Forum Topic

Drugs and violence

Yet again, links are being made between skunk and death.

Colin Murphy ● 6731d5 Comments

I'm not sure I follow your reasoning - surely legalisation could also bring with it quality control? It is true that there will always be people who react to specific things, alcohol being one of them when it is abused, this is where we get into the scary scenario of trying to save people from themselves, but there are penalties for being drunk and disorderly, there are also awful consequences for others which cannot be overlooked, a drunk behind the wheel of a car is lethal for example. But ponder this - if we used all the money we currently throw at trying to solve the drugs problems, along with all the other countries budgets too, we could buy all the poppy fields and then burn the lot, what a lot of heartache, not to mention lives that would save.

Vanessa Smith ● 6726d

But its a bit like alcohol though isn't. Some people become violent when they drink. Others can't handle it at all and are violently ill on very little at all.  I suppose the problem with skunk is that its very much a lottery in respect of the variables. The variety of the skunk and the underlying mental issues of the smoker mean that we can't have it legalised. But I certainly think cannabis should be a prescription drug. People should remember that as much as skunk is a trigger for psychotic behaviour, so too is alcohol.

Conal Stewart ● 6726d

So the scum that currently make their money from this trade will happily pop along to the dole office for 6 months, before being told they're not unemployed anymore and have to go on a scheme? The bigger problem is a hopeless society, where delusions of wealth are encouraged by a fortuitous rise in house prices, artificially so, given that there is no appropriate social housing construction programme. Where we have the 3rd largest tax take in the world, and nothing to show but a wage bill for 1/4 of the working population in government employ. Where television is scattered with advert's for debt consolidation. Where we churn out 1000s of debt-laden future suicides with meaningless degrees from worthless educational institutions and no appropriate jobs to match their expectations. Where INSEAD and the government's "skills envoy" reveal that Britain's ability to innovate economically is hampered by its relatively poor skills levels, in 16th place on a measure of human capacity. Where seven million adults cannot read, write and count and are not as functionally literate as an 11-year-old should be.Still, maybe we should legalise drugs, so that we can all forget and drift into the "Brave New World" of Aldous Huxley, with the vast majority firmly rooted as epsilons."Education, education, education". It should have started at the top...

Colin Murphy ● 6726d

I really don't see how the strength of drugs affects the argument for legalisation, surely the more dangerous they are the more the reason a drastic and radical look at where we're going with this is relelvant. It seems to many of us that the battle where drugs is concerned was lost a long time ago, and all we're doing now is spending vast amounts of money, energy and time trying to stick a finger in the dyke. Legalising drugs gives control and would affect the criminal element who are also involved in prostitution, people trafficking and major crime. For too long we've faffed around this issue like a load of maiden aunts, and before there are howls of nonsense about extra taxes etc. let's think about what we have now. It would take guts and foresight and a deal of courage to start the debate, and I doubt we have one politician prepared to take the chance, but we should, we have to, carrying on as we are is getting us nowhere, we've tried everything else and we know from that experience none of it works, we should perhaps be asking what have we got to lose, from what I see and hear that answer would be - not a lot. The current rash of gun crime has the undertone of being drugs related, how many more young people will die before this awful problem is met head on?

Vanessa Smith ● 6727d

Even Polly Toynbee, once a passionate advocate of legalising cannabis has recognised that the current more powerful strains currently being sold in this country have changed the ball game. We don't know whether the driver who killed the man in Brentford was psychotic and then took skunk or took skunk and became psychotic but there are now too many incidents for it to be seriously denied their is generally a link.

Mike Hardacre ● 6728d