Legalising drugs would do many things, amongst others; 1) Money would go into the govt coffers and more than pay for the treatment of misusers/management of licensing or whatever. 2) Money would stop going into the pockets of criminal gangs. 3) A big risk in buying recreational drugs like cocaine is not knowing what else they are cut with which causes more health issues than the drug itself, legalising them would negate these dangers and save lives. 4) Once it is "over the counter" the government can see the extent of any issues and misuse and be able to properly deal with any. 5) They will be cheaper and petty crime to fund buying drugs would probably be reduced as a result.
What are the downsides of legalising drugs (aside from the practicalities of unilaterally legalising them)? A tiny percentage of people will try them who otherwise wouldn't have done? Some more people may develop addictions as they are more readily available? For me, the money going to the government and not to criminals outweighs the potential extra problems - that money can be spent on drug education and treatment programs. Cocaine in itself is less harmful as a drug than either nicotine or alcohol, to either the individual taking it, or others around them (passive smoking, fighting etc), there is no logical reason it should be criminalised and legalising it would save thousands of lives up and down the supply chain, and most importantly (for me) allow grown ups to choose whether they want to indulge or not and not be told what we can or cannot do by a nanny state. It will never happen of course, but that's for political reasons, not health or social reasons. All of that IMO obviously :-) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Briggs Sent: 31 May 2010 19:12 To: Nigel Barber Cc: list leedslist; [email protected] Subject: Re: [LU] Leeds fan in Phillipine Jail - Billy Burton - helpandsupport the campaign What a waste of time and effort that response was and to be honest it marks you down as a bit of a unintelligent wanker. Legalising the drugs would not stop the issues, it would not make them any more affordable, it would not make them less addictive. Anyone that can't really see this is obviously blinded by the light emitting from their own arsehole. _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist and the hardest time in a sailor's day is to watch the sun as it sails away
