UK drug advisers recommended decriminalising possession in 2016, leak reveals | Drugs policy | The Guardian

6 comments

1. >A Home Office spokesperson said: “This document from seven years ago was not a formal review with recommendations for publication. **There is no safe way to take illegal drugs,**

   Well yes – that’s exactly the point that all your researchers and advisors are making.

   You can, however, vastly reduce the potential risks through decriminalisation – and then investing the money saved in policing, courts, and the prison service in education, regulation, and harm reduction measures.

   Portugal already has a working model we could follow. They decriminalised everything and treated it as a health issue. Drug use went *down*, and society hasn’t descended into bedlam.

   For something like cannabis, you can even tax the damn stuff, raising revenue and removing an income stream from criminal gangs.

2. A large part of the overworked and overstretched police force would be solved if they simply decriminalised drugs.

3. Just imagine how much money big pharma could lose if chronic pain patients abandoned by NHS could use cannabis to relieve their pain and improve quality of life.

   Of course people can’t have it.

4. Doesn’t play well with swing voters in marginal seats so no, we can’t have this as policy by either party.

5. It’s almost like it was never about safety in the first place.

6. Surprised they weren’t sacked.

   (And yes I know David Nutt was under a Labour government)