Boards assembly on drug use

five spots ten spots eights quarters nine bars

jumpers for goalposts next goal winner

marvellous

I'm probably going to be in the minority who thinks that most drugs should be legalised, specifically Cannabis, Cocaine, MDMA and a few others. I would be very against Opioids and Amphetamines being legalised, but perhaps decriminalised

Now just to dispel any ideas anyone here has, I have never taken most of the drugs above and probably never will. I smoked weed a couple of times, decided it was sh!t and went back to the booze instead

So why am I advocating for legalisation?

Well I'm going to answer with another question, which is the bigger issue for society, drug usage or the criminal behaviour behind drug import and sales?

Personally I believe that drug dealing is the bigger scourge upon society and gangs are callously using it to draw so many younger people into a life of crime and violence. Young lads see some gangster driving a fancy car and flashing the cash and offering a quick way to get rich, just drop a few parcels off somewhere, no worries

I believe that legalisation of drug sales, but from non criminal sources, would deprive many of these gangs of their main source of income and would essentially put lot of dealers out of business

This is why I don't think decriminalisation is enough, because the money still finds it's way into the hands of criminal gangs

The obvious objection to this is that more people are likely to start taking drugs. Let me once again respond with a question, do you think anyone who is a drug addict now is concerned about the illegality if their behaviour. Do you think anyone likely to become an addict is concerned about the law?

In the short term it probably will lead to some increases, which could largely be explained by the current statistics underestimating the true extent of drug usage

By bringing drug usage into the open it will likely encourage more addicts to seek treatment

As for where the drugs will come from, I think it would be counterproductive to strike some purchase agreement with the Cartels. There would probably need to be some semi state company setup to produce the drugs. I wouldn't trust the private sector with something so profitable, we've already seen how the tobacco companies and opioid companies went

Since the drugs will be produced to the same standards as a pharmaceutical drug, the contents can be made less lethal and the dosage properly controlled, which should lead to far fewer drug related deaths

I do think there should be some controls, only pharmacies should be able to sell legalised drugs and ID should be checked and recorded for every sale. I've always felt it was a mistake to allow shops to sell cigarettes and vaping products

I suppose the other fringe benefit would be the boost to the tax revenue from legalised drugs. I imagine they'll incur excise duty similar to alcohol and tobacco. That'll definitely make for an interesting annual budget report 😂

To be absolutely clear, I don't believe legalisation would "fix" everything. There will always people who get addicted to anything, and where there are rules people will always try to circumvent them. I mean, cigarettes and alcohol are legal and yet people still smuggle them in

However I do think that in the long run, legalisation will alleviate the vast majority of the issues around drug usage and also significantly diminish the power of criminal gangs

There should be a completely zero tolerance on drug use and anyone found in possession of any amount of drugs should be dealt the full force of the law

I've been in parts of US where it has been half ass legalised for 'medicinal' use and the open air pretty much every single place you go is stinking of potent weed, it's disgusting, it gets worse than tobacco smoke. I've no problem with cannabis being legalised but only in the comfort of your own home or say a cannabis club. If legalised behind closed doors there would need to be a €200 fine for public use for me to support it.

We should be pushing for total no smoking/vaping. Why should 50% of people have to put up with a smell that they hate? And it’s better for your health. It would be a world first but we’ve done that before quite successfully.

It Masks the smell of sweaty bo bo from delinquents

wouldn’t you agree

My young lad was on holiday last summer in Lisbon and he said he was constantly being approached to buy drugs, even at 8 am in the morning going to the local shop you would be hassled. The bad gateway is preventing me linking an article in the Washington post about the decriminalisation of drugs in Portugal

The same happened to be on my first foreign holiday in Spain and that was in the late 90's. It's nothing new.

Even if we keep criminalizing minor drug possession, it shouldn't be a big deal. Stuff like meth or opioids are highly addictive. It doesn't matter what penalities are put on them, users will still use. That should be treated as a public health issue. Importing or dealing large amounts should be treated as far more serious.

I once spent a day in a court waiting for a case I was a witness in to be called. I heard the judge deal with a lot of cases involving alcohol addiction (mainly public order cases). He was left with two choices each time. Refer them for treatment or imprison them. He didn't want to imprison them but he said that depending on the area there were either no treatment programs available or they were incredibly over subscribed.

If we want to be serious about tackling drug addiction in this country we need to be more proactive. We need to have earlier interventions, better education, urban renewal programs and more treatment available. This shouldn't be something that rely on the Garda have to deal with.

🤣😃🤣

That's a bit too obvious for a rage bait post.

So drinking coffee . smoking & alcohol is fine butt weed is not ? Why would do you see it as different ?

What business is it of yours if people use substances to buy a temporary state of fabricated happiness ? If there not breaking the law then it shouldn't be a issue,

Also its not fabricated happiness if your experiencing happiness your experiencing happiness, Is watching your favourite tv show or listening to music fabricated happiness ?