Topic: War on Drugs

[ianburns252]

Used to smoke a lot of weed, from too young an age. But for the last 8 years or so I have only ever smoked it on the very odd occasion (basically when I am already drunk and out with other people). Smoking it any other time basically just makes me socially anxious and paranoid. Most of the people I knew who grew up smoking it religiously have stopped it completely for similar reasons, or at least massively cut down

I am fully on board with the legalisation of cannabis. But I remember growing up smoking it, and I would argue until the cows came home that there is no, or very few, negative side-effects as to why it should not be legalised. I realise now that is just not the case. For all those who did end up giving up smoking or falling into a more moderate smoking pattern, I know other people who have basically wasted their lives sitting around smoking away, and become recluses with very little going for them. Of course that is not just down to smoking weed - these are probably people that way inclined anyway, but the weed definitely hasn´t helped.

But I also know people for whom excessive cannabis consumption has definitely helped trigger some serious underlying mental conditions.

As for me, I have experienced noticiable memory loss in recent years. I do wander how all my years of adolescent smoking might have effected that? And who knows in what other ways my developing brain may have been affected?

Now I would argue one of the strongest reasons for legalising it, aside from all the reasons that apply to all other drugs (regulation to make safer, taking money away from criminals, the difficulty of arguing for prohibition on a moral level when alcohol remains one of the worst drugs...), is to make it harder for adolescents to get a hold of. I remember growing up it was always easier buying a bag of weed, then finding someone with an ID to get served for alcohol (which also involved walking to the shops - whereas ordering weed involved sitting on your arse!).

Almost as if dealers are not known for being scrupulous and will see to anyone!

I tend to agree with legalisation of weed as it is low risk in terms of how it generally affects people but that there should be limits on how much one can purchase and so on.

It would potentially also take away some of the "cool factor" that surrounds it and hopefully lead to fewer people abusing it in the way that have been noted.

[johnj147]

so many young ones coked out their heads everywhere . and not shy snorting it  . in pub toilets

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

so many young ones coked out their heads everywhere . and not shy snorting it  . in pub toilets

I've seen loads of this at festivals and wondered how the hell they afford it. Anything worth having is £100 a gram. I then found out a lot of them are actually snorting ketamine.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

so many young ones coked out their heads everywhere . and not shy snorting it  . in pub toilets

That's not exactly a new phenomenon is it.

[Indomitable_Carp]

I've seen loads of this at festivals and wondered how the hell they afford it. Anything worth having is £100 a gram. I then found out a lot of them are actually snorting ketamine.

Not nowadays. Coke is cheaper and purer then ever. In fact the Port of Liverpool is one of the few in Europe that ships directly from South American Cartels. Less middlemen = purer drugs. Long gone are the days of it being the rich mans drug. Literally everyone is snorting it now. Which makes the Tories whole "combatting Middle Class drug users" bollocks even more laughable.

Ketamine is a whole different thing, and also been popular (especially amongst students and festival goers) for about 10-12 years now.

Generally speaking though, and I have realised this more since moving abroad, is that the UK has a real attraction to drugs (i.e. basically anything that will get people off their heads) far and away above anywhere else I have been. Prohibition has done absolutely nothing whatsoever to affect this scenario. Perhaps it has even made it worse.

That's not exactly a new phenomenon is it.

I would say the extent and accessibility of it is, if we are talking about the last 5-8 years. It´s crazy how prevalent and accepted it is now, even amongst people who traditionally would balk at the idea of doing illegal drugs.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

I would say the extent and accessibility of it is, if we are talking about the last 5-8 years. It´s crazy how prevalent and accepted it is now, even amongst people who traditionally would balk at the idea of doing illegal drugs.

I'm talking the last 20-30yrs,waste of money imo but it's not our money so who are we to judge.

[RedSince86]

Wasn't the coke price drop because of the rise of the Albanians gangs in the UK taking control of the Coke trade, they decided the best way to get a foothold was selling it a lot cheaper and better quality.

[Fromola]

That's not exactly a new phenomenon is it.

15-20 years ago coke was certainly prevalent, it was everywhere in pubs/bars/clubs/house parties and the like. Early 90s it was pills.

I'd say a difference now is you'll get lads at the match openly doing coke and other social settings like that. Part of it is lads do it so they can last the day out (away trip for example) as you can consume more alcohol.

