As regular readers of this blog will know, I am in favour of decriminalising almost all of what we regard today as illicit drugs. I understand this would be a complex thing to put into practice, nevertheless I believe if we were to take this bold step the pluses would far out weigh the disadvantages. Having said this I doubt a government would ever exist, whatever its political complexion, which would legalise the majority of illicit drugs in a single step. This is why many of those who favour decriminalisation welcomed the Blue Labour governments decision in 2004 to downgrade cannabis from class B ...
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Otherwise intelligent people, on reaching high political office, often seem pre-programmed to abandon independent thought and end up behaving like imbeciles; others might be less generous and regard such folk as lackeys of powerful forces with the power to lobby central government successfully. Members of Tony Blair’s cabinet acted in this way when in 2003 they overwhelmingly supported Blair’s infantile and criminal decision to support President G.W.Bush illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. A decision which they must have known was against the wishes of a majority of those they represented and also against the advice of the UK’s main European allies. Home Secretary ...
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One of the pluses about the US electoral system is that during the Presidential ballot, local initiatives can be placed on the ballot paper and be voted on. Transform has an interesting piece on its web site that deals with just such a proposition.(see below) There is little doubt that for most logical people, the current laws that deal with the possession, supply and use of illicit drugs are a national scandal and result in a massive waste of tax payers money and in the process tens of thousands of otherwise law abiding citizen's have their lives ruined, or at the very least set ...
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Up until the mid 1960s Heroin addict who lived in England were treated by what was known as the English Method. Basically what this entailed was the addict was provided by there GP with a weekly prescription for pharmaceutical Heroin, which would meet his/her daily needs. In return they were expected to get on with their lives in a law abiding and productive manner, if they failed to do this the prescription would be withdrawn. This the overwhelming majority of addicts did, remember this was long before highly political members of the medical profession came up with the theory that all drug addicts were ...
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As this film from the Lonely planet travel channel demonstrates, its surprisingly easy*. Not the high tech bond-villain underground laboratory many seem to imagine, nor even the bandana wearing terrorist types with AK47's in a jungle fortress, no - it's an old bloke in a hut with a bag of leaves and a few buckets of chemicals from the local hardware store. Cocaine powder can be nasty stuff, and I'm fine with people telling others, especially young people, that it's potentially very bad for you and you shouldn't use it. Id actually say that maybe we should do a bit more of that given ...
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