Here’s the thing. Drugs are illegal because we made them illegal. Instead of understanding that humans are intruiged and interested in how chemicals effect our bodies, and encouraged to explore them in safer ways and educated about their effects, drugs are made illegal. It’s an example of nanny state gone mad. Particularly when it accounts for so much money spent from public funds to prevent, identify, deter, incarcerate and spread propaganda.
Think of the reduction on the NHS if drugs were regulated?
Think of the reduction on the justice system if drugs were regulated?
Yes, some aspects of drug use lead to other crime. Just like alcohol use. There are many suggestions that crime is down to accessibility and motivation.
I strongly believe that many of the criminal aspects of drug use would be removed or reduced if drugs were legal and regulated.
Take the cost of theft. Theft to score is a big criminal concern. This one will take the longest to reduce because the underlaying issues related to theft will still not be corrected. Some might be. People steal because they can’t afford what they need. As life gets tighter and work gets harder, people may have turned more to drugs in recent decades: the casual cocaine cohort: regular weekend users of some sort of fortified ‘powders’ just to cope with the stresses of a grinding weekday job that gives no satisfaction, for example. Part of this issue is that discontent with life doesn’t improve after drugs, particularly when your drugs don’t give you the hit you expected because of what they’re cut with. Particularly when they are so expensive due to the fact they are illegal. The issue of stealing to get hold of drugs, will not change, whilst the reasons ordinary people take drugs is still there.
But havent those uses always been there? Didn’t people take drugs to avoid life for decades? Didn’t the government know this? Isn’t this the original reason it became illegal, because of the number of people who abused them due to the beneficial side effects that allowed them to avoid life? Isn’t this still the reason drugs are so heavily controlled these days?
Does no intelligent member of govenrnment realise, that they can’t make life harder, then criminalise the outlet the humans have been drawn to for decades, without an alternative.
Making alcohol legal and regulated is not an alternative. Alcohol is actually worse for you than some drugs that are illegal. Not only is it worse for you, it’s MARKETED. It’s wrapped in pretty colours and pretty flavours to encourage you to drink it! If someone put something in speed to make it cane your nose less going in, people would have a field day! But with alcohol, it’s fine!
What about violence? Violence and gang crime is largely associated with the fact there are huge underground businesses attiributed to the distribution and creation of drugs. If the government provide a legal method to distribute drugs, these companies will eventually reduce both in general need and in their impact on acceptable-society businesses. No it won’t be instant. It will cause an uproar to the societies that have built up around the fact that drugs are not a part of acceptable society.
Maybe some of these businesses will become legitimate, maybe some of these societies will break down.
The thing is. People are starting to allow children to just ‘be’. There’s a huge following for child-led everything. The idea that we should be following what humans actually want and need in life, instead of blindly creating a society based on how we ‘think’ humans should be, is huge right now. How does this not compute to drug use? Simply because someone, one day, a long time ago, got scared. That fear has led to every ounce of our acceptable society criminalising drug use. To the point now where people who have no interest of understanding, are unavoidably associating drugs with crime.
The idea that people will abuse drugs and the concerns about them, is a big issue. But people abuse drugs anyway. People abuse alcohol, and cigarettes. Why not make life more enjoyable and encourage people to not do things instead of making them feel bad for it.
Here’s the reality that legalising and regulating drugs may mean for a majority of people:
1) cheaper drugs. Let’s face it, the price per gram is entirely led by how easy it is to make and distribute, multiplied by the level of risk of being arrested.
2) safer drugs. Want to stay up all weekend? Your own choice. Now you can do it with all the disclaimers on the label. You wouldn’t need as much cocaine as you would pro plus, coffee, and red bull.
3) We might actually learn more about drugs. Currently messing about with drugs the way an interested young chemist might be, is largely restricted to someone who follows the remit offered by the government: to make people better. But what about for fun? What government remit other than alcohol is put towards fun? Homosapiens largely have been shown to attribute a large part of choices towards enjoyable recreational activities. Hell, the entertainment industry of our current society, is still around. Even when people are broke. Had I learned how psychoactive substances worked, I probably would have spent more time in Chemistry lessons.
4) prisons can be used for people who actually commit crimes. If a crime is related to your drug use, it could still be a mitigating factor. But possession and distribution account for huge numbers of prisoners. Not possession and distribution that had led to other crimes. JUST on its own.
5) we may well be pleasantly surprised how many people don’t suddenly take drugs. Faith in humanity may be restored.
Okay maybe that last one is a shot in the dark. But something has to change. We cannot continue putting people in prison for what is turning out to be a huge interest from parts of society. We can’t continue forcing people to live the way we want to. It isn’t working.
FaerieFalls 