By all accounts it's cheaper these days. Previously if lads were taking coke on a day/night out it'd likely be at the expense of hammering the ale as they couldn't afford to do both. Now they take coke so they can drink all day.

[Indomitable_Carp]

I'm talking the last 20-30yrs,waste of money imo but it's not our money so who are we to judge.

I mean obviously hard drugs have been massive since the 90´s. But I would say coke is bigger then its ever been

As for use - I agree to an extent. Although since having a South American fiance, my eyes have been more open to the damage that it does at source, and it sits more uncomfortably. Again though, that is the fault of prohibition as much as anything.

Wasn't the coke price drop because of the rise of the Albanians gangs in the UK taking control of the Coke trade, they decided the best way to get a foothold was selling it a lot cheaper and better quality.

I think it´s basically what´s happened all over Europe. Higher end criminals have stopped competing and started actively collaborating to bring in bigger-then-ever shipments from South America. At the customer end, demand is higher then ever, as is the supply. Which has led to prices not only dropping as lower-level dealers try to undercut each other, but also purity increasing as it is going through less middemen.

As for the Albanian Mafia - apparently the one place in the whole of the UK they have been unable to break into is Liverpool, because the gangs here have their own direct connections and shipments from the Americas, whereas everyone else depends on Albanian controlled routes through Rotterdam and Antwerp.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/13/kings-of-cocaine-albanian-mafia-uk-drugs-crime

Such relationship-building has left Liverpool as the only part of England not routinely selling Albanian-sourced cocaine. Not only has the Merseyside port its own direct access to South America, Saggers says that its turf is jealously guarded by the city’s own criminal gangs.

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

Not nowadays. Coke is cheaper and purer then ever.

Must be a port/city thing.

Still costs a fortune to get high grade coke anywhere else.

[Fromola]

If every fucker is taking Cocaine anyway and it's causing murder and mayhem on the streets with organised crime, then what have they got to lose by legalise, tax and regulate?

We've tried it their way for decades and look where we are.

[Red-Soldier]

Says a lot about a society when the drug of choice is coke.

Turns most into fucking selfish arseholes, plus violent too!

When I was a lad...........

[Elmo!]

Says a lot about a society when the drug of choice is coke.

Turns most into fucking selfish arseholes, plus violent too!

When I was a lad...........

Honestly think this is a bit of a overexeggerated stereotype likely caused by it's portrayal in TV & Film.

In my experience, if someone is a selfish arsehole, coke will probably exaggerate that but most people are decent and coke doesn't turn them into one.

[Fromola]

Says a lot about a society when the drug of choice is coke.

Turns most into fucking selfish arseholes, plus violent too!

When I was a lad...........

Back in the 80s pre-rave scene it was Heroin which said a lot about society then under Thatcher.

The main drugs nowadays are coke and weed.  Coke turns people into boorish pricks, weed often turns people into paranoid schizos.

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

In my experience, if someone is a selfish arsehole, coke will probably exaggerate that but most people are decent and coke doesn't turn them into one.

This is what I've experienced

[McSquared]

Back in the 80s pre-rave scene it was Heroin which said a lot about society then under Thatcher.

The main drugs nowadays are coke and weed.  Coke turns people into boorish pricks, weed often turns people into paranoid schizos.

Is about right. Coke and alcohol also go hand in hand and a lot of people around me who took lots of coke turned into alcoholics. LSD and Ecstacy were a totally different ball game

[johnj147]

Is about right. Coke and alcohol also go hand in hand and a lot of people around me who took lots of coke turned into alcoholics. LSD and Ecstacy were a totally different ball game

best value for money ever . a bart simpson or a micro dot 

[Nobby Reserve]

There's different weed for different needs,some will put your on your arse & is best before bed,others will have you working like you've done a gram of base & others will have you socialising and laughing.

By block do you mean solid,if so I hope you know where it comes from and what's in it.

Yes, yes and yes (it's 'Nederhash')

[BarryCrocker]

Another drug maker getting called to account. As mentioned earlier this is Big Tobacco MkII

Drugmaker Teva fuelled opioid addiction in New York, jury finds

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd fuelled opioid addiction in New York state, a jury has found, in a setback for a company still facing thousands of other opioid-related lawsuits around the United States.

