Drugs

Making narcotics illegal created a major branch of the crime industry. The opportunities for police to take tax free bribes are huge. The CIA may well be the world's largest narcotics wholesaler and finances its own private wars that way. Legalization pushes prices down and quality up. Go for it.
PS I don't and never did.

Washington Is Awash With Drugs - Fred Explains All
QUOTE
I see that I may have to take over drug policy for the United States. Maybe not, though. I’ll hold off if I get a call from Michelle Leonhart, who runs the Drug Enforcement Administration, asking me how she ought to do her job, and what she ought to think about Mexico, and what is wrong with Washington’s whole approach to mind candy. (I’m expecting her call any day now.) I will answer as follows:

Now, look here, Ma'am. You need to re-think this drug thing. It’s not going well. It isn’t going to go well. The Bare Skirmish on Drugs (BSkOD) may have seemed a good idea when Reefer Madness came out, or even in the Sixties a half century ago. Now, no. Everyone with the brains of a microwave oven knows that DEA serves only to keep prices up so that the narcos in Mexico can afford classy military weaponry and gorgeous mansions...............

OK, half-century later. To my certain knowledge, today in suburban Washington, as for example at Washington and Lee High where my daughters did time, kids can buy all the aforementioned goodies, plus nitrous, Ecstasy, crystal and, within a five-minute drive, there may still be an open-air crack market in the parking lot of Green Valley pharmacy. Crack isn’t a kid drug, but it is easily available all over Washington.
UNQUOTE
Is Fred wrong? I seriously doubt it but the anti-drug people hate him for telling the truth. It is their livelihoods on the line.

 

The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs
Is an absolutely first rate starting point for studying the issue. They are perfectly respectable. They have been over the ground. They know what they are talking about. NB that they published this in 1973 and still vested interests are ignoring them. The CIA is the biggest drug trafficker in America. They was the tax free billions to fund crime; their crime that is.

 

Schaffer Library On Drug Policy
Is a major and splendid source on the subject. It show that it has all been said before and that it has been ignored before; too many snouts, too many troughs.

Law enforcement types need to justify their existence too. The previous link is a good starting point.

 

Cocaine
Coke is high power, highly dangerous and highly undesirable according to various special interests. The truth is rather different.

 

Deaths From Marijuana Versus 17 Government Approved Drugs
QUOTE

F. TOTALS of A-E	Primary Suspect	Secondary Suspect	Total Deaths Reported 1/1/97 - 6/30/05
TOTAL DEATHS FROM MARIJUANA	0	279	279
TOTAL DEATHS FROM 17 FDA-APPROVED DRUGS	10,008	1,679	11,687

UNQUOTE
10,000 to nil, zero, zilch makes a good case albeit marijuana may well have mental effects less severe than death.

 

Drug Legalization
They were outlawed by the self righteous. They created an industry. Reversing the process makes lots of sense. It gets prices down and quality up. People can try then walk away. It is what most do anyway.

 

Heroin, Russia And Denial
Heroin is a killer in excess. So are whiskey, gin and even beer. Opium was dangerous, in excess. Perhaps the right response to ask why people go to excess. One answer is stress and there are no easy fixes. Looking after people is my answer for decent government. It is alien to Her Majesty's Government and even more so to Her Allegedly Loyal Opposition. Pandering to bankers means pay offs later. Pandering to dole bludgers means votes now. But this is more to do with health in Russia.

 

The Function of the Drug War
It is ALL about special interests. Follow the money and see where it leads. Then know.

 

The Economist Explains All - Maybe
QUOTE
Some countries are pushing the boundaries of liberalization

UNDER a trio of conventions passed by the United Nations in 1961, 1971 and 1988, most countries have little discretion over how they manage drug-taking. Other than for medical or scientific purposes, those that have signed up to the conventions—more than 140 countries to date, including nearly all of the rich world—must maintain the prohibition on the selling and possession of narcotics. Some are enthusiastic in their upholding of the treaties. But others have grown frustrated, and are finding ways of bending the rules.

For the past century the standard-bearer of the prohibition movement has been America, which imprisons more people for drug offences than any other country. But in 13 states the police are instructed not to arrest people for cannabis possession. In Europe, the coffee shops of Amsterdam famously sell cannabis alongside croissants. And other European countries are lenient about stronger drugs. Personal possession of any drug is not a criminal offence in Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic or the Baltic states. Some German states and Swiss cantons are similarly relaxed, as are a few Australian states.

Decriminalization means that possessors may be stopped by the police but do not earn a criminal conviction, and that punishments are light: a fine in Spain, for instance, or suspension of one’s driving licence in Italy. Drug-takers can escape even this unless aggravating circumstances apply, such as taking the drug in public or after repeated warnings.

The legal gymnastics that allow countries to soften their line in spite of the UN conventions are extraordinary. A country must ensure that drug possession is a criminal, not civil, offence—but only “subject to its constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system”. This caveat has allowed countries to treat drug possession as a civil matter. Further wriggle-room is given in the UN’s official commentary on the convention, which states that the spirit of the rule is the “improvement of the efficacy of national criminal justice systems in the field of drug-trafficking”. On this basis, countries may tell their police to turn a blind eye in the name of policing efficacy.

