange to me that we're having this debate and yet we're all OK with Tesco selling enough alchohol in one go to one person for them to drink themselves to death.

[IanDarkpeak]

personnaly I wouldn't have any prisons just labour camps where conficts work for the good of the community they've wronged. harsh but then I'd vote for the death penalty as well

[dominion]

The categories listed seem to indicate that the druggies aren't in court on drugs charges - supply, possesion etc, but for other crimes as a result of the drugs they are abusing. This indicates that drugs are the cause of other criminality? If you put the drugs into the hands of doctors I suspect that the hardened addicts would still want their black market fix, and would still steal, cheat and beat others to get the cash to get their next fix, and they would still be in court on charges such as shoplifting, mugging, assault etc. We need to get drugs off the streets and until that happens the courts are going to be filled with people for whom criminality is their way of life.

[sore legs]

Sod all this tree huggy stuff.

It should remain illegal to the point where it should be laced with something horrible that induces certain death for users. That would sort out many of the problems - a half serious view.

On a very serious note, I would issue a prison sentance to all crimes that are attributed to a user where the crime is related to his habit. The sentance should also be carried out in a US style 'nasty as hell' prison and beast the living daylights out of them, not a cushy UK holiday prison. They should lose all benifits that they are on and any medical problems that they suffer with should be paid for out of their own pocket.

The dealers should simply be sent to the said 'nasty as hell' prison and left to rot. Neither of these groups of people have a place in society in my view.