The verdict, which followed a nearly six-month New York state court trial in a case brought by the state and two of its counties, does not include damages, which will be determined later. The jury deliberated more than eight days before reaching a verdict.

Teva is the world’s largest generic drugmaker and employs 800 people across Ireland. It has a huge manufacturing plant in Waterford where it has 500 people making respiratory drugs.

It also employs around 50 staff in Baldoyle, Dublin, making Sudocrem, and manufactures Nicobrand nicotine products in Coleraine, Co Derry, as well as making hormonal products and running a research and development facility in Co Antrim.

Teva shares, which had been trading higher, fell more than 7 percentage points in New York following the decision. In afternoon trading they were down 40 cents, or 4.7pc, at $8.03.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the outcome "a significant day" for the state and for "every family and community torn apart by opioids." Jayne Conroy and Hunter Shkolnik, who represent Suffolk and Nassau counties respectively, also hailed it as a "massive victory."

In a statement, the company said: "Teva Pharmaceuticals strongly disagrees with today's outcome and will prepare for a swift appeal as well as continue to pursue a mistrial." It said the state and counties presented "no evidence of medically unnecessary prescriptions, suspicious or diverted orders."

New York and the counties had accused the Israel-based drugmaker of engaging in misleading marketing practices that fuelled opioid addiction in the state, including by pushing drugs for off-label use.

They focused on Actiq and Fentora, cancer pain drugs made by Cephalon Inc, a company Teva bought in 2011, as well as generic opioids sold by Teva.

The New York lawsuit is one of more than 3,300 filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments across the country accusing drugmakers of minimizing the addictiveness of opioid pain medications, and distributors and pharmacies of ignoring red flags that they were being diverted into illegal channels.

The judge in the case is still considering a request Teva made for a mistrial after a lawyer for the state cited an inaccurate statistic about opioid prescriptions in his closing argument. If the verdict stands, it could put pressure on Teva to reach a nationwide settlement with other states and local governments over opioid claims.

The evidence at trial included a parody video made for a Cephalon sales meeting in 2006 in which the villain, Dr. Evil from the "Austin Powers" films, talks about promoting the drugs for non-cancer pain, and another video, based on a courtroom scene in the film "A Few Good Men," in which a Cephalon employee tells a lawyer played by Tom Cruise that he "can't handle the truth" about what sales representatives need to do to meet quotas.

Teva at trial attributed a surge in opioid prescriptions to a change in medical standards of care emphasizing pain treatment beginning in the 1990s.

It also said that its opioid sales complied with federal and New York state regulations. The jury found the state partly to blame, assigning it 10pc responsibility.

US officials have said that by 2019, the health crisis had led to nearly 500,000 opioid overdose deaths over two decades. More than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses during the 12-month period ending April 2021, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report in November, a record driven in large part by deaths from opioids like fentanyl.

Other defendants in the case settled before or during trial - major pharmacies, distributors McKesson Corp, Amerisource Bergen Corp and Cardinal Health Inc, and drugmakers Johnson & Johnson, Endo International Plc and AbbVie Inc. AbbVie's settlement, for $200 million, came at the very end of the trial, on the day of closing arguments.

The settlement with J&J and the distributors was part of a nationwide deal worth up to $26 billion. Teva did not take part in that deal.

Teva previously prevailed in a similar case when a California judge on November 2 ruled that it and other drugmakers were not liable in a lawsuit brought by several counties in the state.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and had hoped to resolve a flood of lawsuits over the painkiller through a deal in which the company's former owners, members of the Sackler family, would pay $4.5 billion in exchange for immunity from future lawsuits. However, a federal judge on December 17 scrapped the deal, a decision the company was expected to appeal.

https://www.independent.ie/news/drugmaker-teva-fuelled-opioid-addiction-in-new-york-jury-finds-41278458.html

[BarryCrocker]

Unfortunately, the rest of the stories are behind a paywall.

Football violence: Sniffer dogs at stadiums as police crackdown on cocaine abuse intensifies

A police crackdown on class A drug abuse at football matches will be extended across the English game after The Times highlighted the problem.

The report into the violence that marred last summer’s European Championship final at Wembley identified a link between cocaine abuse and disorder at football and last weekend in Nottingham the police conducted their first targeted search operation, meeting Grimsby Town fans off a train with a team of sniffer dogs.

