But wouldn’t that lead to more people getting addicted?
Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, made headlines around the world when a video of her dancing with friends at a private party was leaked. There were allegations that she was taking drugs, something she vehemently denied; she even went as far as to take a drugs test to “clear up suspicions”. The results were negative.
Even if Marin had smoked weed or dropped a pill, would that be so bad? The hypocrisy and puritanism around these substances is often breathtaking. Coffee could be described as a drug, but is socially accepted because it makes us more productive. Michael Pollan, the author of the book This is Your Mind on Plants, argued on the Gastropod podcast that “Capitalism and caffeine are hand in hand . . . just look at the institution of the coffee break. Your employer not only gives you a free drug at the workplace but gives you a place and time in which to enjoy it twice a day . . . they get more work out of people then.”
Nicotine is also a drug and, according to the HSE, nearly 6,000 people die in Ireland each year from the effects of smoking. The abuse of prescription drugs, most of which were obtained legally through a GP and pharmacist, has increased, with almost a third of Irish adults using opiates. And we can’t talk about drug use and not mention alcohol. We have one of the highest consumption rates of alcohol in Europe and, on average, three people die every day in this country because of alcohol-related harm. Yet all of these drugs are, to one degree or another, deemed socially acceptable when in reality all mood-altering substances are powerful and should be treated as such. The irony is that most people I know who take mushrooms or MDMA do so a handful of times a year while others down a bottle of wine multiple times a week and no one questions their behaviour.
Many countries have relaxed their drugs laws in recent years, but the argument against the complete legalisation of all drugs usually goes something like this: “It’s a gateway to harder drugs. Try cannabis once and within six months you’ll be mainlining heroin!” There are no empirical studies to support these claims, and no one has a problem with acknowledging that your tolerance also increases with use. There’s also a myth that such drugs are inherently more addictive, something the opioid crisis in America (again, most prescriptions of OxyContin were perfectly legal) would seem to disprove. But even the way in which we think about addiction needs to change. Dr Gabor Maté, a renowned addiction expert, has said: “Nothing itself is addictive on the one hand, and on the other hand everything could be addictive if there’s an emptiness in that person which needs to be filled.”
The Rat Park experiments conducted by Dr Bruce Alexander in the 1970s supports that thesis. Rats placed in a cage, all alone, and offered two water bottles — one filled with water, the other with heroin or cocaine — drank compulsively from the drug-filled bottle until they died. But rats placed in “rat parks”, where there were other rats to play with and they had enough space, did not overdose, or even drink from the drug bottles in an obsessive manner.
Making drugs illegal does not prevent addiction, but allocating more money to support communities that are currently ravaged by these issues certainly might. Money which would easily be found if we legalised drugs and taxed them, as we do with alcohol and cigarettes. Money which is right now funding a failing and ultimately futile war on drugs because no matter how many gang leaders we put in jail, or how many shipments of cocaine the gardai seize, it never has a lasting impact on the drug trade. A drug trade that could be effectively demolished overnight if this industry was legalised and controlled by the state, not to mention made infinitely less dangerous for current users who have no way of knowing if the drugs they’re buying are safe.
Prohibition doesn’t work and we all know it. It’s time for a grown-up conversation about drugs.
Is this the first article she doesn’t use to bash men or act as a child
Legalize cannabis and Decriminalise possession #Portugal
Also invest in heavily in youth programs why should the GAA get all the funding, especially in rural areas
Sounds like an oxymoron.
“Let’s legalise crime to cut down on crime”….
I understand legalising weed and LSDs but all drugs? That’s just insane.
Using the example of coffee is fairly daft as coffee isn’t a
hallucinogenic drug. So it’s apples and oranges.
Similarly, she says people “downing a bottle of wine multiple times a week and no questions the behaviour”. They literally do, it’s why there are health warnings on the bottles.
All taken into account, you’re not going to get Doctors prescribing a safe amount of ecstasy, opioids or angel dust for recreational use. No amount of heroin or meth is going to be freely available for recreational use with the medical oversight and approval required.
100% Legalise ALL drugs. The harms from the drugs come from the fact that they are illegal.
Ye as a country we need to get out of the stone age on this one.
Convince you parents and aunties and uncles, they are the largest voting base against change in this issue.
In Canada, loads of people that I never expected hopped onto the weed train when it became legal. It’s their choice and I am to respect what they do with their lives but I would be remiss to say I wasn’t disappointed.
A venn diagram of redditors who want to legalise hard drugs but ban cigarettes/vaping would nearly be a full circle.
Taxing drugs is OK but taxing alcohol caused outrage.
People don’t realise that when they legalise drugs and they become a lot more widespread and they try to tax it your gonna hear the same thing
“It will just make addicts poorer cuz they’re going to keep buying them no matter what”
They tax tobacco and people complain they tax alcohol and people complain they tax sugar and people complain this isn’t going to be any different
makes perfect sense which is why it won’t happen
Maude Flanders dusagrees’s aka Niamh driving the quaushqai taking her slow kids to camogie training!!!
Duh
How about no.
Legalise drugs ta fuck
The god-fearing morons of Ireland and the politicians who depend on them for votes will not go for this for another ten years or maybe even longer.
17 comments
But wouldn’t that lead to more people getting addicted?
Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, made headlines around the world when a video of her dancing with friends at a private party was leaked. There were allegations that she was taking drugs, something she vehemently denied; she even went as far as to take a drugs test to “clear up suspicions”. The results were negative.
Even if Marin had smoked weed or dropped a pill, would that be so bad? The hypocrisy and puritanism around these substances is often breathtaking. Coffee could be described as a drug, but is socially accepted because it makes us more productive. Michael Pollan, the author of the book This is Your Mind on Plants, argued on the Gastropod podcast that “Capitalism and caffeine are hand in hand . . . just look at the institution of the coffee break. Your employer not only gives you a free drug at the workplace but gives you a place and time in which to enjoy it twice a day . . . they get more work out of people then.”
Nicotine is also a drug and, according to the HSE, nearly 6,000 people die in Ireland each year from the effects of smoking. The abuse of prescription drugs, most of which were obtained legally through a GP and pharmacist, has increased, with almost a third of Irish adults using opiates. And we can’t talk about drug use and not mention alcohol. We have one of the highest consumption rates of alcohol in Europe and, on average, three people die every day in this country because of alcohol-related harm. Yet all of these drugs are, to one degree or another, deemed socially acceptable when in reality all mood-altering substances are powerful and should be treated as such. The irony is that most people I know who take mushrooms or MDMA do so a handful of times a year while others down a bottle of wine multiple times a week and no one questions their behaviour.
Many countries have relaxed their drugs laws in recent years, but the argument against the complete legalisation of all drugs usually goes something like this: “It’s a gateway to harder drugs. Try cannabis once and within six months you’ll be mainlining heroin!” There are no empirical studies to support these claims, and no one has a problem with acknowledging that your tolerance also increases with use. There’s also a myth that such drugs are inherently more addictive, something the opioid crisis in America (again, most prescriptions of OxyContin were perfectly legal) would seem to disprove. But even the way in which we think about addiction needs to change. Dr Gabor Maté, a renowned addiction expert, has said: “Nothing itself is addictive on the one hand, and on the other hand everything could be addictive if there’s an emptiness in that person which needs to be filled.”
The Rat Park experiments conducted by Dr Bruce Alexander in the 1970s supports that thesis. Rats placed in a cage, all alone, and offered two water bottles — one filled with water, the other with heroin or cocaine — drank compulsively from the drug-filled bottle until they died. But rats placed in “rat parks”, where there were other rats to play with and they had enough space, did not overdose, or even drink from the drug bottles in an obsessive manner.
Making drugs illegal does not prevent addiction, but allocating more money to support communities that are currently ravaged by these issues certainly might. Money which would easily be found if we legalised drugs and taxed them, as we do with alcohol and cigarettes. Money which is right now funding a failing and ultimately futile war on drugs because no matter how many gang leaders we put in jail, or how many shipments of cocaine the gardai seize, it never has a lasting impact on the drug trade. A drug trade that could be effectively demolished overnight if this industry was legalised and controlled by the state, not to mention made infinitely less dangerous for current users who have no way of knowing if the drugs they’re buying are safe.
Prohibition doesn’t work and we all know it. It’s time for a grown-up conversation about drugs.
Is this the first article she doesn’t use to bash men or act as a child
Legalize cannabis and Decriminalise possession #Portugal
[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/17/getting-a-fix](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/17/getting-a-fix)
​
Also invest in heavily in youth programs why should the GAA get all the funding, especially in rural areas
Sounds like an oxymoron.
“Let’s legalise crime to cut down on crime”….
I understand legalising weed and LSDs but all drugs? That’s just insane.
Using the example of coffee is fairly daft as coffee isn’t a
hallucinogenic drug. So it’s apples and oranges.
Similarly, she says people “downing a bottle of wine multiple times a week and no questions the behaviour”. They literally do, it’s why there are health warnings on the bottles.
All taken into account, you’re not going to get Doctors prescribing a safe amount of ecstasy, opioids or angel dust for recreational use. No amount of heroin or meth is going to be freely available for recreational use with the medical oversight and approval required.
100% Legalise ALL drugs. The harms from the drugs come from the fact that they are illegal.
Ye as a country we need to get out of the stone age on this one.
Convince you parents and aunties and uncles, they are the largest voting base against change in this issue.
In Canada, loads of people that I never expected hopped onto the weed train when it became legal. It’s their choice and I am to respect what they do with their lives but I would be remiss to say I wasn’t disappointed.
A venn diagram of redditors who want to legalise hard drugs but ban cigarettes/vaping would nearly be a full circle.
Taxing drugs is OK but taxing alcohol caused outrage.
People don’t realise that when they legalise drugs and they become a lot more widespread and they try to tax it your gonna hear the same thing
“It will just make addicts poorer cuz they’re going to keep buying them no matter what”
They tax tobacco and people complain they tax alcohol and people complain they tax sugar and people complain this isn’t going to be any different
makes perfect sense which is why it won’t happen
Maude Flanders dusagrees’s aka Niamh driving the quaushqai taking her slow kids to camogie training!!!
Duh
How about no.
Legalise drugs ta fuck
The god-fearing morons of Ireland and the politicians who depend on them for votes will not go for this for another ten years or maybe even longer.