Centuries ago the government cashed in on the drugs trade, realising the money that could be made from exporting and importing substances such as opium around the world. Even in the early 1900s people were able to purchase drugs such as coke and heroin from the best of London’s shops such as Harrods! It was only with an increasing pressure from other countries that the government decided that it was time to bring in some sort of legislation to prevent drug abuse amongst the population.
Fast forward to today and experts are saying that the UK now has one of the most drug involved population in Europe, despite the fact that the government are always amending the ‘Misuse of Drugs Act’ by changing the classification system in an attempt to make the number of users drop.
In 1997 Labour started their ‘war on drugs’ leading to them spend £10 billion on an outcome that didn’t look very different to when they’d started. Along with the wasting money and failing to produce the correct outcome, the government is also prone to ignoring advice from the Advisory Council of the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) - a group of scientists who ensure that the government is implementing the drug law correctly. A classic example is when cannabis was made a class C drug the number of users actually dropped. However the government decided suddenly to put it back up to a class B, despite the ACMD strongly advising against it, in an attempt to appear tough on drug use. But what does this really mean? A drain on money and law enforcement over something that, I’m sure is the case for many young adults, won’t change anything. Is this really going to stop people from taking a substance which is so readily available that theories of it becoming socially acceptable are becoming ever more significant?
And this doesn’t just apply to cannabis but to other substances too. After all these years and all these different laws, of which nobody really knows what means what, the fact remains that drug use is at an all time high and nothing has changed. So this calls for something bigger than just changing weed from being a bit naughty to naughtier. Perhaps it calls for drugs to be de-criminalised all together. If we can’t stop people from taking drugs then why not at least make money off of it like with alcohol and tobacco? The tax could go towards the NHS to make up for the higher number of casualties and to educate people thoroughly about the effects (both positive and negative) that these substances have on the body. This would then mean that the government had done its job in acting responsibly but that it had also accepted that at the end of the day if someone wants to take drugs it is their own choice to do so.
Another positive to the drugs being made legal is that pharmaceutical companies would produce them, meaning underground drugs would be wiped out and so the substances would be pure. For example the main reason ecstasy is so dangerous is because it is often cut with other drugs such as paracetamol, meaning that the consumer is unknowingly taking potentially large amounts of paracetamol which could lead to a damaged liver. If made legal this wouldn’t happen because it’d be in a safe and controlled environment.
Drugs are always going to be a subject of controversy and the idea of legalising drugs is a scary thought for many people. But it is about time that the government realised that their methods of controlling drug use are failing and that maybe it’s about time to listen to the experts rather than the tabloids.
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