"Make drugs legally available", says Ex-Minister Bob Ainsworth
225 replies, posted
Source 1: [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/12/can_we_imagine_a_britain_where.html[/url]
[quote]As drugs minister for two years and more recently as defence secretary visiting the opium-producing region of Afghanistan, Bob Ainsworth says he saw how a policy of prohibition has failed to reduce the harms that drugs cause: in his words, "fuelling burglaries, gifting the trade to gangsters and increasing HIV infections".
Now, he argues, it is time to make all drugs available legally within a strict system of regulation - either prescribed by doctors or sold under licence like tobacco.
Many people find inconceivable the idea that you could pop to the High Street and buy some cannabis or ecstasy along with a packet of twenty and a bottle of scotch. The notion that a doctor might sign a script for pure cocaine or diamorphine might seem equally extraordinary.
But Bob Ainsworth's ideas reflect the situation that existed in Britain in the last century. Until 1916 you could buy cocaine and heroin over the counter in Harrods. Shop assistants might have suggested "Ryno's Hay Fever and Catarrh Remedy" (basically pure cocaine) "for when the nose is stuffed up, red and sore". And what better way to support the boys at the front during World War I than Harrods gift packs containing morphine and cocaine?
Until the mid-sixties in Britain, doctors could and did prescribe heroin and cocaine to patients. Records confirm that in 1962 one London doctor prescribed more than 600,000 heroin tablets to hundreds of users.
So Mr Ainsworth seems to be essentially calling for a return to a situation that was once described as "the British System" of narcotics control - regarding drug use as a health rather than a criminal matter.
The theory is that if you regulate the supply of drugs, so that they are available legally, you take the trade away from criminal gangs. Instead of buying heavily-adulterated and dangerous heroin from a street dealer, a user could obtain quality-controlled morphine from a GP - and be encouraged to get treatment and support to overcome addiction.
Mr Ainsworth is not the first drugs minister to change their tune on prohibition once leaving office. His predecessor in the job Mo Mowlam wrote an article in the Guardian in 2002 in which she said pretty much the same thing, as British troops fought the Taliban in Afghanistan.[/quote]
Source 2 (with video): [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12005824[/url]
[quote]Mr Ainsworth is the most senior politician so far to publicly call for all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, to be in any way legalised.
He said he realised when Home Office minister in charge of drugs policy that the so-called war on drugs could not be won.
The Labour backbencher said: "Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harms to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit."
Mr Ainsworth said billions of pounds was being spent "without preventing the wide availability of drugs".
"It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children," he said.
Mr Ainsworth insisted he was "not a libertarian" and that people should not be encouraged to use substances.
But he said: "We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists."
However, when pressed, he was uncertain as to how any policy might work.
Asked where people might buy cocaine on a Saturday night, he replied: "Maybe at a chemist".
BBC Home Editor Mark Easton said under such a system heroin and cocaine might only be available on prescription from registered doctors, while cannabis might be sold in a similar way to tobacco.
"Those who supplied or sold drugs without the requisite licence would still be operating illegally, in the same way as those who sell tobacco, alcohol or prescription drugs without a licence or proper authority would be currently," he said.
Former chief constable of Cambridgeshire Police, Tom Lloyd, agreed something had to change.
We've got so used to 40 years of prohibition which, in my experience of over 30 years of policing, has led to massive cost, a failure to achieve the primary aims, which is the reduction of drug use, and a range of unintended harmful consequences," he said.
The former chief adviser to the government on drugs, Prof David Nutt, told the BBC that most MPs actually agree with Mr Ainsworth, but feel they cannot say so publicly because of "the pressure of politics".
Prof Nutt said that in other countries such as Holland, where cannabis is legal, there have been several benefits.
"It's reduced cannabis use and the harms of cannabis, and it has separated the heroin market from the cannabis market. In this country if you want to use cannabis you will inevitably get in contact with a dealer who will always be trying to push on you the harder drug."[/quote]
I personally think selling cannabis over the counter would be fine, so many people do it anyway, and it would be safer. Also I think other drugs should be legalised for medical reasons, and they could be controlled by prescriptions.
All drugs should be legal and regulated, making them illegal only creates bigger problems than it solves. Portugal recently de-criminalized use of all drugs and that turned out to be a great success. By legalizing and regulating we also kill organized criminal gangs by ruining their number 1 income.
[QUOTE=Mindtwistah;26734865]All drugs should be legal and regulated, making them illegal only creates bigger problems than it solves. Portugal recently de-criminalized use of all drugs and that turned out to be a great success. By legalizing and regulating we also kill organized criminal gangs by ruining their number 1 income.[/QUOTE]
This, can't wait to get my legal PCP
Who needs all these crazy drugs anyways when painkillers are best.
