trust – tolerance – self-sufficiency
The current problems caused by drug abuse provide a classic example of what happens when the State interferes with personal behaviour. That taking drugs is deeply foolish needs no explanation but not only is it the inalienable right of any individual to go to hell in a handcart of their own choosing, more significantly, there is little that can be done to stop them – the widespread availability and use of drugs in our prisons is clear enough demonstration of that. Bans never work.
Addicts are driven by the physiological and psychological changes caused by their addiction. On waking, their sole, immediate, and compelling concern is how to obtain their next ‘fix’. They are oblivious to the dictates of reason, family ties, social conscience, and, least of all, the law. Indeed, it is the law itself, in forbidding legitimate purchase, which drives addicts to the black market. It is the very cause of the social and personal harm that it is supposed to be preventing.
The drugs trade offers dangers to society other than personal tragedy, rising crime, and the costs (your taxes) of health care and pointless policing. Its vast wealth and sophistication necessarily bring many forms of corruption. Obviously there is a strong risk of senior police officers, politicians and public servants being directly corrupted – indeed, it is hard to imagine that this has not already happened, with all that that implies – but there is also more subtle corruption in the draconian legal thinking and the self-sustaining nature of the institutions that have been set in place to deal with it and which would be reluctant to see the status quo disturbed.
The drugs trade is also a major source of funding for so-called ‘terrorism’. To undermine one is to undermine the other.
The ludicrous and self-sustaining concept of a ‘war on drugs’ should be abandoned. Addicts should be obliged to register with GPs and should be provided with free drugs from pharmacies, the whole trade being monitored by a ‘smart card’ system.
The advantages of this are as follows:
1. Addicts would no longer need to resort to crime to sustain their habit. The reduction in crime could be considerable.
2. Addicts would receive clean drugs and needles, thereby reducing the costs to the NHS resulting from the use of badly ‘cut’ drugs and shared and dirty needles.
3. Their supply guaranteed, addicts would have more chance to take charge of their lives and set about seeking employment and rehabilitation.
4. With good quality products given away free, the financial base of the illegal drugs trade would be destroyed almost immediately.
5. The whole problem would become visible and measurable. Its adverse consequences could thus be properly addressed, and education and rehabilitation schemes could be more accurately focused.
It is quite possible that the reduction in NHS costs and crime, together with the consequent release of many police officers for more worthwhile work, could yield a net financial gain which could be used to fund education and rehabilitation schemes
HELP AND INFORMATION WANTED
- Data on accidents and crimes caused or aggravated by drug abuse.
- Number of hospital beds taken by patients with illnesses caused by drug abuse, and the total cost to the NHS
Whats a URL,
Hi Roger, this subject makes my blood boil I would rather bulldoze them into the sea and sleep well for it. Unfortunately there are too many do-gooders. Granted that something has to be done, does this mean that we have to build some type of hostel or something to house this cancer on society or are they free to go home ( where does this get administered ?????)
REPLY
You are bulldozing the wrong people. The problems caused by drugs are a direct consequence of the laws banning them. Those responsible for the drug ‘problem’ are the interfering social engineers in the 60s who introduced the various bans, and those today who support and seek to sustain them. Once addicts have ready and free access to their drugs the criminal market and all the drug-fueled crime, corruption and harm that goes with it will collapse. The problems of administering such a drug distribution system are trivial in comparison with the resources we are currently wasting in the ‘War on Drugs’.
Cheers
Roger Taylor
October 23, 2009 @ 4:39 pm
I feel this might be innapropriate, obvious and a bit redundant, and it is only through talking to friends I have heard this, but the drugs trade and ‘terrorist’ attacks could be linked. It could be that, although it is a pathetic and cowardly thing to do, certain people have undertaken these ‘attacks’ because it is their only way of lashing back at the bullying of coutries like Britain and America who have used Afghanistan as a supplier of heroin, and are now at war with the country because it refused to let ‘us’ put an oil pipe line through its country. OK, I might have got my country’s mixed up there, but I suspect that there is a nasty system that is carefully engineered to play people off against each other – involving drugs, war etc, and all for huge profits for a few people (bankers). Could it be that the people who take our taxes have created the black market for their own benefit so that they themselves don’t pay any taxes, and that they are actually the instigators of the drugs trade (similarly using wars as a means to make money for themselves, and feeding us the idea that war is noble etc…. I think you’ve already said this yourself, come to think of it)?
I’d better shut up now, because I’m probably out of my depth.
REPLY
Thank you, Rob. To a degree, we’re all out of our depth. Drugs and so-called ‘terrorism’ are entangled and both part of the nasty aftermath of the political chicanery of the Cold War. The causes are a problem for historians, what we have to do is as stated in our ‘Drugs’ page – destroy the economic base of the trade and direct our wits and resources to more important matters. Keep on thinking – if you come up with any ideas – post them.
Cheers
Roger Taylor
September 6, 2009 @ 3:27 pm