Thread: Argentina legalises drug use.

Originally Posted by chocolate_frog

Originally Posted by Argee2007

i'm pretty sure Switzerland had a similar scheme and crime dropped like a stone,

Crime actually rose around the "drug sanctuaries" where junkies could shoot up in private. Also every smack head and pill popper in Europe congregated in the areas. So I'd hope if we did walk this path, the remainder of Europe would also do it at teh same time.

Otherwise the channel ferries will be rammed with zombies looking for their cheap, legal hits.

Agreed, but consider the following.

Long before i joined, the "in thing" to do on the coucil estate where I lived was to attend what were then called (they may still be, I don't know) "Blues Parties". Basically an illegal gathering where booze and class B's and C's were sold to the backdrop of reggae and house music.

Obviously criminally run, but to be honest, because of where they were run, nobody really gave a flying.

Used to get around 2 - 300 people attend the big ones and obvioulsy Mr Naughty dealer made a killing. Very rarely any trouble though as most were loving each other up at the end of the night after a cocktail of booze and weed, with the odd (then new) E thrown in.

Fast forward to when I joined the mob. 2 - 300 people off their faces on Wife Beater on a Friday night anywhere you choose to name. Que the to be expected fights, criminal damage, stabbings, glassings etc, etc.

I'm not for one second saying that drug use does not induce crime, of course it does as the need for any addictive substance will, but I also think it is very naive to think that it will be any worse than any Friday or Saturday night anywhere in the UK, in fact I would put money on it that it would be a hell of a lot quieter.

Not a user myself apart from the odd puff on a joint now and then (I'm allowed, I'm a civvy now so can do as I please and take the consequences as I please) but did grow up around the culture on an inner city estate and then spent 10 years drinking with Britains finest around the world so would like to think that I do have an insight.

Originally Posted by chocolate_frog

Originally Posted by Argee2007

i'm pretty sure Switzerland had a similar scheme and crime dropped like a stone,

Crime actually rose around the "drug sanctuaries" where junkies could shoot up in private. Also every smack head and pill popper in Europe congregated in the areas. So I'd hope if we did walk this path, the remainder of Europe would also do it at teh same time.

Otherwise the channel ferries will be rammed with zombies looking for their cheap, legal hits.

That's actually not quite true, Choccie_frog. Platzspitz in Zurich, just behind the main railway station, had exactly the same clientele as before. The only difference was that turnover was faster, since, as a seller, you didn't have to keep dashing back over the bridge to access your hidden stash every time you had a buyer. It made life a whole lot easier.

MsG

I'm all for France legalising everything. Anyone who wants to use it... Get over there and ram it up your noses all you like!

Treating smoking disease by the NHS costs about 5 billion quid a year. A lot higher than some posters have put at around 2 billion a year. Cancer treatment for smoking related diseases cost around .6 bn. Heart disease caused by smoking is around 2.5 bn a year and the remainder on treating long term lung conditions.
Excise duties on tobacco bring in about 8.2 bn a year.
The annual cost to the NHS for treating alcohol related problems is about 1.7 bn a year but the cost of alcohol related crime and public disorder has been estimated at around 7.3 bn a year and it costs employers around 6.4 bn a year.
Excise duties on alcohol bring in about 5.7 bn a year
Medical treatment for illegal drug users has cost the NHS around .7 bn in the past year BUT 3 bn has been spent in tackling the addiction. However, drug related crime has cost an average of 10 bn a year over the last 10 years, or 100 bn in that ten year period.
Excise duties on illegal drugs bring in zilch.

So, you could say we are making a profit on tobacco, a paper profit on alcohol unless you add in the crime aspects. Illegal drugs, on the other hand, show us well into the red. By making them legal, you would save the 2.6 bn a year it currently costs to put them through the court system. You may also cut down on the drug-related crime costs but, even it were legal, wouldn’t drug users still have to buy them and therefore turn to crime if they couldn’t hold down a job because of their addiction? Or would the state give them extra handouts to pay for them?
I’ve never taken an illegal drug in my life, not even a puff of weed or grass. However, make it legal and give me state aid to pay for it and I might give it a go, just to get some of the tax money back I’ve paid over the years.
Hell in a handcart? More like a bullet train!

don't think you'd need much benefits.
weed no more expensive than fags probably cheaper get some n norfolk skunk farms going poly tunnels etc cheap.
much like E its not expensive to sell.
heroin be a lot cheaper likewise import straight from helmund cut out loads of middle men sell dispense in NHS clinics. Take the glamour out of being a smack head even pete dogerthy could'nt look waiting for the NHS shooting gallery to open.
coke pricey but not as pricey as present.
most of the rest like acid and co still fairly cheap to make (portons probably still got stockpiles make a mint military grade acid )

Originally Posted by shortfuse

Which brings me back nicely to my original point. Is this opening of the floodgates in South America going to reflect in my pocket any time I want a decent uncut gramme of sniff, or am I going to have to put up with the underweight, overpriced claggy cut shite currently being offered up?

If anything, your Boots 'Feel the Difference' Eight-Ball is going to be pricier AND weaker. Stick to cold tablets.

The first proper debate I came across when I moved to CM was an old hand and a newbie on the subject of the DEA.
The OH, mid 40's was telling the NB mid 60's, that the DEA was a political institution a Severale Billion $ a Year institution with serious matters like a seat on the main White House Table, Mortgage's and University fees to pay for, for it's agents and the Drug Eradication was the last thing on it's mind.
Many Family fortunes in Thighland and the States are based on Illegal 'Drugs', Prohibition ask the Kennedy's.
Booze was my drug, but I will suggest most can handle it, an unfortunate few cannot.
Never smoked but I know Nicotine has provided 'relaxation' to many.
Hash, seems to help many but I will leave the Debate on Health to others wiser then me.
Cocaine I seen what it's done to a few Models and media people but then these high fliers believe they need it to further their careers.
Opium, Heroin, now I think by now your really spaced out if you want these taken outside medically controlled areas.
Thighland had legal drug dens until mid 50's when the US applied pressure and they where shut down, lost the government needed revenue.
I don't really see why Colombia and Mexico should take all the Sh1t from the West when all they are doing is supplying the massive need of the West ( and else where).
The user Nations need to sort out THEIR problems.
HM Forces have compulsory Drug Checks and so should ALL who receive a pay packet from HM Gov, MP's, The Lords, The Judiciary and Law Profession, with corresponding heavier Punishment for the further up the Responsibility scale.
For lower level drugs the Bullet will just have to be bitten and some form of Legalization with taxation will have to be introduced.
Just where the line is drawn is above my pay level.
john

Originally Posted by Closet_Jibber

I'm all for France legalising everything. Anyone who wants to use it... Get over there and ram it up your noses all you like!

Why go to France ? its cheaper to stay here and do it, your ( a lot ) less likely to get caught, if ya do a slap on the wrist (worse case is a nice cell with Sky TV :D )and anyway the French plod are a sh*t load scarier than ours by far.....