Should all drugs be legalised?

Question

I have been reading Ben Elton's book High Society and it has some compelling argments.

Ie. People doing crack wouldn't have to do it in parks and doorways, they would have special centers to take drugs away from kids and families.

Young people wouldn't be demonised for taking the odd 'e'.

And maybe people wouldn't care what Pete Doherty did last night!

It's the most rediculous subject. Why do people automatically think that I'm talking about giving away free, letting kids have drugs, I'm not.

Alcohol is legal. But you cannot drink and drive, that is illigeal and you go to school drunk, you get kicked out. If a teacher was drunk at school they would get sacked. So it should be the same with drugs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1709466.stm

Answer 1

I think they should be legal...keep smack addicts from robbing me for a fix. People are going to do drugs anyway, legal or not. I don't know if they will be legalized, but something should be done to change the syastem as it is now. We arrest addicts and put them in prison where its easier to get drugs. They come out more addicted and with homosexual tendencies...not that I care about that...Its like nobody realizes the need for treatment. People that have an addiction have a disease and a problem that they can't deal with alone...so what does the system do??? Alienates them and turns them into a criminal. If we were really serious about a drug "problem" it seems like we would help others fix their problem...yes drugs should be legalized

Answer 2

We have lost the "war" on drugs a long time ago. Anyone who wants to get loaded can do so with a bit of effort. If they were legalised, there would not be any adulterated crud about to kill people and as to the argument that it would only screw people up even more, check out the offical statistics, since Pot was downgraded to class "C", consumption has gone down.
Heroin users will not get methadone, that is even more addictive than H and destroys bone marrow. True, it does not give one the buzz that brown does, but it seems to be that the authorities do not mind ppl taking drugs, as long as they don't enjoy it. H users can live a very profitable and useful life on the stuff, it was the 1968 dangerous drugs act that created all these junkies by removing it into the illegal market. Before 1968 there were only about 2000 junkies in the entire UK and they were concentrated into the cities. After the DD act all these junkies went to the illegal market to get some brown, that market mushroomed to supply the need, creating lots more junkies and look where we are today. Crack and charlie? That is a direct consequence of Nancy Reagan's "Just say no" campaign. It got rid of all the street pot, and crack jumped in to fill the vacuum. As for all these dim phamacuitical companies creating effectless pot for MS sufferers, they don't mind ppl taking drugs, just as long as they don't enjoy them. I don't care what that useless tw*t Dochery does anyway.

Answer 3

That is an excellent book- it does raise some very good points too. Maybe they should be legalised but could you imagine the uproar- that's why they don't do it. If they did legalise all drugs there would be no papers saying what Pete Docherty took last night but we would also not be able to see the damage and destruction drug abuse can do to an individual and their families. Look at how many deaths are caused from a person taking the odd 'E'. What about date rape drugs- should they be legalised too. I think that there are some drugs that should defiantly stay illegal and others they should be more lenient with.

Answer 4

OK, this has gotten me in trouble before, but I haven't changed mny mind. Yes, legalize drugs. All drugs. Have a program set up so that anybody can go to a drugstore and sign for them and get what they want. This would remove the profit from drug dealing, thereby causing organized crime to drop it like a hot potato. There wouldn't be any more drug dealers standing on your corner. No more people getting shot in a drug deal gone bad. Robberies and theft would decrease because the people doing drugs wouldn't have to steal to get a fix. Some people say that legalization would cause more people to do it. Rarely. Most of the people that will do drugs are doing them anyway, regardless of legal status. A few will die from overdoses. They would anyway. Oh darn.
Prisons would have more room for violent criminals. The legal system wouldn't be so crowded with nonsense "posession of marijuana" cases. Use the money that is presently being wasted in the "war on drugs", (HA!), for good things, like education, give teachers and police pay raises.

