Good point about the drugs industry, Damian. The cheap safer natural drugs
are illegal, whilst their extortionate, barely-understood chemical
replacements are huge business.
The whole system is bad trip. Come on Chris, rouse your conscience and help.
Nigel.
On 1 June 2010 13:49, Damian Walsh <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> Whilst I really do sympathise with your position, I'm afraid to say that
> you
> are utterly wrong.
>
> Maggie talks bollox about experience but he's right about the price coming
> down and he's right about the effect on crime.
>
> Any commodity that doesn't exist in a free market has an automatic premium
> added into its price. In the case of "illegal" commodities that premium is
> proportional to the extent of repression. I'm sure that there are listers
> who can guess at the price of a bottle of Scotch in Saudi, in the Gulf
> States and I can tell you here in France it's from 11€ a litre. Take away
> the restrictions and the premium evaporates. After all, the street price of
> a drug (legal or illegal) bears almost no relationship to the cost of
> production (a beer anyone?).
>
> Secondly on crime. Yes there's a risk of more addicts and yes, today, most
> addicts that come to the attention of the legal establishment come from
> certain socio-economic classes (shall we say the "underclasses"?). However.
> "middle-class" and rich drug users rarely (compared to the number of those
> who indulge) come up before the beak. I suspect that this tells us it's
> more
> a crime to be poor than it is to take drugs. Furthermore - it is a huge
> step
> for a law-abiding person, a member of the mainstream, to go out and rob
> somebody just because he needs the money. Someone who already feels
> criminalised doesn't have such a big step to take. Addiction might increase
> the motivation but criminality lowers the bar to cross by a long long way.
>
> Others have made the point about hypocrisy (alcohol, tobacco etc) without
> asking why, as a society against drugs(!) We allow major multi-national
> firms to trademark terms that refer exclusively to drugs and drug taking.
> What's that all about?
>
> Cheers, Damian
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 2:03 PM, Chris Briggs <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> > Nigel,
> >
> > There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that legalising dugs would
> > decimate the criminal justice system. Legalising the drugs would just
> open
> > it up to more folk. More people would then become addicted.
> > The cost of drugs are likely to be more once licensing / production /
> > taxation are added and lets be realistic UK.Gov are really, really
> unlikely
> > to sell this stuff off cheaply and if you think otherwise you must be
> mad.
> > Assuming that this scenario happens, the average addict then needs to
> find
> > more cash to pay for his wrap.
> > By and large the vast majority of addicts exist on the benefit system,
> > experience has shown me most fines handed out are met with a deduction
> from
> > benefits order, which then means to the humble taxpayer that Mr (or Mrs)
> > Criminal Drug Addict now has to pay a fine (deducted at source by DWP) at
> a
> > measly 5 quid a week (including a compensation order, does that seem fair
> to
> > a pensioner that has been punched to the ground for her pension so that
> an
> > addict can get high?). These are normally added onto existing fines. Most
> > addicts that pass through the CJS go on to some sort of rehab. However,
> this
> > only works if someone wants to kick the habit and invariably they don't.
> > There is a wealth of information on the net that shows that long term use
> > of an addictive drug (illegal or prescription) fucks up your life, people
> > lose jobs, houses families, etc and end up in the gutter on job seekers
> > allowance.
> > And now the really key bit. If addicts can't legimately get hold of the
> > cash for the next fix then they turn to criminal activity to generate the
> > cash REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE DRUGS ARE LEGAL OR ILLEGAL . Which is back
> to
> > the point I made yesterday or sunday.
> >
> > Now back up your argument with your personal experiences of the system in
> > order to show the world why you think that the CJS system would be
> > decimated.
> >
> > As you pointed out yourself experience is key.
> >
> > BTW - Just for the record I think that the lengthening of the sentence
> does
> > sound harsh and I have sympathy for the family concerned. I do not know
> how
> > their justice system works and therefore can't comment on it.
> >
> >
> > =
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