I had written a BIG reply to the above POVs but decided that we all seem to be pretty set in our views on drugs use/misuse and we aren't likely to change them now, plus I didn't want to bore you all silly with my middle class, drug advocacy!!!
So I've shortened my post to make a couple of small points....
The war on drugs has been ongoing for over 50 years now and it definitely isn't being won though I suppose the statistics given could make some feel it is.
It really is time we took our collective heads out of the sand and looked for a
viable drugs program.
Cameron claimed today that the war on drugs is being won but I believe the figures he is using aren't giving an honest picture.
The use of illegal hard drugs is down by a minute percentage but, imo ,these figures are being massaged because the policy of prescribing LEGAL drugs has expanded and obviously these aren't showing in the ILLEGAL drugs figures.
Methadone deaths in England and Wales have soared by a third in the last year and methadone is the major player in the government's drug policy at present.
There are a few reasons for the soar in methadone deaths.
Firstly, imo, the dispensing practises are bad. Many addicts are simply handed this powerful drug and given it to take home. The result is they sell it on the methadone black market and people are overdosing on it.
Secondly a lot of the drug initiatives which prescribe the drug do NOT do mandatory testing.
I know one woman who uses methadone and has been on it for 5 years. In this time she has had two drug tests and on each occasion she tested positive. The doctors in the drug initiative decided, in their wisdom, that this meant she wasn't getting enough methadone and upped her prescription! If they had tested her fortnightly in that period they would never have had a clean test because she simply uses the methadone as a cradle for when she has no heroin or crack cocaine(you can also throw a few valium into that mix).
I am being totally honest when I say that I could literally show you dozens of similar addicts.
Did you know that Portugal, Australia, Poland, Holland and many other countries in the world practise decriminalisation and that their society hasn't been suddenly over run by drug abusers?.
We have the
highest drug abuse problem in Europe so obviously we are failing somewhere down the line.
Some sections of the media have also claimed that this report puts forward the notion that drug abusers wouldn't face any charges. This is utter nonsense....the report does NOT make way to excusing criminal charges for dealing drugs or any crimes implemented to fund drugs use. The report seems to be pushing the suggestion that those caught with drugs for criminal use shouldn't be criminalised straight off....rather it would like to implement drug awareness courses etc in place of criminal records.
We really do have to try and find some way of making policies that will actually work and, to just dismiss ideas out of hand, is madness. I know a lot of people think that drugs won't affect them or their families and have to admit that I did too when I was growing up.
It wasn't until I found out my older brother was an addict(an addiction that killed him) that I started becoming more aware and realising things are just getting worse instead of better.
I really do believe we have to have a good look at how decriminalisation could work for us though, tbh, I don't truly know if it the correct way forward.