Operation Wolfgang, documented by The Times, led to the recovery of a significant amount of class A drugs as well as illegal flares.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/football-violence-sniffer-dogs-at-stadiums-as-police-crackdown-on-cocaine-abuse-intensifies-ghztz8sqr

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/football-violence-cocaine-and-kids-as-young-as-12-the-new-face-of-hooliganism-rn53v7022

[RideTheWalrus]

To be honest, I just think for a long time people just didn't realise coke usage was as high as it is. Smoking weed is more obvious due to the smell, but heroin, ket and especially coke can be far more easily hidden. Even sheltered people have clicked on that cocaine usage is really high.

I remember a spell a few years ago when bouncers would put a little UV light up your nostril before you got into a club to see if there was residue, but that seems to have stopped now.

[So… Howard Philips]

To be honest, I just think for a long time people just didn't realise coke usage was as high as it is. Smoking weed is more obvious due to the smell, but heroin, ket and especially coke can be far more easily hidden. Even sheltered people have clicked on that cocaine usage is really high.

I remember a spell a few years ago when bouncers would put a little UV light up your nostril before you got into a club to see if there was residue, but that seems to have stopped now.

Sure way to catch Covid these days.

[BarryCrocker]

Following on from Teva, some other 'pushers' have decided to cough up 'some' compensation.

Drug distributors, J&J agree to finalize $26b opioid settlement.

Feb 25 (Reuters) - The three largest U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) have agreed to finalize a proposed $26 billion settlement resolving claims by states and local governments that they helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.

Distributors McKesson Corp (MCK.N), AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) and Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N) along with J&J had until Friday to decide whether enough cities and counties nationally had opted to join the landmark settlement to justify moving forward with it.

The deal aims to resolve around 3,000 lawsuits by state and local governments seeking to hold the companies responsible for an opioid abuse crisis that has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States over the last two decades. read more .

The distributors and J&J in separate statements on Friday confirmed they had determined there was "sufficient" participation to move forward with the settlement, which was first announced in July. They are not admitting wrongdoing.

The announcement paves the way for the companies to begin making payments to the governments in April, money that officials say will be used to fund treatment and other programs aimed at addressing the health crisis.

"Because of the money, there will be people alive next year who otherwise would have died," North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a lead settlement negotiator, said in an interview.

The lawsuits accuse the distributors of lax controls that allowed massive amounts of addictive painkillers to be diverted into illegal channels, and that drugmakers, including J&J, downplayed the risk of addiction when marketing the pain medicines.

The proposed settlement calls for the distributors to pay up to $21 billion over 18 years and for J&J to pay up to $5 billion over nine years. About $2.3 billion is set aside to cover fees and expenses of plaintiffs' lawyers and state attorneys general.

"Billions of dollars are now going to flow to treatment, recovery, education and abating this public health crisis," said Paul Geller, a lawyer for local governments at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd.

Most states are settling. All four companies continue to face claims in Alabama, Oklahoma, Washington and West Virginia, while New Hampshire did not settle with J&J. The companies recently also agreed to settle with Native American tribes. read more

Peter Mougey, a plaintiffs' lawyer at the law firm Levin Papantonio involved in the negotiations, said over 7,000 local governments opted into the settlement. "Almost 40 states are 99% or higher," he said of participation within the states.

It is likely the biggest, though not the last, settlement to result from opioid litigation.

This month, the Sackler family owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma in its bankruptcy proposed a revised settlement worth up to $6 billion that would resolve claims the company fueled the epidemic. Drugmaker Mallinckrodt this month won bankruptcy court approval for a $1.7 billion settlement. read more

Other drugmakers like Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA.TA) as well as major pharmacy chains remain in litigation. Talks with those companies are ongoing, Stein said.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/drug-distributors-agree-finalize-opioid-settlement-2022-02-25/

[BarryCrocker]

These girls fall like dominos...

Sackler family, makers of OxyContin, agree to $6b payout to addiction programs

New York: Members of the American billionaire Sackler family and their company, Purdue Pharma, have reached a deal with a group of US states that had long resisted the company’s bankruptcy plan — a crucial step towards funnelling billions of dollars from the family’s fortune to opioid addiction treatment programs, according to a new court filing.

