Should I be jailed for breaking the law?

[Halibut]

I was at an association lunch last week (3-line whip ... dragged there by the Missus) and the guest speaker talked about drugs and the 'war on drugs'. He was a (retired) very senior policeman. He argued fluently and persuasively against the current US (I'm in Florida for the winter) laws and the futile 'war against drugs.' He said (and I've no reason to disbelieve him) that many senior policemen felt the way he did, but he is retired and can say what he likes. They are still employed and unless they 'toe the party line' they are likely to find themselves out of a job.

If heroin, or cocaine, or ecstasy or even cannabis were all to be 'de-criminalised' (I draw the line at making them legal - there is a significant difference) tomorrow, I wouldn't go out and buy any of them. How many people do you (any of you) know who would?

I'm not sure that methadone is a substitute. If I have a severe pain in my right big toe and I whack my left thumb with a hammer, then that will take my mind off the pain in the toe (for a while) but it won't cure it.

I don't disagree with anything you said, Chris (and you may well know far more about addiction than I do) but what about the addicts who are 'not yet willing' or those who are physiologically incapable of weaning themselves off a drug?

I've met a number of those.

I'm addicted to nicotine. (More addictive than heroin.) I smoked cigarettes for many years and I've given up many times. Sometimes 'cold turkey' sometimes through smoking cessation courses + patches. Quitting is easy. Not smoking for 6-9 months is easy. Then it comes back and bites me on the bum!

I could use low-dose nicotine patches to ward off the problem, but I choose to smoke a pipe instead. I still get my daily nicotine dose, but because I don't inhale the pipe (and if you ever try smoking one, you will learn why) I do not use 2 square metres of lung tissue to ingest vast quantities of nicotine. - I get a low 'maintenance' dose through the mucous membrane in my mouth. My doctor isn't pleased that I smoke a pipe, but as she says 'It's the lesser of two evils; far better than smoking cigarettes." Pipe smoking is not safe, however!

I've dealt with a number of addicts (some of whom were trying to get 'clean' in prison.) I am convinced that society has 'got it wrong'. Severe penalties for possession (using is not illegal, but possession is) haven't worked and there is so much money in the 'industry' penalties against dealers are unlikely ever to be successful.

 

My view is that society should take a more pragmatic approach. There are addicts. There will probably always be addicts ... but we could reduce the number of new addicts if we cut off the supply.

 

There are 3 ways of doing that:

 

1. Destroy the supply at source. It's been tried - It didn't work, it just put the price (and profit for the dealers) up.

 

2. Arrest the dealers. Well, they do arrest some of the dealers - but (like Pokemon) 'you can't get them all.'

 

3. Ruin the market. If you buy ice cream at 30p a cone and you sell ice cream at £1.00 a cone and I move onto your patch and sell it at 5p a cone, how long will you stay in business? The same market rules apply to Class A drugs. The government could buy heroin and cocaine at source (keeps the farmers going) forthe same price that the farmers are paid now. They could ship it (under government control) for far lower costs than the dealers can ship drugs. They would buy it for pennies and could afford to give it away. - The savings on incarceration costs for those poor misfits (they're not willing criminals) who at present go to jail for crimes committed acquiring the money to buy drugs would far outweigh thew cost (to the government) of the drugs.

 

If there are no dealers, how do the next generation of addicts get started?

 

Another thumbs up from me Rupert, although like Cyclone I'd be inclined to go for legalisation rather than decriminalisation.

 

Well said.

[Stan Tamudo]

Will any of the 41 forumers who voted for the execution of the OP for smoking a spliff let us know who they are please?

[Phanerothyme]

Another thumbs up from me Rupert, although like Cyclone I'd be inclined to go for legalisation rather than decriminalisation.

 

Well said.

 

Anyone wondering just how many police and law enforcement officers want to repeal the prohibition on drugs need only look here - http://www.leap.cc

 

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is an international organization of criminal justice professionals who bear personal witness to the wasteful futility and harms of our current drug policies. Our experience on the front lines of the “war on drugs” has led us to call for a repeal of prohibition and its replacement with a tight system of legalized regulation, which will effectively cripple the violent cartels and street dealers who control the current illegal market

[strikerPaul]

I am currently smoking cannabis in a spliff.

 

I paid for the cannabis with money I earned (and paid income tax and NI on).

 

I had to buy it illegally, as there was no legal source for me to purchase it from.

 

I'd really like to buy it from a legal source, or perhaps even grow my own for personal use if I could acquire a license.

 

By smoking this spliff I could be jailed for 5 years. I'd lose my job and it would cost the taxpayer £250 000 +.

 

Should I be jailed for 5 years for having a spliff?

 

I think your pathetic how much you whine about the fact cannabis is illegal.

 

There are far more pressing issues in this country and people with real problems, then to listen to you moaning about the fact you have to buy cannabis illegally.

 

Your the sort of person that if cannabis was made legal, you'd just find something else to complain.

 

Smoke cannabis all you want, it's your choice but stop bothering those that actually abide by the laws with your ignorant posts.

[Frank Sidney]

I think your pathetic how much you whine about the fact cannabis is illegal.

 

There are far more pressing issues in this country and people with real problems, then to listen to you moaning about the fact you have to buy cannabis illegally.

 

Your the sort of person that if cannabis was made legal, you'd just find something else to complain.

 

Smoke cannabis all you want, it's your choice but stop bothering those that actually abide by the laws with your ignorant posts.

 

 

That's so funny. You're moaning about him moaning...

[Bonzo77]

I think your pathetic how much you whine about the fact cannabis is illegal.

 

There are far more pressing issues in this country and people with real problems, then to listen to you moaning about the fact you have to buy cannabis illegally.

 

Your the sort of person that if cannabis was made legal, you'd just find something else to complain.

 

Smoke cannabis all you want, it's your choice but stop bothering those that actually abide by the laws with your ignorant posts.

 

It's not just about the person who smokes the drug though is it? Duh!!!

[Bonzo77]

Would you knowingly employ a heroin addict, however normal he may be able to act for a short while? I certainly wouldn't.

 

You don't employ a heroin addict, you employ a person. What he/she does in their spare time has nothing to do with the employer.

[fruitisbad]

You don't employ a heroin addict, you employ a person. What he/she does in their spare time has nothing to do with the employer.

 

<thumbsup>

 

if you can hold it down and not let it affect ur day to day life what buzyness is it of anyone elseS?

[Murphy Jnr]

You don't employ a heroin addict, you employ a person. What he/she does in their spare time has nothing to do with the employer.

 

Absolutely right, the same as with anyone's private life but i think the reality is that drugs scare people, canabis is one thing but heroine is big league and in the main we don't try to understand either the drug or the user. They do turn their lives around but i guess they face ignorance on top of all the other problems they need to overcome.

[fruitisbad]

Absolutely right, the same as with anyone's private life but i think the reality is that drugs scare people, canabis is one thing but heroine is big league and in the main we don't try to understand either the drug or the user. They do turn their lives around but i guess they face ignorance on top of all the other problems they need to overcome.

 

so government policy is dicataed by peoples irrational fear rather than scientific fact