It is an embarrassing mess for the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which prefers to highlight Sweden, a country that has implemented strict drug laws and can claim some success in its quest for a “drug-free society”. In Sweden possession of any banned drug, including cannabis, earns a criminal record and sometimes a jail sentence (albeit one with an emphasis on treatment). Many countries have such laws in theory, but Sweden carries them out: most of its prosecutions for drug offences are for mere possession, rather than dealing. A report from the UNODC in 2007 highlighted the country’s lowish levels of drug use compared with elsewhere in Europe, and praised recent falls in consumption. Sweden has a below-average number of “problem” drug users too, though there is less in it, suggesting that the main effect of harsh laws may be to deter casual pot-smokers rather than to prevent serious addiction. Should other countries follow Sweden’s example?

A different UN agency suggests not. A survey last year by the World Health Organization examined drug-taking in 17 countries and found no link between the strictness of prohibition and the amount of drug consumption. (The lenient Netherlands, interestingly, has one of the lowest rates of “problem” drug use in Europe.) “Countries with more stringent policies did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies,” the researchers concluded. For every strict regime like Sweden, there is another such as Britain or America where a tough approach co-exists with widespread drug use. Drug-taking was more closely linked to being wealthy, single and male than anything else, the researchers found.

Changing drug policy over time also seems to have little impact. In Britain, drugs are classified A, B or C to indicate how harmful they are and to determine how severely offenders should be punished. But after cannabis was downgraded from class B to C in 2004, usage actually fell. All the same, the Home Office last year decided to bump it back to B again, and last month announced that it would ignore expert advice to downgrade ecstasy from A to B, fearing that to do so would “send a message” that the drug was now safe. Is anyone listening? 
UNQUOTE
The Economist's people have been over the ground. I would be surprised if they have not had a close acquaintance with the subject from time to time.

 

Prohibition
Was America's effort to ban alcohol at the behest of the self righteous. It failed although it lasted 13 years. The War on Drugs is far worse and still with us.

 

Narcotics Time Line - the wonderful people at The Guardian know lots about drugs. It was close up and personal.
QUOTE
100 years of altered states 1902 Caffeine replaces cocaine in the composition of Coca-Cola.
1910 Dr Hamilton Wright, instigator of US anti-narcotics laws, reports that American contractors give cocaine to their black employees to improve their work rate.
1910 The British dismantle the India-China opium trade.
1912 MDMA first synthesized by German company Merck Pharmaceuticals.
1914 Forced March tablets containing cocaine are given to troops by the British Army.
1918 The death in London of Billie Carleton, a rising star of stage musicals, is one in a series of high profile cocaine-related scandals.
1920 Cocaine is banned in the UK under the Dangerous Drugs Act, following stories of 'crazed soldiers' in WWI.
1928 Cannabis added to the list of proscribed substances in the Dangerous Drugs Act.
1932 In America, amphetamine is marketed as Benzedrine in an over-the-counter inhaler to treat nasal congestion.
1936 Reefer Madness, an American anti-marijuana film, describes how a bunch of beatniks get hooked on the 'devil's weed', and sink into outlaw behaviour.
1937 American researchers find that amphetamine has a positive effect on children with attention deficit disorder.
1938 Albert Hofmann synthesises LSD-25 for the first time in Basel, Switzerland, while looking for a blood stimulant.
1940 The Japanese government starts distributing amphetamine pills to soldiers, pilots and arms factory workers to improve their alertness during warfare.
1942 Hitler receives daily methamphetamine injections from his doctor.
1944 Opium smoking is prohibited in Hong Kong.
1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.
1953 The US army studies MDMA toxicity by giving the drug to guinea pigs, rats, mice, monkeys and dogs.
1965 American chemist Alexander Shulgin experiments with ecstasy on himself and is the first person to describe the drug's effect on humans.
1966 LSD is banned in the UK following intense recreational experimentation. (Its use in therapy struggled on until the early Seventies but was then finally outlawed.)
June 1967 Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are sentenced to prison for smoking cannabis. Their convictions are later quashed on appeal.
July 1967 A 'Legalize Pot' rally is held in London's Hyde Park; an advertisement in The Times, sponsored by SOMA, a drug research organisation, states: 'The law against marijuana is immoral in principle and unworkable in practice.' Signatories include the Beatles, RD Laing and Graham Greene.
1968 Six to seven per cent of all prescriptions written under the British NHS are for barbiturates; it is estimated that there are about 500,000 regular users in Britain.
January 1969 The Wooton committee concludes that 'the long-term consumption of cannabis in moderation has no harmful effects'.
July 1969 An organisation called the Bong Bong Parade makes a stand at a free Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park, attempting to pass a foot-long joint around the crowd.
1971 The Misuse of Drugs Act consolidates different bits of legislation to become the key instrument by which the British state prosecutes the possession, supply or manufacture of 'controlled' substances.
1972 US therapists experiment with MDMA in dealing with marital problems.
1977 The Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) is amended to include MDMA (ecstasy) as a class A drug.
1977 In a remote farmhouse in Wales, a police operation codenamed 'Operation Julie', unearths 1.5kg of LSD - still the biggest ever LSD drugs bust in Britain - enough for 20-30 million doses at today's levels.
1980 Paul McCartney spends 10 days in a Japanese jail for possession of cannabis.
1981 Smokey Bear, a direct action group calling for the legalization of marijuana, sends cannabis plants to 60 MPs.
1983 Crack cocaine use, a problem in many American cities, begins to grow in London.
1986 Throughout the 80s cocaine use soars in the US, especially among the professional classes. So much so that a 1986 survey estimates that 1 in 11 Americans has used the drug.
1987 Ecstasy use becomes integral to British rave culture after being popularized by clubbers at dance parties in Ibiza.
March 1992 President Clinton admits to having smoked cannabis in his youth - but 'never inhaled'.
September 1992 The Shamen's 'Ebeneezer Goode' is a number one hit, with its chorus of 'Eezer Goode, Eezer Goode, He's Ebeneezer Goode'.
1993 In terms of illegal imports into the UK, cocaine overtakes heroin.
1994 Footballer Paul Merson is admitted to the Priory for his cocaine addiction. This is the first of many stories which establish the London clinic as a sanctuary for troubled celebrities.
1995 Leah Betts dies at her 18th birthday party in Essex after taking an ecstasy tablet. It was believed to be the first time she had taken the drug.
1996 Transform, the campaign to liberalize drug policy and legislation, launches.
1996 Trainspotting, a film about a group of Scottish heroin users, is criticized for glamorizing the culture.
1997 William Straw, son of Home Secretary Jack Straw, is arrested for dealing cannabis after being set up by a Daily Mirror journalist. He is cautioned by police.
1998 Keith Hellawell, a former chief constable, is appointed National Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator, or drugs 'tsar' and put in charge of the government's 10-year drugs' strategy.
2000 A Police Foundation report suggests certain drugs be reclassified and penalties reduced. The Government rejects the recommendations.
June 2001 Home Secretary David Blunkett scraps the post of drugs 'tsar'.
September The UK's first Dutch-style cannabis café opens in Stockport, Greater Manchester).
January 2002 It is revealed that Prince Harry has smoked cannabis on several occasions the previous summer.
March 2002 The picture of Rachel Whitear, a 21-year-old heroin addict dead from an overdose, is used across the British press, igniting the public debate over shock campaigns in drug prevention.

