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NEWS: 21/04/08 - Herald Sun - "Legalise All Drugs - GP"

asphyx

asphyx

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THE use of dangerous, addictive drugs, such as Australian-made heroin, should be decriminalised, a medical expert says.

Prison doctor Wendell Rosevear wants locally made heroin to be given to addicts in government-sanctioned doses by 2020.

In an idea slammed by family groups, he used Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit to call for all drugs to be legalised.

The Queensland GP said keeping drugs illegal simply handed money to terrorists and criminals.

"I think it would be better to actually sell the opium that we grow in Tasmania and undercut the profits (of illegal drugs)," he said.

"Now, the profit margin is about 3000 per cent, from the farms to the street."

Australian Family Association spokeswoman Angela Conway said the idea was incomprehensible.

"The social fallout from a policy like that would be sending a message to the community that this is OK," she said.

"Legality is equated with morality and, on some level, acceptance by society.

"Dealers and manufacturers will use it to their advantage and say it's legal - what's the big deal?"

In South Australia, there are moves to wind back laws that allow the backyard cultivation of cannabis for personal use amid fears organised crime groups are exploiting the loophole.

The National Mental Health Council says cannabis and amphetamines can inflame schizophrenia and depression.

"There is clear evidence that drugs make mental illness worse," NMHC chief David Crosbie said.

He said there was some merit in administering controlled doses of drugs to addicts, but attacked the idea of widespread legalisation.

"If they're readily available on every street corner, that would be an absolute disaster," Mr Crosbie said.

Dr Rosevear, who has 30 years' experience working in the jail system, wants safe and precise doses of drugs made available to users.

"People are taking unknown doses of unknown drugs from unknown sources, and they overdose and they die," he said.

Dr Rosevear said the change should apply to all drugs, including ecstasy, ice and marijuana.
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http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23571150-662,00.html
 
I say he touches on some very good points... Making it legal would mean that the organized crime would loose money and so would terrorists.

The quality would be a hell of a lot better because their would be no second third or forth person's hand's it's going through which would mean it's a lot safer as well. Also it would a bit cheaper I should think.

The downside is that it would be so easy for people that want to try it to get it easier and hence would make more people addicted to it.
 
Hooray for common sense. Now if only a few more influential people would take after his example.
 
obviously there are some good points, but having gear like this readily available at high quality I believe would not be a gain for society at large.

its not gonna happen anyway so meh
 
^Yep, there a few hundred million Chinese above our head who want our standard of living bad and will work for it.

Their productivity is increasing exponentially while ours is faultering.

I dont see how letting everyone get high is going to help the situation.

One reason why things aint gonna change.
 
don't know about you folk, but i'm not a raging alcoholic simply because its legal.
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Damn straight. Besides, legalization would reduce the need for addicts to resort to crime if it's cheaper...and the extra money we save by canceling the War on Drugs could be used to foster a culture of responsible drug use.

"If they're readily available on every street corner, that would be an absolute disaster," Mr Crosbie said.
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If you believe the same kind of newspapers that printed this story, they already are on every street corner =D

^Yep, there a few hundred million Chinese above our head who want our standard of living bad and will work for it.

Their productivity is increasing exponentially while ours is faultering.

I dont see how letting everyone get high is going to help the situation.

One reason why things aint gonna change.
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With their population, I don't see anyway we can catch up with them.
 
asphyx said:
"Dealers and manufacturers will use it to their advantage and say it's legal - what's the big deal?"
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What the fuck?

It would cut them out of the equation!

This doc is on the right track, he's seen it all in the prison system and i bet most of the people he deals with are in there because of the black market for drugs which would dissappear over night if the stupid prohibition was lifted.

I for one would not do any more drugs than i already do if they were legalised and the people who would are the small percentage such as alcoholics today. I find it easier to get illegal substances than to purchase grog or cigs.

Alot of drugs have way better side effects than alcohol and tobacco which means deaths would decrease. When you take into consideration the purity of drugs manufactured by pharmacuitical companies it would make it one of the best changes this world could ever see.

It's not like you'd be able to buy as much as you want. There would be restrictions etc.

I would be happy to dose 100-120mg of pure MDMA once a month or less if that's what it comes to :)

Anyone against this just doesn't understand what goes on in the real world or they can't swallow the words they have dished out in their anti drug campaigns which have failed miserably.

It's time to change.

Hopefully they legalise LSD if it ever happens %)
 
We can only hope this will happen. Personally it wouldnt effect my useage, altho i only really use phychoactive drugs, and control myself pretty well with them, and i usually always have some tabs around my room :p
 
PsiloSubNaut said:
What the fuck?

It would cut them out of the equation!

This doc is on the right track, he's seen it all in the prison system and i bet most of the people he deals with are in there because of the black market for drugs which would dissappear over night if the stupid prohibition was lifted.

I for one would not do any more drugs than i already do if they were legalised and the people who would are the small percentage such as alcoholics today. I find it easier to get illegal substances than to purchase grog or cigs.

Alot of drugs have way better side effects than alcohol and tobacco which means deaths would decrease. When you take into consideration the purity of drugs manufactured by pharmacuitical companies it would make it one of the best changes this world could ever see.

