A sensible discussion about current drugs policy.

[Bassman62]

Originally Posted by spindrift

It is incredibly hard to od on pharmaceutical heroin.

 

Check with Martindale, the standard medical reference book, which records that heroin is used for the control of severe pain in children and adults, including the frail, the elderly and women in labour.

 

It is even injected into premature babies who are recovering from operations. Martindale records no sign of these patients being damaged or morally degraded or becoming criminally deviant or simply insane. It records instead that, so far as harm is concerned, there can be problems with nausea and constipation.

 

Or go back to the history of "therapeutic addicts" who became addicted to morphine after operations and who were given a clean supply for as long as their addiction lasted.

 

 

Enid Bagnold, for example, who wrote the delightful children's novel, National Velvet, was what our politicians now would call "a junkie", who was prescribed morphine after a hip operation and then spent 12 years injecting up to 350mg a day. Enid never - as far as history records - mugged a single person or lost her "herd instinct", but died quietly in bed at the age of 91.

 

 

Opiate addiction was once so common among soldiers in Europe and the United States who had undergone battlefield surgery that it was known as "the soldiers' disease".

 

 

They spent years on a legal supply of the drug - and it did them no damage.

 

 

Does any of that have to do with OD'ing?

 

Of course it doesn't but that is what you'll get, it's part of the attempted wearing down procedure.

It just shows what comics these drug fans read.

[Bassman62]

No offence truman, but your questions have been answered upthread and in the links.

 

I've yet to hear why the supporters of the current policies think that the increased cost to the rest of us is worth paying...

The only person accusing anyone of supporting the current drug policies are you pro druggies.

I and one or two sensible responsible people on this thread don't want drugs that are at this moment in time illegal made legal.

[Bassman62]

Google ?

 

Or you could just keep hazarding a guess and dismiss everything else.

 

No one is saying you make it legal and everything is hunky dory, just that being legal is the lesser of both evils.

 

I've never been in favour of the two wrongs make a right approach, the "Lesser of two evils" is still evil!

[Bassman62]

Yeh sorry for being upperty, its just there is 18 other pages to this discussion and the stall has been set out numerous times as to why people think it better legalised.

Why not some people and not all.

Bully boy tactics, constant misquoting and misconstruing are pathetic.

 

I openly admitted to once being addicted to Valium because at the time I was prescribed it nobody realised that there could be withdrawal.

 

This was followed by certain posters claiming that I had put myself in this position voluntarily alongside drug/substance abusers who know what they're getting into.

How pathetic is that?

[Bassman62]

Pharmaceutical heroin is a safe drug. People can take it every day and lead productive, law-abiding lives.

So why do people want to take it, what is the point.

[spindrift]

A man whose son died of heroin abuse aged 33 has urged MPs to consider legalising heroin to prevent more deaths among addicts.

 

 

Fulton Gillespie stressed he was not saying it was acceptable to take drugs but that he believed controlling the supply of heroin would take power away from drug dealers.

 

Mr Gillespie was one of three parents giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about the experience of their children.

 

We have to take control (of drugs) away from criminals and place it back where it belongs - with the people. At the moment criminals are calling the shots

 

Fulton Gillespie

 

His son Scott died after taking heroin which contained impurities.

 

Mr Gillespie told the committee on Tuesday that his son had died after he had spent five weeks in prison on remand for stealing to buy drugs.

 

During that time he had not been taking drugs and on release from prison, his body had been unable to cope with his normal dose, Mr Gillespie said.

 

If heroin had been legal, Mr Gillespie said, the death could have been avoided because his son would not have had to steal to buy drugs.

 

Moreover, legalisation would have meant that the heroin he took would have been controlled and therefore not impure.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1869127.stm

 

prohibition has never worked, as proven in the USA with alcohol, it just made the mob very rich. Anyone who wants to take drugs can obtain them easily so the current policy doesn't reduce the number of drug takers at all, in fact would only increase them by adding the sense of danger, excitement and rebellion to the act of drug taking, pulling in more rebellious teenagers. With regard to crime, drugs being illegal causes crime as the drugs cost more and there are large illegal distribution networks currently selling them untaxed, lining the pockets of gangsters not the treasury as is the case with alcohol.

 

 

Heroin costs less than £1 for a days supply for an addict where they would pay £500 for the same amount on the street for which they would then need to steal £5000 worth of peoples property so you have a 5000:1 multiplier in terms of damage to society. Before heroin was illegalised there were less than 100 addicts now there are 1000's, prohibition has failed, taxation is the future.

[Bassman62]

Originally Posted by hard2miss

No, No, No and Yes.

 

 

Could you be a bit clearer please?

 

Still waiting, think I'll put the kettle on.

[Bassman62]

Heroin costs less than £1 for a days supply for an addict where they would pay £500 for the same amount on the street for which they would then need to steal £5000 worth of peoples property so you have a 5000:1 multiplier in terms of damage to society. Before heroin was illegalised there were less than 100 addicts now there are 1000's, prohibition has failed, taxation is the future.

 

Excuse me but aren't there already programmes in place for helping drug addicts kick the habit?

Surely knowone has to steal anything to get their fix.

[spindrift]

So why do people want to take it, what is the point.

 

 

You've asked this question and had it answered SEVEN TIMES NOW!

 

Please, stop accusing people of being "pro-druggies" and spamming the thread with repetitive nonsense.

[Bassman62]

You've asked this question and had it answered SEVEN TIMES NOW!.

You said

Pharmaceutical heroin is a safe drug. People can take it every day and lead productive, law-abiding lives.

 

So if it doesn't affect your abilty to fly a bomber, drive a tank, operate on a brain or answer your question what is the point of taking it?