If Judge Robert Drain, who has presided over Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings in White Plains, New York, approves the agreement, the Sacklers would pay as much as $US6 billion to help communities address the damage from the opioid crisis. In return, Sackler family members would get the prize they insisted upon for nearly three years: an end to all current and future civil claims against them over the company’s prescription opioid business.

The Sacklers’ liability protection would not extend to criminal prosecutions.

The deal still faces potential hurdles in the courts, but it is the first time in three years of negotiations that all states have accepted a settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers. The new agreement includes an increase of at least $US1 billion in the amount the Sacklers would pay. In addition to the family’s money, Purdue itself is contributing, through cash and revenue from future sales, payments expected to amount to $US1.5 billion by 2024, with far more to come.

The agreement marks a significant moment in the national opioid litigation, an effort by state, local and tribal governments to hold companies across the vast pharmaceutical industry accountable for the crisis of opioid addiction that led to at least 500,000 deaths since 1999.

Though cases have been filed against dozens of companies, Purdue became the target of the earliest and greatest number of lawsuits because its signature opioid painkiller, OxyContin, initially dominated the market.

“We’re pleased with the settlement achieved in mediation, under which all of the additional settlement funds will be used for opioid abatement programs, overdose rescue medicines and victims,” Purdue said in a written statement.

While the deal is a breakthrough, it is likely to leave many people disappointed that members of the Sackler family did not acknowledge wrongdoing or any personal responsibility for the public health crisis.

In a statement attached to the court filing, the Sacklers said: “While the families have acted lawfully in all respects, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/sackler-family-makers-of-oxycontin-agree-to-8-2b-payout-to-addiction-programs-20220304-p5a1q4.html

[Buggy Eyes Alfredo]

unexpectedly

   

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

"Middle-class coke heads should stop kidding themselves," said Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

But upper-class coke heads are ok 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61506092

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Wasn't the coke price drop because of the rise of the Albanians gangs in the UK taking control of the Coke trade, they decided the best way to get a foothold was selling it a lot cheaper and better quality.

They've done that with every recreational drug I think, hell of a move, undercutting other gangs and dealers with higher grade gear.

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

Canada trials decriminalising cocaine, MDMA and other drugs


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61657095

[TepidT2O]

Sounds interesting…

I’m not really sure what we gain by maintaining the current system. Does it help anyone?

[Nobby Reserve]

Canada trials decriminalising cocaine, MDMA and other drugs


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61657095

It's no good decriminalising - the same shithouses still profit; the same tax is 'lost'.

There should be licenced outlets, selling all drugs, which would be taxed to such a level to make them the same price as on the street.

Use the revenue raised* to fund:

1) Proper rehab programmes for addicts wanting to quit
2) The provision of addictive (heroin, crack, etc) drugs to registered addicts in a safe, clinical environment
3) Additional police to crack down on illegal drug sellers and gangs, and prison places for those convicted


* It'd be £billions per year, given the tiny production costs and scale of drug use.

[Corkboy]

Sounds interesting…

I’m not really sure what we gain by maintaining the current system. Does it help anyone?

Now? No. But back in the 70s.....

Top Nixon adviser reveals the racist reason he started the 'war on drugs' decades ago

(Extract)

Chronologically, the civil rights and black liberation movements also dovetailed into Vietnam war era. As Nixon sought to tamp down dissent over a deeply unpopular war, two politically powerful non-establishment forces rose: Blacks and hippies.

John Ehrlichman, Nixon's aide on domestic affairs, who would eventually get convicted in the Watergate scandal, had a plan for them.

"You want to know what this was really all about?" Ehrlichman asked, referring to the war on drugs.

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news."

"Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did," he concluded, according to Baum.

[Lee1-6Liv]

It's no good decriminalising - the same shithouses still profit; the same tax is 'lost'.

There should be licenced outlets, selling all drugs, which would be taxed to such a level to make them the same price as on the street.

Use the revenue raised* to fund:

1) Proper rehab programmes for addicts wanting to quit
2) The provision of addictive (heroin, crack, etc) drugs to registered addicts in a safe, clinical environment
3) Additional police to crack down on illegal drug sellers and gangs, and prison places for those convicted


* It'd be £billions per year, given the tiny production costs and scale of drug use.

And also regulate the quality of drug so they are not cut with a load of shite.

[TepidT2O]

Now? No. But back in the 70s.....