It's not like you'd be able to buy as much as you want. There would be restrictions etc.

I would be happy to dose 100-120mg of pure MDMA once a month or less if that's what it comes to :)

Anyone against this just doesn't understand what goes on in the real world or they can't swallow the words they have dished out in their anti drug campaigns which have failed miserably.

It's time to change.

Hopefully they legalise LSD if it ever happens %)
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^^yeah, wot this guy said.
 
johnnyonelove said:
don't know about you folk, but i'm not a raging alcoholic simply because its legal.
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Alcohol is no where near as addictive as H or meth either though.

I think this would be a terrible idea, we'd just double the amount of addicts and half the work would never get done.
 
rolls said:
Alcohol is no where near as addictive as H or meth either though.
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That all really depends on what a person looks for in a drug. Only a small percentage of those that try / use a substance get addicted to it, and there are many people who despise the effects of meth or H, and prefer something milder - which in itself can cause a substance to be more addictive to certain people (i.e. cannabis, tobacco, alcohol etc).

In terms of how hard it is to break an addiction to any of the previously mentioned substances, from what I've heard, an alcohol addiction can cause far worse side effects and withdrawal symptoms - such as death, apparently from lack of alcohol in someone dependant.
 
This is the only way forward for drug policies. De-criminalization is a fantastic first step, and there is no reason not to de-criminalize drug use. Then we can legalize. The benefit of pulling money away from organized crime alone is worth it. Take a look at what prohibition did for the mafia in the US. Revenue from legal drug sales could easily be used to educate people on drug use to the point that we could legalize and quite easily see a reduction in drug use. I believe in Netherlands they have a similar system, de-criminalization and then plenty of education which has seen drug use drop substantially. From what I understand the drug problems there are usually the fault of tourists who go there and get a bit too wasted. Not sure though since I read about it a long time ago.

This isn't just a good idea, its the only real way to progress in drug policies.
 
rolls said:
Alcohol is no where near as addictive as H or meth either though.
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Yet you can die from alcohol withdrawal but not from the other two.

rolls said:
I think this would be a terrible idea, we'd just double the amount of addicts and half the work would never get done.
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I'm pretty sure almost everyone on this board disagrees with this statement, so you'd better give a good explanation to go with it.
 
Legalizing all drugs is a mature response and solution to the drug "war". Perhaps following the Dutch example by taxing and regulating. Will result in less "dirty", impure drugs, and thereby reducing harm to the user. Sounds good to me.
 
^erm i think the issue is what sounds good to the government :p

I dunno its just either not gonna happen or its a long way off so its called dreaming, dont get me wrong I would be happy for decriminalisation of drugs, just I a realist atm if you will
 
asphyx said:
Yet you can die from alcohol withdrawal but not from the other two.

I'm pretty sure almost everyone on this board disagrees with this statement, so you'd better give a good explanation to go with it.
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You can die from a Heroin OD which is even more dangerous, meth won't kill you but it has the potential to fuck you up as much. I agree drugs like LSD, MDMA are much safer and less potential for addiction. I'd be more for legalisation of these rather then the more addictive ones like H, coke and meth.

Regarding my other statement, I think there would be two outcomes.

1. Drugs would become safer and possibly less deaths if they were sold with mass education. They would be safer as we would have known doses and purity, also usage could be monitored and people would know what not to mix etc. We could also tax drugs removing crime and putting the money back into the government.

2. The social stigma of drugs would change making them much more acceptable to use, in turn the number of users would sky rocket. Eg look how many people use alcohol regularly compared to other drugs. This would ultimately mean less people working and more people doing drugs.

So its a juggle, less users but more deaths or more users but safer usage and less crime.

I guess that's the ultimate question, which would society prefer, and I'm not talking just your opinion, everyone's opinion. Personally after laying out the pros and cons I'm a bit more neutral on the situation.

Pistachio said:
This is the only way forward for drug policies. De-criminalization is a fantastic first step, and there is no reason not to de-criminalize drug use. Then we can legalize. The benefit of pulling money away from organized crime alone is worth it. Take a look at what prohibition did for the mafia in the US. .
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Doesn't decriminalisation just take the spotlight away from the users and put it on the manufacturers? Eg if you are caught with drugs thats fine but if you are caught making or dealing them thats when the shit hits the fan?

Either way I think that would be a good first step as putting drug users in jail achieves nothing. It's barely a deterant and just clogs up resources in the prisons.
 
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rolls said:
Doesn't decriminalisation just take the spotlight away from the users and put it on the manufacturers? Eg if you are caught with drugs thats fine but if you are caught making or dealing them thats when the shit hits the fan?
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That why I said "Then we can legalize them." I understand the distinction, just saying, there is no reason at all to keep usage as a criminal offense. Then we should legalize it completely.

Also I don't agree with the idea that legalization will result in more use. If I'm not mistaken the Netherlands has less pot smokers than Australia.
 
Pistachio said:
Also I don't agree with the idea that legalization will result in more use. If I'm not mistaken the Netherlands has less pot smokers than Australia.
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Yes but do they have more pot smokers then before it was legal? I'd be interested to see the stats for other drugs. I guess all we can really do is speculate until someone does it and we have hard figures to compare.
 
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