Decriminalise Drug Use, Say Experts After Six-Year Study

[thebees]

Control is not the job of the government, it is the job of the self....

[Donald Trumps]

With our Norse/Celtic background, self-control isn't really in our DNA dear lady

[thebees]

Someone I know sent an email to all the MHKs and MLCs who weren't there. hahahahaa I'm going to visit them later today just for laughs innit? (oh but it is soooo sooooo sooooo not funny)

[Lisenchuk]

I can see why you say it is funny,and the lack of senior MHK's is to be expected from the current Council of comedy ministers.

 

I have it on good authority that Juan Watterson was otherwise engaged on other Govt business and.apologised for his absence.

 

However I view the absence of any other CoMin members or backbenchers at the meeting as disgraceful and somewhat tragic given the recent revelations of various reports findings on the islands alcohol problems and dependency statistics.

 

Edit to clarify: I mean other than MHK's Kate Beecroft,Chris Thomas,and Mike Coleman MLC,who were in attendance.

[thebees]

One thing I noticed about all the replies my friend received was they all answered a rhetorical question yet ignored the meat of the mail. I suppose this is a politicians way of saying "Yes, but no, I'm not talking about that!".

 

Juan Watterson has now been introduced to Prof Nutt (twitter friends), lets see what happens there. I hear the papers have walked straight into the trap of doing what Proff Nutt was talking about, cherry picking and twisting to sell papers to DM lovers - can I please just clarify? At no point did Prof Nutt suggest that we should open cannabis cafes, someone suggested it and he told them it was something they could investigate should they wish....or something like that anyway.

[quilp]

One thing I noticed about all the replies my friend received was they all answered a rhetorical question yet ignored the meat of the mail. I suppose this is a politicians way of saying "Yes, but no, I'm not talking about that!".

 

Juan Watterson has now been introduced to Prof Nutt (twitter friends), lets see what happens there. I hear the papers have walked straight into the trap of doing what Proff Nutt was talking about, cherry picking and twisting to sell papers to DM lovers - can I please just clarify? At no point did Prof Nutt suggest that we should open cannabis cafes, someone suggested it and he told them it was something they could investigate should they wish....or something like that anyway.

 

 

He also put-paid to the spin of cannabis being causitive to schizophrenia.

[Lisenchuk]

A pity that Mr Butt, MLC, didn't attend the meeting and offer his view to professor Nutt and the audience.

 

But there again I suppose he may have been awkwardly challenged on certain points as to their validity.

 

From Manx Radio News:

 

Cannabis legalisation not a good idea, says MLC

Published online at 30/04/2014 12:36:51

A member of the Legislative Council and former police officer says he doesn’t believe liberalising the Island’s drug laws would help tackle the problem of drug addiction.

Earlier this week, former UK drugs policy advisor Professor David Nutt said the Isle of Man could be a good location to open Netherlands-style cannabis cafes.

But Dudley Butt MLC says he doesn’t think effectively legalising cannabis is a good idea.

He says he supported legalisation when he was a serving police officer, but changed his opinion:

• Listen To Related Audio Clip

[Donald Trumps]

Don't think anyone is suggesting that legalising drugs would help the problem of drug addition per se

 

They are suggesting that keeping them illegal is a pointless waste of scarce resources

 

Tax & duty from legalisation could be used to seek solutions to the problem of drug addiction, and the drugs sold would be of higher quality & less damaging

[alibaba]

I don't know if there have ever been any studies done on it or if there is any proof or anything, but I would imagine that if there was a legal way of safely purchasing cannabis openly then the use of other, still illegal drugs would significantly fall.

[thebees]

Yeah, something like they're finding in Portugal and Holland, do you mean Alibaba? Ahh yeah yer man, he said something similar about New Zealand too, people stopped making crystal meth when they opened the market on legal highs, it was a lot to take in, suppose I will have to read the book now hahahahaha.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

 

I don't disagree that Britain currently has a binge drinking problem, I suspect that it is not alcohol's fault but a cultural problem and the legalisation or criminalisation of the substance would not alter the cultural issue.

 

I would not disagree with what you have posted. I understand that there are potential benefits from legalsing but I find it very hard to be comfortable with the idea of legalising another potentially harmful mind altering drug. It just not sit comfortably with me.

The problem in your...argument is that you're not really addressing why you think it should be illegal. You might not like a society where people take drugs and recognise that drugs can cause very serious problems, but ultimately the issue is about how you think society has any legitimate claim to authority to tell an adult that he shouldn't put this or that in their body.

 

I don't consider it to be any of your business and any of anyone elses business.

Now, there may be consequences of my drug-taking. I may be really shit at doing my day job. I may stop taking care of myself or go mad. Or may lose out any better things in life. But those consequences do not mean that someone has authority to prevent me taking drugs. But it does mean I may face problems and society is welcome to help me out if it cares.

 

Another point is that neither the State nor society has authority to stop me, yet the former simply has the power to punish. Of course, criminalisation of drugs is just a facet of the greater problem of State power.