UK - Our flawed drugs policy puts the young in danger

London Evening Standard

Jasmine Gardner
18 Nov 2011

With reader comments

Here's the toss-up: take an illegal drug such as ketamine, cannabis or MDMA. We know their effects and the potential health risks - and you risk two to seven years in prison, a ruined career, a hopeless future.

Or, as an alternative, take a "legal high" - sold on the internet, easily available. It's a gamble. There's no research on the drugs and they could be harmful - but get caught with the pills in your pocket and you'll walk free. Which sounds less risky?

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The legal high industry will be going strong for some time yet... For whilst theres a demand for drugs (I believe until the end of time), and whilst the established drugs are kept illegal, we will see more and more esoteric (and potentially hazardous) chemicals taking their place. The legality is a big draw for many people (not me personally, but I realise the legality of a drug is a great benefit as I don't personally like breaking the law), and what the government seem to fail to realise is that this will continue unless they either 1) Accept that the demand will be there for drugs and work with it rather than against it, 2) Keep things as they are, or 3) Dedicate inordinate amounts of resources to enforce an ultra-draconian scheme to eliminate all psychoactive chemicals.

Naturally, 1) is the logical recourse here (especially in the light that nothing will eliminate the intrinsic demand for drugs), but me thinks they will try their upmost best to keep with option 2), tending perhaps more toward option 3) as things progress in the future. Of course this current policy creates criminals from nothing and ruins the lives of just about anyone who is otherwise decent from developing and living a normal life if they are caught, and if not, creates a maximum entropy situation where use of such drugs is far more dangerous than it needs to be.