well why not legalise crime - organised or not
in fact lets legalise everything, let everyone do as they want, when they want
no need for taxes on alcohol, petrol, tobacco, and everything else that gets taxed

but then we know what sort of a society we will have......

This topic has become VERY interesting since I started it, thanks!

I believe Cannabis should be legalised, as a start. CERTAINLY medical use with prescription. There has to be money to be made as the illegal use must have a high cost. Legalise it, those costs go away and the criminals lose out. And there must be a good profit. And we get more tax revenue, that could help eg finance drug programs.

Theres hardly any decision in life that is all upside 100%. Legalising it could effectively far more upside than down IMO. I wouldn't take it regularly, but definitely for pain relief. I live in Brussels and when I saw how well it worked, for my hernia in the back, I went with my friend to Maastricht to buy some. Having no experience of it I needed my friend to choose it for me.

I laughed with him that if we got stopped on the border, I would truly say it was for medicinal purposes... but the cops would laugh that off!!

Just getting in and out of the car was a real hassle, but after a joint at the coffee shop, it was far easier. For a non-addictive drug to give such relief, was (pun intended) mind-blowing

Amazing that it doesn't come close to the top for addictiveness.

What I havent really thought about is legalising hard drugs.... and some of the arguments make sense. It can be quality controlled, safer, it gets rid of the awful crime element, it brings tax revenue and .... that money can also be spent on drug-programmes.

Would legalising it mean an increase of drug usage? I wonder? The post about Holland shows that it doesn't have to be the case.

Its a big step, but has some sense to it, and the upsides may overcome the downsides.

But I don't see it happening in reality.

Cannabis legalisation, I think is more likely, and I hope the CNN stance and some level headed thinking comes into play, and we see it done. Countries are already starting - and most countries de-criminilise it. In Belgium you wont be locked up if you are carrying a small amount. Dealing is criminal however (if you are caught with a certain amount you are classified as dealing it).
Jon

The situation is the same in Spain, and you are also not criminalised for cultivating a small number of plants for personal use - although the police do regularly raid larger scale growers.

My friend was growing the a little of it on his terrace, but got scared when he saw a police helicopter.

I came up with a 'cunning plan' to buy fake flowers and put them in the pots. Thus disguising it.

Neither of us know anything about flowers, my wife pointed out that the flowers were totally out of season!!

Not so cunning!

We hoped that the police werent green fingered gardening types

Jon

I'm not sure if it's actually set down anywhere, but the general rule of thumb (which I've seen nothing to contradict) is that if you have a maximum of 5 plants there is no need to worry, even if there is a whole fleet of helicopters overhead!

This was in Brussels...

I don't know if plants are allowed there.... I don't think its as open as Spain. Luckily the police were as uninformed about flowers as we were!

Jon

I've noticed a lot of small specialised shops springing up in the last year or two as well as one or two garden centres specialising in the sale of all the various paraphernalia required to grow marijauna.

Makes me think there must be one hell of a market for it in Spain and I doubt if the buyers are all limiting themselves to 5 plants each.

Maybe it's the Spanish way of riding out the crisis.



I don't see legalising drugs especially hard drugs as solving any problems.
Wether organised crime and turf wars would reduce is debatable.
At the end of the day the users would all still need their fix and I don't see the Govt handing freebies out to them.

The need to raise money to buy a fix is said to be the most common cause of present day crime, sometimes involving petty thefts and break-ins but quite often violence also comes into the equation and I don't see this situation improving as a result of legalisation.

What a coincidence....

I didnt know that recently Uruguay has announced total legalisation. They will take over production to delivery A-Z.

Apparently USA's war on drugs has caused more crime and problems.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/comme...,3853813.story


The two central questions now become: First, will legalization, in fact, lower crime rates, divert people from more dangerous substances and reduce perceptions of insecurity? Or, as opponents claim, will it end up having little impact on crime while encouraging drug use? And, second, if Uruguay's efforts succeed, would marijuana legalization be the right course for other nations?

I wonder what will happen!

Jon

I was going to mention the US in one of my posts... amazing that such a right wing puritanical and conservative country has had such a liberal attitude to the Weed.

I know so many people who do drugs and I dont judge anyone, some recreational some take it to extremes, this guy below he was our UPS driver, sadly a few of the UPS drivers also did this but not until after work, this guy I could always tell he was on it, sad really the paranoia got to him. He was on the gear all the time.

http://www.newmarketjournal.co.uk/ne...rson-1-2712799

Drugs and Alcohol if taken too extremes messes your head up. this fella just suddenly became totally paranoid

I find it irritating how lefties always want to make the law suit the law breakers when it comes to drugs.

The other day there was an article about TV Licence evasion on The Telegraph and I found it rather telling how there were no lefties commenting that the TV Licence should be abolished because so many people evade paying it.

I guess for lefties who advocate the legalization of marijuana, the BBC and their left wing propaganda is one of their main allies, so of course they would never advocate abolishing the TV licence.

Blimey really taking it off topic here to TV licensing!

I don't think advocating medical use of Marijuana makes anybody a leftie. A very dismissive, uninformed and non-useful comment to the discussion.

Its a complex discussion, and the fact is - there are interesting examples out there. Like, CNN are taking an objective stance (i.e explaining the +ve and -ve points); many countries including USA and Israel have medical use provision and Uruguay will totally legalise it... Many countries have de-criminalised it too....

As mentioned, in the OP it all makes one wonder. I have personal experience of a lifetime being anti-drug, and finally trying it and finding it making a huge difference. I also know personally of a cancer patient who's friend (a cancer specialist) recommended him taking it... it really helped. In his case it was technically illegal. In my case it was de-criminalised where I live, so I would not have been charged.

'De-criminalising' something means basically that even the police feel that taxpayers money and resources should be better used elsewhere.

Whats important is that there is an informed discussion about this subject - then whatever your political leaning left, right or whatever, you can have the information presented so you can the proper information you need to make a decision.

Jon

I think a valid case could be made for the legalization of marijuana for medical use, but I remain to be convinced that a total legalization of marijuana for recreational use is the answer.

A large part of marijuana "culture" is grounded in anti-authority attitudes and anarchist sentiment. In other words, most marijuana users LIKE the fact it annoys the police.

I think there is a risk that if the police started ignoring marijuana use and effectively decriminalised it, it would become boring for many people and they would move on to harder stuff to attain that same sense of being rebellious and anti-authority.

I'm sure many would justify their use of harder drugs by claiming that the government regulated stuff is weak, over-priced, too many chemicals, etc.

TV licences are stupid anyway. Just another way to collect cash from the public.

But compared to other public broadcasting in Europe, to say the BBC is "rightist" or in the pockets of the government is rather short-sighted (and even I am surprised to see this). The beeb does indeed stay pretty neutral, considering that it's government funded.

The problem with the entire notion is simply, common sense, which is demonstrably lacking from the left, and therefore anything exhibiting common sense is naturally, considered right-wing.

To be honest, I couldn´t disagree more!
You clearly have an impression of people without any actual knowledge of the mentioned people.
Granted, not everyone is the same but to suggest people smoke weed to annoy the authorities, or to simply be rebelious and naughty? Bad ass man!... is utter nonsense.