At 4:18pm on 04 Sep 2008, niall_g wrote:
The
legalisation of all drugs has long been advocated by libertarian
economists (and has been championed by The Economist for some time).
Legalise
drugs and you take organised crime out of the picture. You give the
government another source of tax revenue. Additionally you stop
cannabis being a gateway drug since there will be no backstreet dealers
offering people looking for cannabis a free wrap of crack or heroin to
get them hooked.
There is also a potential saving to the NHS as
they will not be required to treat people who are badly hurt by drugs
cut with things like scouring powder. People will also know the purity
of what they are buying.
Unfortunately I cannot see any
politician with a sniff of being able to espouse this due to the volume
of opposition from the sheep led by the red tops (amongst others).
Jaknet wrote:
The
government claims it wants to stop the criminals from profiting from
drugs. Surely the only way, as the "war on drugs" has done nothing but
cost the tax payer billions, is to legalise them, tax them and control
them itself. Thus removing the criminals totally from the supply chain,
helping improve the poorer countries where the drugs are produced and
keeping the quality of the drugs safe.
How can there not be a
drop in crime when all the drug dealers from the street dealer up to
the main big importers lose their entire market.
I've yet to see anyone having street wars over selling alcohol or tobacco
Has no-one learnt anything from USA and the times of prohibition. The only people who profited from that were the criminals.
Drugs
have been part of human society for over 5,000 years and it has not
destroyed us. The only reason tobacco and alcohol are not classed as
"drugs" (which they are) is because they are taxed and controlled. Do
the same with the rest of the drugs and be done with it.
There
might well be a decrease in crime and also a decrease in binge drinking
due to being able to enjoy a smoke instead of the only option being
alcohol.
How many people have been killed by smoking cannabis
(none) compared to the amount of deaths each week from drinking the
legal drug of alcohol.
How much police, court and prison time
and money will be saved by this. Giving our overworked justice system
the time to deal with more serious crime.
I wonder how much of
the governments reluctance to address this issue is helped by the
alcohol industry not wanting to lose their profits from giving the
nation an option to drinking. The paper and textile industries were one
of the reasons cannabis and hemp became illegal in the states as it
threatened their profits.
Not to mention that hemp (contains
almost no THC) is good for biofuel, clothing, paper etc, etc and grows
easily and quickly without any help.
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