If it was legalised, taxed and regulated, that’s better for everyone from the user, to the public and to the government.

43 comments

  1. Legalised heroin overdose 💪😎 I will not become addicted because it’s legal 💪😎

    Decriminalisation is good test, but different than legalisation.

  3. [https://nypost.com/2022/09/27/oregon-drug-decriminalization-only-1-of-users-go-to-rehab/](https://nypost.com/2022/09/27/oregon-drug-decriminalization-only-1-of-users-go-to-rehab/)

    [https://www.newsweek.com/two-years-later-oregons-drug-decriminalization-not-going-well-opinion-1747113](https://www.newsweek.com/two-years-later-oregons-drug-decriminalization-not-going-well-opinion-1747113)

    Hmm…

    Edit : Also your post title says legalization, but the article is about decriminalization, those are different things as I understand it.

  4. I’m not so sure that is true. Young people are likely to experiment with cocaine whether it is legal or not, and it will kill a percentage of them. Yeah, cocaine that is not cut with fentanyl or whatever is better but this is relativism.

    What is best?

    People take drugs because they work. They provide adventure to a life that is lacking it. The best thing to do is not to legalize drugs, but to provide a society where lives are adventurous and fulfilling in a way that doesn’t necessitate turning to drugs for your kicks. We never seem to get that far in the conversation.

    I draw a similar conclusion regarding abortion. Abortions fix what is perceived as a problem – so as a solution, it is very effective. And we spend forever arguing over abortion etc. If we all agree that abortions aren’t ideal, why do we never get to figuring out how to reduce the number of abortions that occur? Like either doing some PR around having a kid is great or reducing pregnancy rates?

    I don’t think I’m reinventing the wheel here. We spend so long talking about legalisation of drugs, while we never talk about good reasons to not be stoned. Just seems off to me. Like something has to be wrong if you want to anaesthetise yourself constantly. Maybe we should try to address that.

  5. I had another thought.

    If we legalize hard drugs, and presumably, you can go to a dispensary and ask for what you want, what happens to prescribed medications?

    For example, will we have a situation where you can get cocaine, meth, and heroin ‘over the counter,’ but you’ll need a script for a baby aspirin?

    Just to be clear, I’m quite pragmatic when it comes to drugs and legalization. But I’m as suspicious of people who are really really for it as I am of those really really against it. It’s hard to know the right thing to do.

  7. I am pro legalisation however the work of Dr Bruce Alexander, Gabor Matè etc show us that there are large societal issues that need to be addressed before that conversation can even begin.
    Very basically, happy people are much less likely to become chronicly addicted to a substance.
    We are not a happy people.

  8. You’ll have all sorts of problems with this. Like you can only buy 1 pack of paracetomol at a time because people were commiting suicide by downing packs of the stuff, what happens when someone uses coke or heroin to kill themselves? I’m all for weed being legalised but the harder drugs is a complicated situation(not saying I’m fully against it).

  9. People who want to do drugs will always find a way to do drugs. Just legalise and regulate it all already, makes it safer overall.

  10. Won’t work. Buy drugs legally with no prescription with a markup or go to your local dealer no questions asked a bit less expensive..

  11. The article says decriminalized NOT legalized.
    Jesus if it was legal the country would come to a stop 🤣🤣🤣
    Decriminalizing is more about not ruining people’s lives with criminal records and inadvertently forcing them to crime to support addictions and treating addiction as a proper illness weaning people off as some people even if they try it once develop addiction and it’s hard to get help if everyone looks and treats you like a criminal. Believe it’s worked Abit in Portugal but don’t know the figures of it all if it works as well as they hope or not

  15. I’m all for legalisation of cannabis, mushrooms, mdma, lsd, even heroin. I think all of them should be available to different degrees, cannabis being a buy in shop & heroin for registered users.

    But, I don’t think it’s possible in the current global climate to legalise cocaine without there being a push for legal production in Peru, Columbia or Bolivia & enforcement by a government to not hand over control to brutal druglords

    Those 3 countries produce the vast majority of cocaine in the world (along with some small plantations in other regions of South America) but virtually the entire production & supply is controlled by cartels who are extraordinarily violent. Cartel supply in those countries causes exponentially more violence than the drug supply in Ireland does

    Unless you were able to get a legitimate & uncompromised coca/cocaine supplier, which would need regulation by one of three countries which are already extremely corrupted by drug money it’d be a terrible idea imo. Imagine the amount of blood that would be spilled over a legal legitimate route to get bulk amounts of cocaine into Europe

  16. After all the articles here about it how are people *still* getting decriminalisation and legalisation mixed up?

  17. Decriminalisation is not legalisation. How does this get confused on here so often.

    There are a myriad of issues with legalisation of hard drugs. Which is why country’s only ever DECRIMINALISE hard drugs.

  18. Decriminalisation is foolish – black market international crime syndicates control people’s access to drugs.

    Legalisation gives the population and the state control over who uses drugs, when they can use them and where they can use them.

