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Decriminalising illegal drugs

By Andrew Onariase

18 Aug 2010

Recently I went on the Channel 4’s website and watched a documentary titled “Our drugs war”, this changed my views on illegal drugs, as I have always welcomed the government’s decision to criminalise illegal drugs. Now, I honestly think this only makes the problem much worse and drives the drug trade on the streets underground but doesn’t actually solve the drug problems.

Where I live, the site of druggies and use of drugs is a common site on the streets, criminalising drug offences and tougher drug punishment hasn’t really made any differences to the availability and use of illegal substances. Nowadays, even kids as young as 10 years old are drawn into the drug culture, which is really sad. Perhaps, if the government created drug hostels, where drug addicts could go to a house to get drugs and get help to stop taking drugs, this will provide a safe environment and help drug addicts come off the streets, where there’s often drugs related violence which results in fatal stabbings and gun battles.

Wed, 18/08/2010 - 11:56 – wonuola Opanike

This a good blog, I guess

This a good blog, I guess the use of drugs should not criminal, but the sale of drugs should be.

Wed, 18/08/2010 - 12:12 – Filip Zmuda

Interesting argument and

Interesting argument and great post! However I don't really have enough knowledge of the subject area to formulate my own opinion...

Thu, 19/08/2010 - 00:19 – Sadia Naeem

True

Hey Andrew,

My views on illegal drugs changed too a while ago, after I watched a BBC programme about cannabis called 'Britain's secret farms'. The government of the Netherlands legalised cannabis use many years ago and at the time that the programme was filmed, drug use in the Netherlands was among the lowest in Europe. The Dutch normalise rather than dramatise drug use. Not sure I'd agree with that approach either but it's the other extreme of the ever-raging debate.

Thu, 19/08/2010 - 12:05 – Andrew Onariase

I agree with you sadia

Hey sadia,

Thanks for your comment and contribution. I saw that BBC programme about cannabis too, i think the british government should follow in the dutch governement's footsteps. Most drugs have to be legalised so that less people are criminalised and the prisons will be freed up so that those who commit more hideous crimes would be jailed.

More Brits go to Amsterdam every year to buy cannabis, smoke it and smuggle it into the country, this just makes the drug problem in the country worse. criminalise cannabis don't solve the problem, it just worsens it.

Thu, 19/08/2010 - 11:58 – Andrew Onariase

Mr Filip Zmuda

Hey Filip,

Thanks for your comment, i suggest you watch "Our drugs war" and "Britain's secret farms", it's enlightened me and challenged my views on illegal drugs.

Fri, 20/08/2010 - 20:13 – Matthew Lee

I'm not so sure.

I watched the series too, but I have to disagree about cannabis. It is not the 'harmless' drug that a lot of people think it is. I have seen strong psychological addiction to the drug, and psychosis in people who did not exhibit any signs of any mental disorder before they started taking the drug.

I have also seen at first hand this drug destroying peoples' lives. I have seen businessmen lose their very profitable business because of it. I have seen people lose their homes and families because they absolutely refuse to stop taking it.

I have been told my a girl that her partner beats her up when he's taken this drug. "It's OK though; I take it as well", she said.

Then there is the risk to health. People honestly do believe, and have told me, that the drug "does you good", and that, "it's only tobacco that is harmful". How wrong they are. Whilst pro-cannabis websites will insist that the drug causes no harm and cures everything from toothache to leprosy, the latest research has shown the drug to be around six times MORE harmful than tobacco in terms of lung damage, atherosclerosis, heart disease and cancer. That is why there is a black market for salbutamol inhalers amongst those who use this drug.

There are no safe limits with carcinogens.

The fact also remains that no drug in history has ever been useful for more than three or so conditions. Opium, in the form of its alkaloids codeine and morphine, is the leader (along with synthetic opioids), being able to control diarrhoea, dry coughs and pain (in order of ascending dosage). Cannabis will be no different.

If the drug is to be made legal, it must be in a standardised form, such as a simple tincture, with the exact quantities of each alkaloid known, similar to opium tincture, paragoric or papaveretum. In this form, the physical health risks will be mostly eliminated. We have enough patients dying of lung cancer from smoking already. Another generation or two, and I predict that more and more will be attributed to smoking cannabis.

It will take one brave politician to legalise this drug. Think of the country's economic output. People DO become lazy when they use this drug in a chronic fashion, if they don't become paranoid or psychotic first. What politician wants to be responsible for risking the productivity of its workforce?

When David Blunkett first downgraded the drug to Class C, I immediately wrote to him and told him that he'd made a grave error, and told him why. The drug is harmful, but in addition, there are new strains of the plant that are becoming more and more potent. The drug is now, thankfully, back up to Class B.

It was the people who originally wanted to make opium illegal, as it used to be sold as a grocery in the corner shop. If we make drugs such as methamphetamine, crack cocaine, ketamine, salvia, midazolam, hydromorphone and diamorphine legal, it will be even easier for children to get their hands on these drugs. Even adults are making the wrong decisions when they try, for example, methamphetamine for the first time. It is a life-changing decision. Children are even more incapable of making the right decision.

There will always be one drug which we consider to be too unreasonable to make legal, even if we do legalise "all drugs". Therefore, we will soon be back where we started. It's all or nothing. The series only touched on a very few number of drugs.

Carfentanil, anyone?

Regards and respect

Matthew

Sat, 21/08/2010 - 15:01 – Andrew Onariase

I partly agree with you Mr Matthew Lee

Firstly, Thanks for your valuable comment and contribution matthew. Some of the points you made are totally valid as you clearly have first hand experience and i also agree that cannabis and other illegal drugs should be available in standardised form, but on the other hand, people should be put on a register that is available on a national basis, so that drug addicts will be put on this register and then they can go to drug hostel funded by the government to get their daily fix.

When the Governement makes decision to ban illegal drugs, people often turn to alternatives, for example consider mephredrone and it's alternatives; when mephredone was criminalised banned a couple of months ago, people just simply went to take any drug that was very similar to mephredrone.

Regards,

Andrew

Sat, 21/08/2010 - 15:28 – Andrew Onariase

Level of evidence

Hi mr matthew,

I'm just curious to know what level of evidence exists to show the danger of illegal drugs? And are politicians well equiped to criminalise illegal drugs? shouldn't this be left to the Healthcare Preofessionals to deal with?

Sat, 21/08/2010 - 19:20 – Sadia Naeem

Matthew, I too agree with

Matthew, I too agree with the points you put across. Cannabis can't be seen as unharmful, especially when it's blindingly obvious that it isn't.

However, as an example, I don't believe the government criminalising the use of mephedrone made the situation any better. I've recently read of another legal high that people are turning to called Ivory Wave, and there is already believed to have been a related death. So criminalising drugs will not necessarily make any situation better as people will most likely find legal alternatives. There wouldn't be place for a black market for the drugs either so people taking the drugs would be safe from irresponsible dealers' exploitation.

In all, I definitely don't believe in decriminalising drugs that have been proven dangerous, such as cannabis. I think maybe the government should fund more drug-related research into new drugs so that the dangers can be weighed against the result of banning them and the right decision can be made consequently.

Sat, 21/08/2010 - 21:43 – Andrew Onariase

I agree with you Sadia

Hi Sadia,

Thanks for your point. I totally agree with you. The Governement should carry out more drug-related reasearch before making a decision regarding any illegal drugs.

You also mentioned about Ivory wave, i read about ivory wave when it was on the front page of the PJ Website. I am very interested to see the Government's stance on Ivory wave, will they ban it or not? Let's sit back, wait and see.