I fail to see on what grounds coke would be prescribed etc, that said I agree with them being decriminalised. That way you don't ruin someone's life by finding them with a gram of coke, forcing them to become more of a criminal due to no work places wanting to hire them.
[quote]and be encouraged to get treatment and support to overcome addiction.[/quote]
Use of drugs does not dictate an addiction.
[QUOTE=johan_sm;26734905]This, can't wait to get my legal PCP[/QUOTE]
I doubt they'd make psychadelics legal just because of the dangers some people have under them, either to themselves or to others.
I can understand weed, but ALL drugs ? How can anyone actually think this will do anything good
[QUOTE=Laserbeams;26735010]I can understand weed, but ALL drugs ? How can anyone actually think this will do anything good[/QUOTE]
Weed legalised and sold next to tobacco and alcohol, other drugs will for medical reason and prescription only, therefore controlled.
[QUOTE=TaniaTiger;26735033]Weed legalised and sold next to tobacco and alcohol, other drugs will for medical reason and prescription only, therefore controlled.[/QUOTE]
Aren't almost all drugs that have a medical value legal anyway ?
I'd like to see DMT with less restrictions.
[editline]16th December 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=Laserbeams;26735061]Aren't almost all drugs that have a medical value legal anyway ?[/QUOTE]
No. Psilocybin is proven to cure cluster/migraine headaches. But it is illegal to extract from mushrooms containing it.
LSD has been known to be therapeutic (Although opposite effects have also been experienced)
[QUOTE=Laserbeams;26735061]Aren't almost all drugs that have a medical value legal anyway ?[/QUOTE]
Can't you just read the OP seeing as both questions you've asked are answered for you there..
[QUOTE=Laserbeams;26735010]I can understand weed, but ALL drugs ? How can anyone actually think this will do anything good[/QUOTE]
Look at Portugal, it's done lots of good there.
[url]http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html[/url]
[QUOTE=johan_sm;26734905]This, can't wait to get my legal PCP[/QUOTE]
You're an idiot, you make it look so easy.
PCP isn't an instant "I'm going to hurt people" drug. I've done it and never hurt anyone.
There's a lot of horror stories with it, but that isn't fucking routine. Whether or not PCP itself should be legalized, I'm sure it should, it'll lower crime at least, but it's not that fucking bad and people like you are hilarious as shit looking like complete ignorant assholes posting bullshit all over any drug thread.
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;26735243]You're an idiot, you make it look so easy.
PCP isn't an instant "I'm going to hurt people" drug. I've done it and never hurt anyone.
There's a lot of horror stories with it, but that isn't fuck routine. Whether or not PCP itself should be legalized, I'm sure it should, it'll lower crime at least, but it's not that fucking bad and people like you are hilarious as shit looking like complete ignorant assholes posting bullshit all over any drug thread.[/QUOTE]
Dude smoke a joint and chill out :350:
[QUOTE=Laserbeams;26735061]Aren't almost all drugs that have a medical value legal anyway ?[/QUOTE]
...God no.
Acid is used to help with cluster headaches and migraines, it's proven to be the best fix of those. MDMA and shrooms are showing amazing qualities in helping people with PTSD. Heroin is a less addictive, weaker version of morhpine basically. All could be used medicinally, and being medicinal is not the only reason a drug should be legal.
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;26735243]You're an idiot, you make it look so easy.
PCP isn't an instant "I'm going to hurt people" drug. I've done it and never hurt anyone.
There's a lot of horror stories with it, but that isn't fuck routine. Whether or not PCP itself should be legalized, I'm sure it should, it'll lower crime at least, but it's not that fucking bad and people like you are hilarious as shit looking like complete ignorant assholes posting bullshit all over any drug thread.[/QUOTE]
Well said man. Not once when I was on mushrooms did I think to test out my tripped out plan to 'try flying.'
People are fucking stupiud
[QUOTE=TaniaTiger;26735274]Dude smoke a joint and chill out :420:[/QUOTE]
I am chill. :350: not even a while ago.
It just gets me when people don't know shit about drugs, I don't expect them too, but why the fuck do they have to post then.
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;26735294]I am chill. :350: not even a while ago.
