A quick breakdown:
Drug legalisiation does not increase usage
When Portugal decriminalised drug usage 10 years ago many worried drug usage would rise, it hasn’t. In fact it has fallen by 50%. People take drugs regardless of legality or illegality, but many also take them because it is cool and rebellious, making it legal removes this incentive to take drugs.
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/02/the-case-for-the-legalisation-of-drugs/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/
Other sources also seem to indicated that drug legalisation doesn’t increase usage
http://druglibrary.net/schaffer/activist/claim3.htm
Drugs are less harmful than many other legal substances
Alcohol is more dangerous than heroin, crack or ecstasy according to Professor David Nutt, a leading drug expert
According to the Governments own advisory panel on drugs, ecstacy is less harmful than riding a horse
It is frankly hypocritical to say drugs should be illegal as they are dangerous yet things that are more dangerous like alcohol, smoking, or skydiving should be legal.
It should also be up to an individual as to what they decide to do with their body.
Making drugs illegal makes them more dangerous
When you buy a product from a shop it may come with a warranty, if you buy food and it turns out to be gone off you can take it back and complain. With drugs you can’t, there are no stamps of approval, you do not know what has gone into it. Unscrupulous dealers mix the drugs they have with many other things to stretch out the supplies they have and make more profit. If drugs were legal those that tried to do this would go out of business or be arrested, as it is if you take drugs currently you are at risk of getting something even worse.
Making drugs illegal helps organised crime
When legitimate business can’t sell something who does? The answer is of course criminals. Just like alcohol prohibition enriched mob bosses such as Al Capone, drug prohibition means that organised crime groups can easily earn money by dealing drugs. If drugs were legal a huge black market would be wiped off instantly.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8319249.stm
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/selling-drugs-fund-terror-al-qaeda-linked-cocaine/story?id=9373341#.UIK3XWfWqSo
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/drug-trafficking-and-the-financing-of-terrorism.html
Police spend millions of pounds and 20% of their time on chasing drugs and drug dealers instead of dealing with serious crimes
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/02/the-case-for-the-legalisation-of-drugs/
20% of police time is spent on drugs, imagine how many more murders, rapes, burglaries and other crimes the police could deal with if they didn’t have to spend (waste) so much time and money tracking down drug users and dealers
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Awesome Sauce Olly, awesome sauce.
Great piece!
Facts on Drugs http://t.co/fO63gcqc
@misochubby one for you >> Facts on Drugs http://t.co/J0P5tV5b
The Facts on Drugs (and why we should legalise them) http://t.co/K8ol5TVu
Simon: All the sources I can find seem to indicate legalisation or decriminalisation doesnt increase usage
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/07/global-report-decriminalization-does-not-increase-rates-of-drug-use/
http://druglibrary.net/schaffer/activist/claim3.htm
I agree with most of this, but:
“Drug legalisation does not increase drug usage.”
Disagree.
The only evidence you cite for this is decriminalisation in Portugal, but (aside from the fact that none of the studies on drug use in Portugal post-decriminalisation control for factors such as the price of drugs) the important point is that *decriminalisation is not legalisation*.
Under full legalisation (but not under decriminalisation), as you point out, you could buy drugs from a reputable supplier rather than a criminal gang, and drugs would be sold with a contents label that you could trust, rather than nothing more than the word of the dealer (as to the strength of the drug, whether or not it has been mixed with dangerous impurities, etc). Also, if legalised, drug producers would – in a market model of legalisation at least – also be able to advertise their products. For people who want to get high, buying drugs would become far more appealing if they were legalised.
I agree that the number of people *harmed* by drug use would decrease, but the *use* of drugs would almost certainly increase.
Drug legalisation does not increase usage, just look at Portugal.
http://t.co/Zhw2iXli
The facts about drugs via @Backbencher http://t.co/K8ol5TVu