How long until Cannabis is legal in the UK?

[Phanerothyme]

No, I think is that alcohol is a stultifying, toxic, debilitating drug and that many people would prefer a less harmful, more enhancing, and less socially problematic drug. There are plenty of good candidates.

[Harleyman]

No, I think is that alcohol is a stultifying, toxic, debilitating drug and that many people would prefer a less harmful, more enhancing, and less socially problematic drug. There are plenty of good candidates.

 

Wine, Coupla glasses a day with or without a meal. Uplifts the soul, good for the heart

[leviathan13]

With regards to the impact on the NHS:

 

From personal experience, friends and family members' health issues, the cost of a prescription is, what, over £8 now (it's been a while since I've had one, so apologies for the guess), and they've had multiple problems requiring the use of multiple drugs. At one bit, my step-dad was taking something like 27 pills per day for various issues.

 

The doctors knew he smoked weed and advised him to continue using it for the most serious moments of pain as he couldn't continually take morphine (a derivative of heroin...).

 

So, healthcare professionals understand the benefits of cannabis, it can help the management of pain better than most legal drugs and doesn't interfere with the effects of others? Therefore, if it does the job of other drugs, and is actually better as a treatment in many cases, how can it have a detrimental effect on the NHS?

[Cyclone]

Wine, Coupla glasses a day with or without a meal. Uplifts the soul, good for the heart

 

You're free to use the drug of your choice, why shouldn't that be true of other people?

 

---------- Post added 19-11-2014 at 07:28 ----------

 

Why would drugs be less dangerous if they were legal?

The fact that you don't already know the answer puts your entire opinion about the subject into the "opinion based on ignorance" bracket.

 

Drugs are cut with other substances, sometimes harmless, sometimes harmful. But either way the purity is unknown. The harmful cutting is in itself dangerous, but the unknown purity is extremely dangerous. (We're not talking about cannabis here, although I guess it can also be cut).

 

Alcohol certainly isn't less dangerous because it's legal.

It definitely is.

You can only buy it from licensed premises. You're almost guaranteed not to go blind or die because it accidentally contains methanol.

 

---------- Post added 19-11-2014 at 07:30 ----------

 

Most drug and alcohol abusers do end up as vagrants. 75 % the homeless on the streets are there because of that.

 

Your grasp of statistics appears to be poor as well. It may well be entirely true that 75% of homeless have in the past had problems with drugs and/or alcohol (although I note that you don't want to ban alcohol).

 

But that doesn't imply that 75% of alcohol users become homeless.

 

Look at it another way. 100% of homeless people have used water in the past. That doesn't mean that everyone who drinks water will become homeless does it.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Cyclone

[Phanerothyme]

Wine, Coupla glasses a day with or without a meal. Uplifts the soul, good for the heart

 

I vape cannabis a couple of times a day, with or without a coffee. Uplifts the mind, good for the soul.

[Bonzo77]

I would see legalizing all drugs as being yet another step in the decline of our society or for that matter western society which has been in steady decline already for a few decades. Then there's the scenario of a new generation suffering from birth defects or born addicts. Only stupid people could advocate legalizing all drugs. I've known even pot smokers to end up as next to useless wenkers

 

 

 

All civilizations end in degeneracy and self indulgence. History has already shown that

 

That's not what I asked you though, is it? I asked you how much the US would save on ending the war on drugs and going down the legalisation route.

 

Baring in mind, the following:

 

If drugs, like Heroin, Ecstasy and Cocaine were manufactured legally and regulated, they would be 100% pure. Therefore they would be even safer than what is available on the black market today, which would save lives. You can't deny that, it's fact!

 

---------- Post added 19-11-2014 at 11:40 ----------

 

By legalizing them and making them available then perhaps young impressionable people who would not ordinarily bother with them would say "Hey! They must be safe to use cos the government says they're now legal"

Naivety knows no boundaries !

 

I think we need to put legalisation into context here. Cannabis, yes, sell it in legalised outlets, like they do in the US where it's legal. Reason; because cannabis is a safe drug when compared with the 2 big legal drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Also, the results of decriminalisation and legalisation haven't shown a massive increase in usage.

