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  • If we gave drug takers harsh sentences in solitary confinement, then possibly there wouldn't be so many addicts.

    Don't be ridiculous. You can't cure an illness by locking people away. At best you may send them on an extreme detox, sometimes with severe consequences like death depending on the addiction, alcohol being one of them, if not given something to help wean them off. But as was said in a later post one can easily end up back in the same situation and on that park bench. How else is someone that is homeless supposed to survive. What you say is a waste of money in supporting them would work out not only cheaper but more beneficial than this solution by locking people up. They will most likely end up addicted to spice in prison and in a worse state when released.

    Many addicts out there, internet addicts. shopaholics, alcoholism, other drug addiction etc etc Some people are even addicted to sex. Addiction comes in many forms.

    I know of someone who's son was persuaded by peer group pressure to start smoking marijuana aged 14 eventually progressing to heroin and other substances

    It's also important to know that not all drugs lead to using harder drugs. It's not like one thing leads to another. Plenty of Rastafarians out there that only smoke Sensi as part of their religion and nothing else.

    I am not defending bad behaviour as a result of alcohol, but I think you will find serious crime is very often a result of drugs, whereas minor crime is more likely to be as a result of alcohol

    Correct and this is also why we need to at least decriminalise all drugs and better still supply them to those in need. Think of the extent that this market runs too, from you street dealer or next door neighbour, to gang warfare, knife and gun crime, murder, money laundering and racketeering. There are heroin addicts in Amsterdam who will go to a centre in the morning get clean needles, clean heroin, medicate themselves in a safe environment and off to work they go for the day just like anyone else in society. It's mostly the impurities in street drugs that are doing the damage which often gets them so screwed up and not able work. You could think of it like going to the pub in the morning for a quick pint before work.

    It's also proven to cause extreme paranoia

    Which is brought about by the legal situation. It's far easier for someone to grow Skunk in the loft or cupboard and spray glass silicates over it to gain some weight etc than import a nice bit of natural herb from Jamaica or wherever it grows naturally. Heck we could grow it naturally here in a greenhouse except there is good chance it will get spotted and you would get nicked so it has to be hidden indoors which often means using hydroponics. We could have our own hydroponic farms to supply to coffee shop type places where the strains are controlled. Create some employment for those growing and those selling. Legalise it and supply it in Amsterdam style coffee shops and control the strains. And no...CBD on it's own does not always work. THC/CBD go hand in hand together to work properly. Israel have got the right attitude towards this. Their doctors supply it for various conditions on a regular basis with different stains of THC/CBD for whatever the condition is.

    Full disclosure: I am what you would call an ex addict so I know what I'm talking about. Spent over 30 years addicted to one drug in particular but took various other substances on occasion. I have also worked for the majority of my life and did not use crime to support my addiction. Note I have also had addiction problems with supplied pharma for post Op and continuing pain control. Now I just live with pain and am debilitated because of it. If only I lived in Israel as I would be alright then and could live a perfectly normal life or even Denver, Colorado. 'Take me home down a country road, West Virginia, country mama, take me home down a country road' :)

  • Full disclosure: I am what you would call an ex addict so I know what I'm talking about. Spent over 30 years addicted to one drug in particular but took various other substances on occasion. I have also worked for the majority of my life and did not use crime to support my addiction

    Well done, good for you

    Nice to hear from someone else who knows what they are talking about instead of theories

  • Typical liberal, do what you want post, regardless of the cost to society. Yes, locking people up is more costly than attempting to get people off of drugs (if it works) but euthanizing them is even cheaper. No, it's not an illness, it's a self inflicted problem, and we need to stop being so bloody sympathetic, and treat these scumbags as they deserve to be treated. Everybody, and mean everybody knows hard drugs are addictive and will ruin lives, so there is no excuse. In Singapore people get locked up for chewing gum, guess what, nobody chews gum !

    My opinions regarding alcoholics and prescription drugs are very different.

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • Typical liberal, do what you want post, regardless of the cost to society. Yes, locking people up is more costly than attempting to get people off of drugs (if it works) but euthanizing them is even cheaper. No, it's not an illness, it's a self inflicted problem, and we need to stop being so bloody sympathetic, and treat these scumbags as they deserve to be treated. Everybody, and mean everybody knows hard drugs are addictive and will ruin lives, so there is no excuse. In Singapore people get locked up for chewing gum, guess what, nobody chews gum !