    People who believe in prohibition need to demonstrate that they can actually prevent or reduce drug use. The evidence isn’t great. Maybe if you want Singapore-style intensive criminalisation – but I don’t see people advocating for that.

  21. God I hate druggies wanting literal hardcore drugs to be legalized. Cop yourself on a bit, this shit should stay illegal and anyone selling it or using it should be locked up or fined out their ass.

  25. Decriminalization may be a good idea. Also, don’t underestimate how incredibly fucking horrible cocaine and heroin are.

  26. …just like TOBACCO! You never see that smuggled any more or dodgy dealers selling it in pubs and clubs. Brilliant idea!

  27. Legalisation of cannabis should be the first step we take here.That would be a huge step forward.

    Get that up and running correctly and then move onto the other areas.

  28. Speaking as someone who organises events, the idea of having to accept that people coming to stuff are significantly more likely to have taken substances likely to make them fuckheads is not appealing. At least with a legal block, it’s likely that people off their tits will keep it on the DL.

    My security people don’t need to be dealing with more people on methamphetamine and Coke than they do now.

    I know this is a downvotable comment. I believe in freedom, but freedom has consequences. The rights of the whole society should matter to legislators.

    Also, public treatment, support and rehabilitation are far better and cheaper than prison.

  29. This country has become far too tolerant on those taking hard drugs. I actually cannot stand being around people coked up their head, they are aggressive, easily aggravated and genuinely just horrible to be around. Certainly do not want that to be allowed to be the norm.

  30. So there are different cultures and policies that unfortunately affect the outcome of this type of policy.

    In Portugal we see the decriminalization of drugs result in a decrease in drug usage, crime among other negatively affected regions. This is expanded by using the funds normally given to enforcing, to health centres, medical personnel, free therapist and mental health professionals etc.

    In Baltimore, USA the decriminalization of drugs saw a huge uptick in drug use as people from neighbouring areas flocked to a region where they would not see jail time. Drug dealers used mules carrying under the illegal amount to sell to more people without fear of arrest. Drug users were more open about taking drugs in the streets, so drug use went up in the individual as they didn’t have to find a “safe space” to take their drugs, any corner will do, and as a result there was a huge increase in crime. As far as i’m aware, they just left these zones to rot and reduced police presence, wouldn’t do call outs for any crimes in the area, and zero money was allocated for any of the extra organisations like Portugal did that overall help tackle the underlying problems that result in people turning to drugs.

    So really, it has to be an all encompassing policy drive across multiple areas, rather than a decriminalization and leave them to it scenario.

  31. You couldn’t legalize heroin and meth, they are too destructive.

    And cocaine would need to be very heavily regulated if it was to be legalized (e.g. specific venues, limits on amounts). It’s addictive and potentially dangerous.

  33. My frame of mind revolving around this has changed in the last 5 years. Thinking then ” All for it, lets do it.” Now to a corcern of “Im not so sure anymore.”

    My problems with it include like with drink, people dont know when to stop. We struggle with drink as a nation as is.

    Would this really change abuse problems unless the government included an active funded effort to help with rehabilatation.

    I have other worries but Im trying to sort my thoughts around this before I put them to text.

  34. In other countries where it has been taxed etc the price rises significantly. The gangs then move in and undercut the legal stuff driving crime so its not a win win

  36. I read about them treating people with PTSD with MDMA in a controlled environment, I’ve also heard about treating People on the spectrum with it too. Looks promising.

  38. If these drugs were legalised it would also make them ALOT cheaper, which would result in less people turning to crime to fund their addiction. Yes it may lead to an initial spike is overdoses but the more it’s talked about openly and the more resources made available to people through tax generated income from the sale of said substances would make an astronomical difference for society in the long run.

  39. To those calling for full legalisation, the closest we came to that were the head shops when they were selling mephedrone and other things. It was a disaster and had to be shut down.

    I can’t envisage a situation where we’d be able to walk into a head shop and buy meth, coke, fentanyl , etc. and what about prescription drugs? Since everything is legal you wouldn’t need a prescription to get any drug you wanted. It’s not going to work.

  40. Legalisation is the best thing for society.
    Takes the money out of the hands of gangs & it makes it a lot easier to get help if people want it.

  41. They need to decriminalize everything so addicts are no longer treated as criminals and can get treated.

    Cannabis needs to be legalized so I can grow my own in peace, enjoy a smoke at home before dinner and a movie and have a peaceful nights sleep with no hangover the next day without breaking the law.

  42. Very few ppl have a problem with decriminalization of end users. Possession for personal use wouldn’t be prosecuted but sale and distribution would.

    The same as decriminalizing prostitution means decriminalizing the prostitutes but prosecuting pimps and punters.

    But this is not legalization which is a whole kettle of fish.

  43. I am in BC This law allows for users to carry/use small quantities to prevent addicts from being put thro the useless and costly process of arrest, criminalization, release and repeat.

    How many lives have been ruined by laws that criminalize possession of small quantities? Producers and traffickers are still culcable

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