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UK drugs policy - questions you'd like answered.
Olly_B
Posts: 222 Trailblazer
Hiya,
Next month I’m off to interview Alan Campbell MP, the government minister responsible for the drugs policy. I’m basically going to ask him what is going on with current policy: the change in classification of cannabis and the non-reclassification of Ecstasy despite a recommendation by a team of government experts.
Do you have any questions you’d like me to put to him? Preferably vaguely about drugs policy and classification as that’s what the interview is meant to be about. I haven’t got long with him, but I’ll see what I can do…
Olly
Next month I’m off to interview Alan Campbell MP, the government minister responsible for the drugs policy. I’m basically going to ask him what is going on with current policy: the change in classification of cannabis and the non-reclassification of Ecstasy despite a recommendation by a team of government experts.
Do you have any questions you’d like me to put to him? Preferably vaguely about drugs policy and classification as that’s what the interview is meant to be about. I haven’t got long with him, but I’ll see what I can do…
Olly
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Comments
I think it's a different department, but I'm willing to give it a go. What sort of question/s were you thinking?
Cheers,
Olly
Obviously they were more interested in catching the dealers, but then it turns out three guys were also let off having been in possession of six baggies of crack.
I wonder whether possession even matters when it comes to enforcement like this.
uncontrolled apart from age restrictions and how between the two,
they kill 1000's each year yet drugs that have never ever been
recorded to kill someone are made completely illegal and onto
the hands of criminals who give no shit other than to make money
even if this means polluting the drugs so much so, the drug becomes
totally unrecognisable and with 10,000 more health risks than it would
have been if controlled!
Yes they kill 1000's but that isnt an argument for legalising the other drugs, if anything it is an argument for criminalising tobacco and alcohol.
The big argument for legal supply of some recreational drugs is that the social harms are likely to reduce, there would be tax revenue for the government and the personal harms suffered by the users are also likely to reduce. In short it would be cheaper and safer.
Forget the wars for 5 minutes
Control the drugs
Tax the drugs
Yipee more money for war!
1. Tax revenues can and frequently are used for things other than wars.
2. Governments can and frequently do other things than start wars.
3. The UK government is doing quite the opposite to starting a war at the moment, they are attempting to leave Iraq as quickly as possible.
p.s sorry if a went on a bit lol i got carryed away, i think im waaay off topic hehe
As for heroin being disgusting, yes street heroin does fit that description, but that is because of the market not the drug itself. Medical heroin is less harmful to the body than alcohol.
How have the drugs got into this country in the first place? From oversees dealers? passed onto dealers here....there needs to tougher measures brought in to stop this happening. Some drugs that are sold on the street ...do you know that they are the real thing and do you get ripped off for bad drugs. My husband was robbed just after moving in here and he knew exactely who it was that robbed him and yes it was someone being greedy to feed his habit.
Why do youngsters get away with a very low message say for first time of finding it. I believe we should make it harder and tougher.
Also in Holland and my husband is dutch why do they have coffee shops where people can smoke any type of weed. I say that if the drug can be smoked in one country why cant they legalise it here. It would save a lot of police time and effort in actually making weed legal to smoke here.
So why not go to Holland and see how it is made legall.
Why do young people want to start taking drugs? I think we need more education about the drugs, working positive towards getting them to kick the habbit.
Plus, being "tougher" would mean they'd get a criminal record, how many youths would be able to get a job with a criminal record for drug possesion?, and with the current job shortage, it's killing their chances while they are down. Research too wouldn't be given, due to the Drug Misuse act.
Research and telling someone the facts wont make them stop taking the drug(s), it may change their opinions to think more about it, but it wont stop them taking any drugs. Maybe the odd people, with the odd drug but certainly not to change their opinions. If anything, research should be used to spread the truth about these drugs, rather than myths and false information.
There is never going to be a 'safe' drug. Legal supply will decrease the risks, but they will still be there.
There is absolutely no way of stopping the drugs entering this country, we have a massive border, and millions of tons of goods comes and goes all the time to search all of that thoroughly would make the economy grind to a halt.
Cannabis isnt legal in Holland, it never has been legal there.
One of the main reasons why we cant legalise it, and why the Dutch never have is that we signed international agreements to make it illegal.
Sorry I took so long to reply but I've been giving this serious thought. What I would like to ask is something of a two part question;
1) What evidence do the Home Office have that allows them to contradict the judgement and competencies of experts from their own advisory panel, repeatedly, over a number of years?
2) How can the Home Office justify continued public spending on research and consultations with the ACMD that they repeatedly ignore, and that successive Home Secretaries contradict without any superceding evidence? Does this not run contrary to the Labour matra of evidence based social policy?
To my mind these are about the only serious questions to ask the Home Office, because until they answer these everything else is pretty moot.
Good luck with your interview.
Take care,
MB
Thanks for all your suggestions. Some really good ideas.
Keep them coming... you've got until next Wednesday! :-)
Olly
You could also ask why magic mushrooms were moved to class A, but again its a wasted question because even the ACMD couldnt come up with a good answer. I've heard from someone who was there that they all just shrugged and said 'well the other hallucinogens are Class A'.
The group effect, particularly with older teenagers and even those into early twenties, is a big problem nationwide. Any change in alcohol consumption however will take generations to achieve, as it is so engrained within the history, social and recreational, economic, and class structures of British society.
Stopping the sale of frighteningly cheap alcohol might be a good start, especially the promotions in the supermarkets which are loss leaders to get people through the doors.
It doesn't help. Much better just banning the consumption of alcohol on the street.
And why didn't he to his own experts that I fucking paid for ...for him to just ignore and up the ante on cannabis.