Drugs! "Decriminalise drugs, inquiry by cross-party peers says"

[TheAnimus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21004715

So a cross party group suggest we should seek decriminalisation. A medical report demonstrated that MDMA is about as dangerous as horse riding (something which if the supply was better, due to decriminalisation would allow MDMA to be even safer than horse riding!).

It's frankly obvious, from an economic point of view that the war on drugs will always be a failure, as with every bust, the market is more attractive to new enterants. We do nothing to stem the demand, little help is available and people revel in recretaional drug use (see the media).

My question is therefore, given how obvious a good idea this is, the usecase of say Portugal, how are the politicions going to kill it? How are they, once again going to snap defeat from the jaws of victory.

[kalniel]

My question is therefore, given how obvious a good idea this is, the usecase of say Portugal,

Are there any counter use cases, or is Portugal a case of 1 out of 1? I think there are other things we could copy from Portugal like the easy access to alcohol late at night, but people argue we don't have the culture for it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

but people argue we don't have the culture for it.

I think we don't and before we make drugs and alcohol easier to get in the country,I would rather our binge culture disappears.

[TheAnimus]

Are there any counter use cases, or is Portugal a case of 1 out of 1?

Sadly few places have gone full throttle.

However it can be re-interpreted if you wish:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...11.00383.x/pdf

The thing is, you name a drug and violence hotspot, they are always in places of prohibition.

Think of a place that has decriminalisation and I honestly can't think of a place which has such problems. In fact many dutch complain about Brits coming over there expressly for hte purpose of having a bender. Now you don't need drugs for this, just look at say Prauge for stag/hen parties.

The strongest for keeping prohibition, based on countries which have decriminisilation is the brits who are out there. Sad but true. However there is something to be said that they feel pressured to have their "fun" in a short space, it could be argued that a lot of the bad behaviour comes from our prohibition.

As for late night drinking, if we could replace say Reading town centre after a football match, with a bunch of people smoking weed and taking MDMA, I would move back there.

[Jake_UK]

How will the politicians kill it? Already done from looking at that article.

David Cameron last month ruled out a royal commission to consider the decriminalisation and legalisation of banned drugs, on the grounds that the government's approach was working.

The peers have (I would imagine) looked at it logically and sensibly, but that's not how political decisions get made of course. Far too much to risk by supporting it (imagine what the grassroots Tories would think!) and nothing to gain... well, George Osbourne and the deficit would probably appreciate the extra tax income but that's not an argument that can really be put forward!

[Smudger]

They should get Walter White to synthesize all drugs, then make them legal, sell them through licensed premises. No dodgy Es from him...

[MadduckUK]

I think there are other things we could copy from Portugal like the easy access to alcohol late at night, but people argue we don't have the culture for it.

We can always Dial-A-Drink as a last resort. Expensive as hell but if you must have beer at 4AM then you are not completely knackered.

[Larkspeed]

What the government always fails to realize in these things is if they decriminalize it then usage of it actually lowers.

As does the transition to harder drugs.

Me for example I grew up in a country where weed is illegal, most of my friends used it and so did I, I even tried cocaine a few times.

The biggest appeal was not the effect we got from the drugs themselves, it was the fact we were being rebels and doing something we were not supposed to.

The step from weed to cocaine was simple because lets face it weed is basically harmless but cocaine is not but I'm already breaking the law anyway so why not.

Now I live in The Netherlands and have done for 8 years, In 10 minutes I can be sitting in a Coffee Shop in town and smoking as much weed as I want without any risk of getting in trouble with the law.

How many times have I smoked weed since I moved here? none

Why? the majority of the thrill is gone because there is no risk involved.

Now I know this will not be the case for everyone but it will be the case for a large percentage of cases.

Remove the legal risk and those people who are using for the rebel factor will lose interest and overall usage will drop.

Oh and I could just make a distinction here, I'm sure most understand this but some may not.

Decriminalized does not mean Legal

Weed would still be Illegal, it would however be an unenforced law exactly the same as it is here.