How Decriminalisation Could Solve The Drugs Problem
This week saw both Tony Blair and his Scottish counterpart Donald Dewar embroil themselves more deeply than ever in a fight that they can never win – the war on drugs. In today’s relatively peaceful and prosperous society, drugs are believed by many to be the epitome of evil. They are the forbidden fruit, created to entrap young minds and cast them forever into an underworld inhabited by faceless demons whose only pleasure in life lies dissolved inside a hypodermic needle.
This is certainly the propaganda that is presented to us by the flag-waving generals whose job it to lead us into battle against the evil forces of drugs. However, I have often wondered what it really is about these ...
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kitchen cupboard can have narcotic effects if smoked (and, used in this way, it can also give you cancer), yet few people have cause to think of this when they sprinkle it into their cakes and biscuits. Chocolate contains an addictive chemical called PEA, which stimulates our brains in the same way that Ecstasy does. Overdosing on chocolate can contribute to heart disease, the single biggest killer in this country today, but far from fearing the addictive properties of the humble Dairy Milk, we laugh and joke about them on Christmas cards and coffee cups. And coffee itself contains a strong stimulant, caffeine, which is also found in tea and Coca-Cola. Even Scotland’s “other national drink”, Irn Bru, contains this chemical, although Scotland’s original national drink does, of course, contain a much worse drug.
Do we fear drugs because they are dangerous, because they can rub out healthy young minds with a single stroke? The death toll from drugs is certainly tragic – over a ...
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age at which impressionable children take that first precious puff falls with equally alarming rapidity, perhaps it is time that society accepted one very simple solution to the drugs problem: decriminalisation.
This would not, of course, take away the drugs. But it would take away the drugs problem. There is a difference, a difference that has been fatally missed by Tony Blair and his moralising ministers. If drugs were legal, prices would come down, the problems caused by unregulated doses and chemical contaminants could be eliminated, and organised crime would be deprived of its major source of income. If drugs could be openly sold at sensible prices, users would be able to fund the ...
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How Decriminalisation Could Solve The Drugs Problem. (2005, May 9). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/How-Decriminalisation-Could-Solve-Drugs-Problem/26646
"How Decriminalisation Could Solve The Drugs Problem." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 9 May. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/How-Decriminalisation-Could-Solve-Drugs-Problem/26646>
"How Decriminalisation Could Solve The Drugs Problem." Essayworld.com. May 9, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/How-Decriminalisation-Could-Solve-Drugs-Problem/26646.
"How Decriminalisation Could Solve The Drugs Problem." Essayworld.com. May 9, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/How-Decriminalisation-Could-Solve-Drugs-Problem/26646.
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