    My opinions regarding alcoholics and prescription drugs are very different.

    I agree. I regularly heard and read "he has been free of drugs for almost 10 years now" from Parole Board contributors... guess what? He has been in prison for 10 years!!! this pathetic do-gooder logic bollox is the problem.

    I was burgled 3 times and all because the thugs "have a drug habit to feed"?? When I met them i gave them a good smack. A le.Lib would take them for coffee and chat then give them a fiver to aid their struggles. I was never burgled again.

    OK, lets be supportive - set up some help for them but with the proviso they do 10 years if they fail to attend and if they resort to using drugs after the course.

  • Typical liberal, do what you want post, regardless of the cost to society. Yes, locking people up is more costly than attempting to get people off of drugs (if it works) but euthanizing them is even cheaper. No, it's not an illness, it's a self inflicted problem, and we need to stop being so bloody sympathetic, and treat these scumbags as they deserve to be treated. Everybody, and mean everybody knows hard drugs are addictive and will ruin lives, so there is no excuse. In Singapore people get locked up for chewing gum, guess what, nobody chews gum !

    My opinions regarding alcoholics and prescription drugs are very different.

    Do ypu by any chance live with or work for Priti Patel?

    You seem to share her hard line views, and she is the current Home Sec. God help us all ;(

  • Do ypu by any chance live with or work for Priti Patel?

    You seem to share her hard line views, and she is the current Home Sec. God help us all ;(

    Your missing the point. By making drugs legal, a message is sent out, and that message is "it's ok to take drugs". Whether or not they purchased from a dealer, or a legal source, they are equally as addictive and equally dangerous. The addicts need money to buy such drugs, and this creates crime. The problem is already bad enough, but start telling people it's ok to buy them over the counter, then the problem will escalate out of all proportion. So, presuming we don't legalise them (and we won't) how do we deal with the problem. We can carry on as we are, and that's supporting addicts, rather than criminalising them, which in turn sends out a message, a very dangerous message, or we can clamp down on both the users and the dealers. We know what we are doing at the moment doesn't work, because the problem is getting bigger and bigger, so the only path left is a massive clamp down.

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • Your missing the point. By making drugs legal, a message is sent out, and that message is "it's ok to take drugs". Whether or not they purchased from a dealer, or a legal source, they are equally as addictive and equally dangerous. The addicts need money to buy such drugs, and this creates crime. The problem is already bad enough, but start telling people it's ok to buy them over the counter, then the problem will escalate out of all proportion. So, presuming we don't legalise them (and we won't) how do we deal with the problem. We can carry on as we are, and that's supporting addicts, rather than criminalising them, which in turn sends out a message, a very dangerous message, or we can clamp down on both the users and the dealers. We know what we are doing at the moment doesn't work, because the problem is getting bigger and bigger, so the only path left is a massive clamp down.

    How about making drugs free to addicts. That would wipe out the need for crime to pay for supply, and reduce the prison population

    We already give addicts free methadone at the pharmacy if they are attempting recovery

  • How about making drugs free to addicts. That would wipe out the need for crime to pay for supply, and reduce the prison population

    We already give addicts free methadone at the pharmacy if they are attempting recovery

    Great idea, and free booze to alcoholics, free fags to smokers, free prostitutes to sex addicts etc etc

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • Great idea, and free booze to alcoholics, free fags to smokers, free prostitutes to sex addicts etc etc

    Except that boozers, smokers, and sex workers are not perceived to be a problem for society

  • Except that boozers, smokers, and sex workers are not perceived to be a problem for society

    So we reward people for being a problem. Perhaps we should give shop lifters shop merchandise so they don't have to nick it?

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • So we reward people for being a problem. Perhaps we should give shop lifters shop merchandise so they don't have to nick it?

    Well, you solution is to execute the or chop their limbs off, I do not agree with such extreme reaction and have put forward an alternative

    I suspect that "rewarding" them as you put it would actually save society a lot more than it cost

  • Typical liberal, do what you want post, regardless of the cost to society

    What's all this liberal rubbish you talk about. I don't support any party, I don't even vote as there's no point. Mr war criminal Blair was the last time I ever voted and will never vote ever again with the system we have as they are all a bunch of lying manipulative c**ts who only look out for themselves, and I don't use that disgusting word lightly. Before that I voted for Lord Sutch not because I believed in him but because he was so different, alien from the rest and would create such a stir in the whole system that in the long run it may have changed the system for the better. Show it for the mockery and joke the whole process and system is.