Top Nixon adviser reveals the racist reason he started the 'war on drugs' decades ago

(Extract)

Chronologically, the civil rights and black liberation movements also dovetailed into Vietnam war era. As Nixon sought to tamp down dissent over a deeply unpopular war, two politically powerful non-establishment forces rose: Blacks and hippies.

John Ehrlichman, Nixon's aide on domestic affairs, who would eventually get convicted in the Watergate scandal, had a plan for them.

"You want to know what this was really all about?" Ehrlichman asked, referring to the war on drugs.

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news."

"Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did," he concluded, according to Baum.

No shock there…


Back in the day you could get cocaine and amphetamines from Harrods.  During WWI officers got them delivered to the front line…. 

We’re drugs more abused as a result of being so freely available? I very much doubt it.

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

No shock there…


Back in the day you could get cocaine and amphetamines from Harrods.  During WWI officers got them delivered to the front line…. 

We’re drugs more abused as a result of being so freely available? I very much doubt it.

It's actually the opposite.

[Nobby Reserve]

And also regulate the quality of drug so they are not cut with a load of shite.

 


I think people should take a step back from the 'moral' arguments of drug use and intoxication, and focus on what ultimate outcome they want from a drug policy and what is realistically achievable.

I know some people whose stated intent is wanting to stop young people dying from and being harmed by drug addiction. Yet they oppose the provision of measured and unpolluted drugs to addicts in a safe environment.

I know some people whose stated intent is wanting to stop all the crime that's associated with funding a drug addiction (an ACPO-commissioned study a few years ago estimated two-thirds of all theft-crimes are committed to fund a drug addiction). Yet oppose the provision of drugs to addicts via a prescription-style service.

I know some people whose stated intent is wanting to stop the enrichment of organised criminals and lower-level drug dealers through the selling of drugs. Yet oppose a legalisation of drugs and the selling of these through a system of licenced outlets and taxing the sale of the drugs, which would drastically minimise the market of illegally-supplied drugs (and provide £billions to support a proper drug rehab programme)

Instead, these people just want to continue with a failed and unwinnable 'war on drugs', and hope the problem mysteriously just disappears. They have a mental block when it comes to legalisation.

[TepidT2O]

It's actually the opposite.

On reflection, the issue was probably more that the middle and working classes began drug use in the 60s and the restrictions followed

There were of course opium dens in Victorian times, not sure of the legality of them at the time though

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

On reflection, the issue was probably more that the middle and working classes began drug use in the 60s and the restrictions followed

There were of course opium dens in Victorian times, not sure of the legality of them at the time though

Heroin use in the UK only started to increase after the 1971 Misuse of Drugs act. Prior to that there were relatively few users, they were registered and provided for by GP's.

[Indomitable_Carp]

On the issue of drug purity, pills and MDMA have gone from record levels of purity 5 or so years ago, to this....

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/08/brexit-helping-cause-harmful-increase-in-fake-ecstasy-study-warns

Summer festivalgoers are being warned that an “unprecedented shift” in the drug market caused by a combination of Brexit, Covid lockdowns and police operations against supply chains has led to a sharp and potentially harmful increase in fake MDMA.

The researchers found that 45% of substances sold as MDMA contained none of the drug – and instead were made up of substances including cathinones and caffeine. Each was identified as the primary component in a fifth of the samples. In 2019, when the research was carried out at the same festivals, only 7% of the pills tested did not contain MDMA.

Who wants to bet that the number of party-drug related deaths go on to increase this summer, compared to the pre-pandemic period?

[ToneLa]

No shock there…


Back in the day you could get cocaine and amphetamines from Harrods.  During WWI officers got them delivered to the front line…. 

We’re drugs more abused as a result of being so freely available? I very much doubt it.

Portugal in this era proves not.

Ketamine has genuine psychotherapy applications

As does MDMA (which as above, is less pure thanks to Brexit) and psychedelics

After I lost my mum I signed up to a psilocybin therapy retreat in Holland. I didn't go in the end - I got a new job - but if you want to know what enlightened drug use looks like...

https://www.essence.nl/

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

Open consultation
‘Swift, Certain, Tough: New Consequences for Drug Possession’ white paper

To take part use link below

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/swift-certain-tough-new-consequences-for-drug-possession-white-paper