 

Hard drugs like heroin should only be made available to people with existing addictions. At the moment the government put them on Methadone programmes. Methadone is just as addictive as heroin and does more damage to the body. Heroin, clean needles and expert advice on rehabilitation should be available instead, free of charge. No one is suggesting that heroin should be available off the shelf to anyone who wants to try it.

 

All the efforts of the schools to educate young people about the dangerous long term effects of drug abuse just gone to waste

 

No it hasn't. If anything, MORE education on drugs is needed.

 

And you're right. I am uncaring when it comes to junkies. As I said before better to round them up and ship them off to a labour re-education camp. As for the dealers I think we could learn a lesson or two from such countries as Malaysia and Singapore....

 

Here's the problem, you don't care. How can you have a serious conversation on the subject if you have no apathy for other humans who are in serious need of assistance?!

 

Has the hard line punishment in places like Singapore and Malaysia put a stop to their drug problem? No.

Would you be happy sentencing someone to death that has been bribed and forced into drug trafficking?

 

So you equate drug abuse and addiction with lifestyles such as sports and jobs?

 

Hard drug taking.....no

 

Alcohol useage.....yes. It's legal and it's a lifestyle choice, just like any form of dangerous sport.

 

Most drug and alcohol abusers do end up as vagrants. 75 % the homeless on the streets are there because of that.

 

So you can see there's a direct link between homelessness and the breakdown of normal family life and substance abuse, yes?

 

Normally, when there's a problem with society, we try and fix it, not ignore it.

 

The wealthy can afford to take care of their addiction at expensive private clinics but the ordinary stiff whose dumb enough to get into that state just ends up as a burden on the already overstrained system

 

Exactly! The rich have access to help that the normal people don't! A problem in today's society that extends far beyond drug addiction.

[RootsBooster]

[/b]

 

That is what I am pondering.

Is it worth the consequences of being prosecuted for drug related offences rather than using a legal drug(alcohol) ?

 

That sounds like an argument for legalisation to me

 

---------- Post added 19-11-2014 at 13:11 ----------

 

Why would drugs be less dangerous if they were legal? Alcohol certainly isn't less dangerous because it's legal. It's responsible for thousands of road fatalities each year alone.

 

Why add to an existing problem by creating yet another?

 

Of course (legally sold) alcohol's less dangerous!

How on Earth do people drinking moonshine and other black market booze know what's in it or how strong it is?

 

The same applies to drugs, if they're legal and controlled/regulated, they are automatically safer and people know more about how strong they are.

Edited November 19, 2014 by RootsBooster

[Bonzo77]

Why would drugs be less dangerous if they were legal? Alcohol certainly isn't less dangerous because it's legal. It's responsible for thousands of road fatalities each year alone.

 

Why add to an existing problem by creating yet another?

 

Can you prove that legalisation will lead to an increase in usage? That's the problem. People who want to take drugs, will take drugs. Even the death penalty isn't enough of a deterrent to stop the trade.

[Magilla]

Why would drugs be less dangerous if they were legal?

 

Unadulterated with cheap nastyness that might kill or harm you more than the drug itself. Less voilence in their distrubtion as dealers fight for their turf. The list goes on and on and on....

 

Alcohol certainly isn't less dangerous because it's legal.

 

Nonsense, legislation/regulation of alcohol was introduced because unregulated alcohol was causing a blinding/death epidemic.

 

The deaths from alcohol use are far lower than would be the case if it weren't legal (and regulated)

 

It's responsible for thousands of road fatalities each year alone.

 

That's stupidity, not alcohol in of itself. Some people will always be idiots.

 

Why add to an existing problem by creating yet another?

 

It's not adding another, anyone who wants to take drugs already does.

[Korky Kat]

More usefully still, we might muse on the fact that the illegality of cannabis means that many thousands of otherwise productive, decent and law abiding members of society end up in jail and whose whole lives are blighted as a consequence.

That's a contradiction they can't be law abiding/decent if they break the law.