    It's about how to deal with a problem in the most sensible and cost effective way with the least detriment to society and those that have addiction issues, no matter who is sitting in the seat. Sadly I don't think any political party is capable of dealing with the situation as it wont benefit them. They need to keep crimes alive because that helps keep them in power and gives them something to argue over and also hide their own criminal actions behind. Don't forget they all want their lines of coke and bottles of gin. They also profit from crime and hide their laundered money in tax havens in places like Jersey through things like charities and trusts. I don't believe in or have any faith in our political system. Put the people in power, the common man, woman and many things in society might actually get fixed. A bunch of primary school children have a better ideas and solutions to fixing some of the horrors they witness in society than the addicts in parliament.

  • What's all this liberal rubbish you talk about. I don't support any party, I don't even vote as there's no point. Mr war criminal Blair was the last time I ever voted and will never vote ever again with the system we have as they are all a bunch of lying manipulative c**ts who only look out for themselves, and I don't use that disgusting word lightly. Before that I voted for Lord Sutch not because I believed in him but because he was so different, alien from the rest and would create such a stir in the whole system that in the long run it may have changed the system for the better. Show it for the mockery and joke the whole process and system is.

    It's about how to deal with a problem in the most sensible and cost effective way with the least detriment to society and those that have addiction issues, no matter who is sitting in the seat. Sadly I don't think any political party is capable of dealing with the situation as it wont benefit them. They need to keep crimes alive because that helps keep them in power and gives them something to argue over and also hide their own criminal actions behind. Don't forget they all want their lines of coke and bottles of gin. They also profit from crime and hide their laundered money in tax havens in places like Jersey through things like charities and trusts. I don't believe in or have any faith in our political system. Put the people in power, the common man, woman and many things in society might actually get fixed. A bunch of primary school children have a better ideas and solutions to fixing some of the horrors they witness in society than the addicts in parliament.

    I did not mean liberal as in liberal party, I meant liberal as in very tolerant. The problem is that if you legalise drugs you send out a message that drugs are OK. Before you know what there will be as many people taking hard drugs as there smokers. It won't be cost effective because the tax payer will be funding enormous rehab bills, and crime will go through the roof. Just because people may be able to buy their hard drugs over the counter, doesn't mean they won't have to find a way to fund their habit. We already have enough scumbags living on the street, we don't need more.

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • We already have enough scumbags living on the street, we don't need more

    I would be delighted and sorry at the same time if you finish up one mortgage or rent payment from being evicted

  • I would be delighted and sorry at the same time if you finish up one mortgage or rent payment from being evicted

    That wouldn't be self inflicted, taking drugs is. I have the utmost sympathy for people who come across hard times through no fault of their own, but no sympathy for anyone who takes hard drugs. There isn't a person on earth who isn't aware of the problems associated with hard drugs, so it's about time we stop treating them like some type of sanctimonious angels who deserve help. Taking drugs is crime, like any other crime. Drive at 35 mph in a 30 mph limit you get punished, encourage drug dealers by purchasing their products, and get the full and expensive support of the tax payer. Bonkers, flaming boners

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • That wouldn't be self inflicted, taking drugs is. I have the utmost sympathy for people who come across hard times through no fault of their own, but no sympathy for anyone who takes hard drugs.

    Why differentiate?

    encourage drug dealers by purchasing their products

    Who encourages them?

  • I can't believe you have even asked these questions, they are quite self explanatory.

    Not to me they're not

    I was thinking about this last night. I used to be a smoker, a very heavy smoker as the job became more stressful. I was a nicotine addict who ignored all the health warnings, ironically finishing up with lung cancer

    I stopped fifteen ears ago because coming up to retirement I knew that I would not be able to afford cigarettes on my pension, stopped because I wanted to

    Waiting these days to buy a lottery ticket behind someone buying a packet of 20 cigarettes for nearly £10 I am so glad I stopped

  • I've not read any comments on here to make me change my mind about this. The strategies we have tried do not work. Punishment doesn't work. Prohibition of drugs doesn't work.

    However, we have not tried legalising drugs. That would immediately reduce the price of drugs, reduce criminality, reduce toxicity problems and be capable of being controlled.

    To keep trying the same old things that have not worked before in the hope that they will work next time is folly and doomed to failure. We need to get real about this.

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