Answer 5

definitely! legalised and regulated. drugs can ruin people's lives and kill them. give people the oppurtunity to get an amount that won't kill them, and put the dealers out of business. slowly try to ween those who want to quit off the drugs. i can't believe that we can put people in prison for something which is a victimless crime. stuff like marijuana should be legalised and available to buy freely. we do have some responsibility over people's healths, and this is why stronger drugs should be regulated. by the way, xtc is a serious drug. i don't think we should take away the stigma of taking drugs (maintain that it is an unhealthy thing to do) but making it illegal is wrong. and as somebody said, with the government supplying the drugs and making sure less people get ill, there's a lot of cash to be made from it. people in countries like columbia who literally have fields and fields of plants growing cocaine and heroin would no longer be running an illegal practice

okay....when was the last time you heard of a gang of yobs causing problems whilst high on pot? when was the last time someone overdosed on pot? (it's impossible) is driving whilst high as big a problem as driving drunk? how much does pot cost the nhs compared to alcohol? pot, unlike cigarettes and alcohol, contains NO addictive chemicals. shouldn't alcohol and cigarettes be banned if pot is banned? research shows that cigarette smokers are more likely to contract lung cancer than pot smokers. i smoke marijuana and have never become violent or behaved out of character

Answer 6

Yes, but not for the reasons every one else here mentions.

1. There is always a certain number of drug addicts in any country.Criminalizing them does not change that. If they want to ruin their health it should be left to them.

2. The only thing any kind of prohibition ever did was giving rise to organized crime. No amount of deterrent will change that, because the profits are so high and the risk of being caught, at least for the bosses, so low.

3. Prohibition corrupts gouvernment and police, see 2.

4. The biggest problem for society is crime comitted by drug users because it is so expensive to feed their habit. The more successful the police gets, the more expensive the drugs will be...

5. Making drugs legal would give the state additional income that could be spent on treatment for those addicts that want to quit.

And to the depths of inferno with all of you who want to save drug users from an early death. Do you ever use the same arguments about fast cars or motorcycles or dangerous sports? I think you are just people who resent other people having fun without you.

Answer 7

Cigarettes, alcohol and even fast food are all addictive substances which damage your health and yet they are completely legal, whereas drugs which are addictive substances which damage your health are not. Confused?

Imprisoning drug users is not a suitable solution, it is not the users who are the major problem it is the dealers. By legalising drug use you are cutting out the dealers and cutting down on the number of prisoners, which in turn frees up cells for criminals who are actually damaging to society (namely, the violent criminals), also like alcohol and tobacco the government could tax the hell out of them, thus raising much-needed cash.

On the other hand if drugs were made legal that means fewer Pete Doherty stories and tabloid papers would be able to print their entire copy on the back of a postcard.

Answer 8

There are pros and cons for either side of the argument. if it.'s legal will the amount of addicts go up? will it be as easy to stop young people (not that it's easy now but at least you have the law on your side) from going down that road. personally nothing worked with me but i knew my limits and never did anything like heroin which i always knew there could be no way back from.
these day's i work with people with substance problems and if you legalise it you take out the criminal side of it which is only a good thing (although they will probably move into another field of criminality!), but most importantly the goverment can tax whatever they selll , this money can then be used to educate people on how to use safely and also it can help fund detox clinics and rehab centres which are needed so badly!

Answer 9

having worked in this field for the last 5 years, it is a debate many of us have had.. Although decriminalisation of drug use may look like a positive move, all you have to do is look at the stats in connection with alcohol abuse and you will see that its not that easy. In Amsterdam you have legal places to smoke drugs, and at street level is may appear that drugs are not such a problem, however crime at a much higher level is just as prominent and with worse scenarios.. therefore just legalising it will not help the addicts who have had their lives ruined by addiction or the knock on effect for families..
ADDITIONAL:
Drugs legal or not would still cause crime, as does abuse of alcohol, the debate and question was not should alcohol be made illegal, but should we legalise drugs.. have you ever seen some one with HIV/HEPC/septicaemia gouged out or even clucking trying to simply get a grip on life?

Answer 10

Yes I think drugs should be legalised.

But I also think that it wouldn't be possible to do this safely without educating everybody about the associated risks of all drugs.

By this I don't mean the propoganda that you see in the 'Daily Mail' and similar newspapers or the rubbish on the nine o'clock news. That is not education, it is brainwashing to make people fall in line with government policy. A clear and scientifically backed-up message should be sent out about the actual risks of drugs and then people should be left to decide whether they want to take them or not.

It would certainly give a helping hand to evolution if we allowed heroin addicts to kill themselves so that self-destructive people ceased to breed because they were dead.

I honestly don't care if someone I don't know wants to take drugs, they can go right ahead. However, I don't think that I should then have to pay to keep them in jail or rehabilitate them when they mess up. I also don't think they should steal from me to feed their habit.

It's down to personal choice but people who choose to take drugs should be left to take the physical consequences.