Chris Grayling’s scorched earth policy against users of some drugs (and not others) is no different to the sort of irrational intolerance we normally associate with the BNP. Whilst this ‘war on drugs’ rhetoric has washed with the electorate for years, now the majority of professionals working in the field know that these same old policies are simply not working, and they are not working because they are ill-conceived and unequal against drug users of all kinds. Having made the classic ‘gateway drug’ error of associating cannabis use with later heroin use, he then goes against all of the evidence that it is cannabis rather than alcohol which is causing the real harm to today’s youth. Both these ideas fail to recognise that the cause of these negative consequences is essentially prohibition, for it is prohibition that creates the unregulated market in drugs and the dire consequences of some persons using drugs of very poor quality in a context of secrecy and mistrust. Heroin use is no more associated with cannabis use than it is with alcohol and tobacco misuse. It is discriminatory to classify all use of ‘controlled (under the law) drugs as misuse, when responsible use is possible and indeed commonplace as government’s have recognised in official reports.

Irreverence for the law is a facilitated by the application of biased administration of the law, and hypocritical demonisation of certain drug habits – such rhetoric couched in much more tolerant terms for abusers of alcohol than cannabis and other controlled drugs. Destroying yourself on heroin is no less preferable than doing so on alcohol. A harmful drug need and ought not be prohibited if it could be controlled more effectively. It is impossible to know of the actual harmfulness of a drug itself (as opposed to the harm caused by the prohibition of a drug affecting the way in which the drug is used and it's dangers associated with a non-regulated supply chain.

If Chris Graying really had the welfare of the nation at heart he would be asking why a relatively safe drug such as cannabis is seen as a vital drug issue, as opposed to alcohol, which causes more social harm to society and yet is actually excluded as is tobacco) from the legislation to protect society from the misuse of drugs. The answer must be that tolerance is the key to preventing misuse (of any drug) and the harms associated with an unregulated market in some drugs and not others. Frankly, it may well be a good thing if the market for alcohol could be undermined by the introduction of competing drugs such as cannabis. We could then free the individual users from the mindless persecution that sees home growers of cannabis facing jail, whilst offering consumers the protection to kill themselves with tobacco and cause social-upheaval with alcohol abuse in addition to the huge health-carte costs associated with both of these drugs that all our governments seek to ignore. This simply is not good enough for our present, let alone our future government.

Must agree with the first comment. The Conservatives have no new ideas about how to tackle drug misuse in our society other than repeat the failed ones of the last 40 years. The discriminatory laws against some drug users and not others in our society ie alcohol users and cannabis users for example is obscene while being hypocritical and morally offensive.
Our current state of prohibition cause more harm to all levels of society in far greater proportion than the drugs themselves.
Just look at the methadone prescribing for example here we have a synthetic version of heroin that is not only as addictive but much harder to stop using.Clean unadulterated heroin in a correct dose is actually less damaging to the body than alcohol. I am not suggesting for a minute than anyone use heroin but by keeping heroin illegal and allowing the quality control and distribution to be controlled by violent gangsters actually places more of our citizens in danger of lsoing their lives than if it was regulated and controlled. Portugal reduced heroin deaths from by 50% by legalising personal psoseion and providing clean needle centers. By doing this they also helped far many come off heroin than the above short sighted policy of the Conservativ

I ought to clarify one point - alcohol and tobacco are not excluded from the legislation as I suggested, they are just so in practice, ie the govt choose to not include them in the schedules of drugs to be controlled (which does not mean prohibtion)despite the fact that the law does require their inclsion as drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act, so the govt has failed in its dut there, and now we still hear about cannabis, E, GBL as being the scourge of our nation.

My God

Is this idiot actively suggesting the UK should carry on doing what its been doing for the last 80 years regarding illegal drugs..

Drugs are more wide spread and cheaper than ever right now 'because' we've done exactly the same thing time and time again!

Holland has had the strongest forms of cannabis, even 'skunk' on sale for anybody over 18 to buy and smoke in coffee shops for 40 years..They have fewer cannabis smokers and much fewer hard drug users and in a 2007 study by the UN children's organisation, Unicef, came top of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.

>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6360517.stm

The same year, Trimbos (Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction) surveyed 10,000 Dutch schoolchildren. The study shows a small, but consistent decline in cannabis use - 20 per cent of those aged 15-16 had tried it, and 5 per cent smoked it regularly. Less than one in 1,000 had tried heroin.

The same year the European Drug Monitoring Center found 40 per cent of British children the same age had tried cannabis, and one in 50 had used heroin.

The prohibition of cannabis and hard drugs simply does not work, we need to follow the Dutch and move cannabis away from hard drugs and street dealers, all evidence from the Dutch over the last 40 years proves this works at reducing the amount of people using hard drugs.

If you support the prohibition of cannabis and other drugs your 'supporting' the dealers that sell drugs on our streets to our children.

Is given 'complete' control of drugs to unregulated criminals real the best solution the tories can come up with?

America the 'world leader in the drug war' has the highest prison population in the world because of their failed war on drugs. 70% of those are drug related crimes and of those drug crimes 90% are for possession only.. and they still have one of the highest drug use figures in the world..

but, they've seen the light..

13 states in America have legalized cannabis use for medical and recreational use, in those 13 states you can have in your home up to 26 plants for your personal use and can carry up to an ounce on the street with no prosecution. And figures there have shown that teen use in those states is going down.

Portugal decriminalised ALL drugs 10 years ago and the figures are amazing, drug use across the board has gone down.

In Spain your legally allowed to grow your own cannabis plants, they have much less drug use than the UK.

Alcohol alone, every year, kills more people in the UK than ALL illegal drugs

Tobacco kills 4 times as many people than alcohol

and those two drugs are legal..

I think it is important to correct these mad ideas with legal action, for make no mistake, under our current law it is illegal to irrationally discriminate between groups and certainly it is not the purpose of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to miss out the majority of drug users whilst scapegoating the minority. See www.drugequality.org

Correction to my earlier post "Having made the classic ‘gateway drug’ error of associating cannabis use with later heroin use, he then goes against all of the evidence that it is cannabis rather than alcohol which is causing the real harm to today’s youth." Please insert "and claims" after 'evidence'. Ie, I should have said: "Having made the classic ‘gateway drug’ error of associating cannabis use with later heroin use, he then goes against all of the evidence and claims that it is cannabis rather than alcohol which is causing the real harm to today’s youth."

www.drugequality.org

Europe is moving towards integration of alcohol licences. This will be like a dream come true for responsible drinking!

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