Comments on: Doing the impossible

By: Merv Nash

Merv Nash — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:36:04 +0000

Taking drugs has always been a solution to some other problem. A large percentage, something like about 75 comes from boredom and in kids the bulk of that comes from school failures. The kid is made to learn something in which they have no interest or the subject has never been explained properly and they are full of words they never got defined and understood. However, for all of that proper education in the effects of drugs on the body and the mind can go a long way to giving a person enough certainty that drugs are destructive to get them to decide to stay clean. Laws haven’t worked and never will. A person will always do what they believe in never mind any laws. If the person can be brought to a point of understanding so that they themselves decide that drugs (or anything else for that matter) are not what they want to do they won’t take do it or them. Nothing else works as well as this. Well presented information that people can easily understand and given in a non threatening way AND with them given the choice of take it or leave it is the only way education can be done that will stick because the person makes the decision for themselves as opposed to a decision that is forced on them which never works for long.

By: Blueknight

Blueknight — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:27:06 +0000

Ex RUC,

The question of ‘personal use amounts’ is a difficult one. I have heard at least one story about someone who was caught with a huge block of cannabis claim that it was for personal use, – they buy in bulk to save money, – and they carry around with them so that their brother/friends/other tenants don’t steal it.
It would help if personal limits were set for each individual drug Exceeding that limit by a small amount would result in a conviction/penalty fine. But exceeding it by a greater amount (which would indicate that the offender is a dealer) would mean prison.

By: Ex-RUC

Ex-RUC — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:39:50 +0000

Surely the problem is that street dealers only carry enough to warrant personal use and keep their main stock somewhere else. So proving dealing would be difficult and it would be pointless sending a dealer to a dissuasion commission. Granted a big drugs bust should carry far greater sentences but to take the Portugal route would probably make detecting and convicting dealers more difficult. Mind you, I was also impressed by the BBC piece.

By: Hibbo

Hibbo — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:55:52 +0000

I’m not quite convinced by the legalisation of drugs, but the more I think about it the more I struggle to see anything fundamentally wrong with the idea.

I think the Portuguese type decriminalisation is a sensible move; as drugs are SO easy to get hold of, I don’t think there’s many people who don’t take drugs because they’re illegal, so that’s not an argument.

I agree with Blueknight in that it would be a problem that dealers would get an easy ride, so if it were to happen (which it won’t of course) then the ‘personal use’ threshold must be set very low.

By: Blueknight

Blueknight — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:49:12 +0000

If there were no users there would be no dealers, but if there were no dealers it may not follow that there would be no users.
There is not always a clear distinction between user and dealer. Users deal and dealers use.
The big question is what would happen if possession of drugs was decriminalised. Nothing much except that there would be more cannabis smoked in the street and the dealers would have a field day.
TThe dealers have to be neutralised and one way of doing that might be to have drug clinics supply the actual drugs on prescription and increase the prion sentences.
No one can be sure whether this approach would work, but nothing could be worse than what we have already got