drugs

That’s the latest cry of the MoS:

That giant sucking sound you hear is the noise of money being vacuumed from the wages of productive workers into the pockets of dubious welfare claimants.

..writes a MoS journalist, who, by definition of his chosen career, is also a dubious claimant to being a productive member of society. It continues…

How can it be right for taxes to be used to subsidise alcoholics and drug abusers, in the guise of a questionable, inadequately monitored payment called ‘Disability Living Allowance’, which can be obtained without a doctor’s letter?

The same way a smoker can get access to a mobility allowance when they can’t walk more than 10 steps; or a fast food junkie can apply for home renovations because they can’t fit through the door anymore.

Why is this article picking on alcoholics and drug users?

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Professor Tom Booker, head of drug research at Glasgow’s Clyde University and the man who conducted the latest lengthy study into the drug, said:

“Yeah, whatever.”

A spokesman for the University said:

“The Nazi’s were very bad people but even they could not make a middle class white boy adopt dreadlocks for a hairstyle, or make a highly intelligent middle aged man crawl around the floor of his laboratory in his underpants weeping with laughter about nothing at all, and then eat his own weight in marshmallows.”

Following the promotion of cannabis to the top spot in the evilness rankings the top ten most evil things in the world are:

1. (-) Cannabis
2. (2) Tobacco
3. (4) Debt consolidation ads featuring Carol Vorderman
= 5. (1) Richard and Judy
= 5. (3) The Nazis
6. (-) Heathrow Airport
7. (5) Prince Phillip
8. (7) Joseph Stalin
9. (-) Noel Edmonds
10. (10) The Devil and all his minions

(Previous position in brackets)

It’s official read all about it here.

It is with poetry-reciting flamingos and UFOs piloted by Jesus that Mental Nurse notes the death this week of Albert Hoffman, discoverer of LSD, at the age of 102.

This goes to show, once again, that if you mess with drugs you’ll wind up dead.

More government boswellox, this time of the prime, weapons-grade variety but because it’s about - oo scary - DRUGS, it’ll be swallowed down like Prozac on a sink estate. Yes, Gordo is determined to get tough on cannabis (again). He’s been worried about “the message” that’s been given out by the virtual decriminalisation of cannabis by downgrading it to a class C drug; so worried he did what Gordo does best and ordered a review. But now it looks like that review was a waste of public money as he intends to go ahead and get tough anyway:

Whitehall sources have confirmed even if the advisory council’s study does not give him full support, he is likely to instruct Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to override the recommendation and go ahead with reclassification to class B.

Among the reasons for this “new” attitude are the effects cannabis has on mental health among the young. It’s true that a number of studies have shown a possible correlation between the use of cannabis and the later development of schizophrenia. However, for most young people, the worst that can happen is that they overdo their intake of Mars Bars and Doritos and start taking Kate Nash lyrics a bit too seriously. And since when did potential harm ever enter the equation for criminalising things? It’s a well-worn old argument, but one that still plays well: if smoking and alcohol are legal, why not other drugs? Oh, and what’s with this “giving out the wrong message” tripe? That sounds to me like the kind of thing Mailoids spout when ranting against sex education in schools: tell the youngsters about it and they’ll start to think that sex is - crivvens! - actually OK and - o dear God - even enjoyable!

OK, so sarcasm is the lowest form of wit and I’ve rather overplayed that particular hand here but come ON. When are we ever going to get a serious, well-thought-out, sensible policy on drugs in this country?

The government wants a big conversation about drugs: -

Today the Home Office is hosting a workshop in London to gauge opinion and seek fresh and constructive ideas on how best to tackle drugs and the devastating impact they have on individuals, families and communities. Ipsos Mori will be in town to hold a “drug chat”, one of four that will take place around England to discuss how we can build on our achievements in tackling drugs.

Since the consultation was launched on 25 July, we have sent 300,000 leaflets on the consultation to police stations, libraries, GP surgeries and Drug Action Teams. We have also sent 5,000 hard copies of the consultation to those who are keenly interested in tackling drugs. This demonstrates our commitment to reach out to people to ask for their views and ideas on cutting the harm caused by illegal drugs.

The current 10-year drug strategy was launched in 1998. The government needs the input of the public to inform the new drug strategy that will be implemented in April 2008. This is a real chance to help inform the government’s approach to tackling drugs, and I hope Comment is free readers will welcome this opportunity to respond to the government’s consultation.

We’ve had these big conversations before, and it’s amazing how they end up endorsing what the government intended to do anyway. But enough cynicism. What, of course, won’t be part of the conversation even though it should be, is legalisation. Legalise all drugs, make them available through pharmacies and you cut out a huge amount of the harm caused by them at a single stroke. Take heroin for instance. Heroin doesn’t make criminals of people: its illegality does that. People don’t die of heroin overdoses because they want to (on the whole), its illegality means that quality control is impossible to enforce and what may be a reasonable dose of one batch is a lethal dose of another. People don’t choose to support brutal heroin lords through their habit; thanks to illegality, they have no option. Oh, and let’s not forget how much legalisation would benefit developing countries for whom drugs are a major export but where the profits only end up in the pockets of crims instead of helping to provide healthcare and education for the people of said countries.

Our current drug policy is a joke. Prohibition costs a fortune to enforce and doesn’t stop one single person from taking drugs if they really want to. The cocaine barons go on getting richer, the poppy fields still flourish and people go on dying or getting assaulted or having their belongings stolen. If Jacqui Smith really wants a big conversation, she ought to open her ears to those of us who want to see all drugs legally available to adults. But I suspect the Home Secs lugholes will remain steadfastly closed to such an idea.

There’s been a fair amount of talk recently about cannabis. There’s been discussion of the link between cannabis and psychosis, ministers’ past cannabis use, Gordon Brown’s review of the classification of cannabis and killers on cannabis. Cannabis is top of the pops as far as drug stories in the news go.

The gist of all these cannabis stories goes something like this: -

There are newer, stronger forms of cannabis out there, some of them 25 times stronger than the lovely chilled out grass I smoked as a student at university (though I didn’t enjoy it and haven’t done it since). This sort of super-skunk is highly psychoactive and one joint of it can raise your risk of going doolally-tap by 40% (unlike the one joint I tried at university which I didn’t enjoy and which I haven’t done again since honest). Some people have killed other people while in the grip of reefer madness. For this reason, we should reclassify it back to being a class B drug and all will be well (just as it was back in the day when I tried it in university, an experience which I didn’t enjoy by the way and which I have never since repeated honest to God cross my heart and hope to die).

Ben Goldacre, on his highly recommended blog Bad Science, does a masterly demolition job on those “cannabis is 25 times stronger” memes. He also pops up in the Graun to pick apart the news about the risks of developing psychotic illness as a result of smoking cannabis. So I won’t go where far better minds than mine have gone before.

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