It just gets me when people don't know shit about drugs, I don't expect them too, but why the fuck do they have to post then.[/QUOTE]
I know I know, I was just being ironic. Annoys me too, though 99% of the DD'ers are proper chill
[QUOTE=Callius;26734972]I fail to see on what grounds coke would be prescribed etc, that said I agree with them being decriminalised. That way you don't ruin someone's life by finding them with a gram of coke, forcing them to become more of a criminal due to no work places wanting to hire them.
Use of drugs does not dictate an addiction.
I doubt they'd make psychadelics legal just because of the dangers some people have under them, either to themselves or to others.[/QUOTE]
Coke is not that addictive. Coke is bad, but not that bad. Crack is the one drug i'd worry about that situation happening with, no other drug is going to change things that much.
[QUOTE=Laserbeams;26735010]I can understand weed, but ALL drugs ? How can anyone actually think this will do anything good[/QUOTE]
Everything is okay, or nothing is.
Make your choice, freedom to do as you see fit to your own body or enslaved to law.
[QUOTE=bravehat;26735572]Everything is okay, or nothing is.
Make your choice, freedom to do as you see fit to your own body or enslaved to law.[/QUOTE]
A naturally occurring plant is far different from a mixture of bleach and car battery acid. (see: METH)
[QUOTE=MovingSalad;26735473][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grcqs9cDuN8[/media]
[img_thumb]http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/extraction_guide1/images/dmt_crystal2.jpg[/img_thumb]
LEGALIZE.[/QUOTE]
After listening to that
I want now
[QUOTE=BANNED USER;26735726]A naturally occurring plant is far different from a mixture of bleach and car battery acid. (see: METH)[/QUOTE]
Too bad various forms of amphetamine (see: METH) are already widely distributed to children in north america. I being one of them.
[img]http://www.pharmer.org/files/images/Dexedrine.jpg[/img]
To treat "ADD"
[QUOTE=BANNED USER;26735726]A naturally occurring plant is far different from a mixture of bleach and car battery acid. (see: METH)[/QUOTE]
Meth is nothing like that. If you find real meth, almost pure meth, that's nothing like the shit you see people doing. That shit isn't fucking them up physically nearly as much. The impurities, and failures in the cooks of it are what makes it such a hazardous drug, if the stuff is pure, it's prescribed to children to fight ADD(Not really, but amphetamines and a dozen string of drugs are based off of the basic meth chemical form).
Best course of action, would kill the no 1 source of income for a large variety of criminal organisations, from regular crooks to al quaeda.
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;26735243]You're an idiot, you make it look so easy.
PCP isn't an instant "I'm going to hurt people" drug. I've done it and never hurt anyone.
There's a lot of horror stories with it, but that isn't fucking routine. Whether or not PCP itself should be legalized, I'm sure it should, it'll lower crime at least, but it's not that fucking bad and people like you are hilarious as shit looking like complete ignorant assholes posting bullshit all over any drug thread.[/QUOTE]
Wait what? I said I wanted my legal PCP, I didn't say anything about it hurting people or it's effects.
Legalize it, in my opinion. It's not the governments place to tell people what they can put in their body.
If the drugs are legalized, however, I think mandatory testing should be required for unemployment benefits and anyone who claims multiple dependents when filing taxes needs to be able to prove they can handle it, one way or the other.
For a lot of people here saying drugs are perfectly safe etc
Warning you now its not pretty
[media]http://www.zilefile.com/files/4154_bhhg5/lulz%20face.jpg[/media]
I really like the idea of legalizing everything because a number of deaths are caused by unknown circumstances with the drugs. If someone buys H, they don't know how pure it is and this could easily lead to an OD. Same with many other drugs. A big issue is not people doing too much, but people being unaware of how much they are doing because of a strong inconsistency with street doses.
Even beyond that, the law has many negative effects when it comes to drugs. A big reason why HIV is so big in Africa is because in most places it is a hefty jail sentence for just getting caught with needles. Because of this, the users are sharing needles. They were polled and most said that they would use clean needles if they could but don't because of the danger of getting caught with needles. Because of this, HIV is getting spread around way more than it should. If anyone is interested, a lady on TED TV gave this talk and it is pretty interesting.
[QUOTE=BANNED USER;26735726]A naturally occurring plant is far different from a mixture of bleach and car battery acid. (see: METH)[/QUOTE]
The whole notion of nature vs. man made should be disregarded completely because it makes no difference in the safeness of a drug. A drug that is man made is not necissarily going to be any worse for you than a drug that is naturally occurring. What I am saying is that it is rather unreasonable to make claims of how safe something is off how it is made, but instead it makes much more sense look at each drug on an individual basis to assess their danger.
If you think different than that, I really urge you to come up with a reasonable argument.
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