Drugs Uncovered: Observer special
Drugs Uncovered

News and comment
Revealed: Britain's drug habit
Leader: Time to be adult about drugs

Exclusive Drugs Uncovered poll
21.04.2002: The poll: What you take ... and what you think

Introduction
21.04.2002: Mark Kohn: Boom or bust?

The knowledge
21.04.2002: The lowdown, drug by drug
21.04.2002: 100 years of altered states
21.04.2002: How much do children know?
21.04.2002: Tales of experience

Street market
21.04.2002: Drugstore Britain
In the lab: What's in the drugs?
21.04.2002: My drugs
21.04.2002: Sylvia Patterson: Cocaine nation

Staying clean
21.04.2002: Martin Bright: can you kick addiction?

Class A capitalists
21.04.2002: Faisal Islam: who reaps the profits?
21.04.2002: Tony Thompson: Deadly cargo

The future?
21.04.2002: Andrew Smith: Can drugs make you smarter?
21.04.2002: The next Big High?

Drugs policy debate
Rowena Young: What do we do when the drugs war stops?
Blair 'must scrap failed drug tactics'
03.03.2002: Mary Riddell: The private hell of a very public death
Cristina Odone: Don't legalise drugs
25.11.2001: Arnold Kemp: Prohibition should be banned
Henry McDonald: Legalise drugs, but tax them too
22.07.2001: The drugs debate: where next?
Viv Evans: Why Eton's drug policy is wrong
Toby Young: Fed up with media cant about cocaine
Euan Ferguson: But there's only one problem. I hate dope
Andrew Rawnsley: New Labour is for U-turning

Britain's hard drugs epidemic: Observer investigation
David Rose: Our society is hooked - here's how to fix it
David Rose: Opium of the people

New epidemic fear
Epidemic fear as 'hillbilly heroin' hits the streets
Oxycodone explained

The drugs debate: Observer investigation
The Dutch lesson: No drugs war, but pragmatism works
Brixton experiment: "The dealers think they're untouchable now..."

More from Guardian Unlimited
Special report: drugs in Britain

The changing drugs debate
Focus: How smears brought top gay cop to brink of ruin
Drug video's shock tactics 'won't work'
Drug laws revolution set for UK
Crack 'epidemic' fuels rise in violent crime
Dutch model for UK drug laws
Police urge major rethink on heroin
The police and hard drugs: the Cleveland report
Focus: ecstasy after-effects that could last a lifetime
UNQUOTE
Opium has its dangers. So does alcohol. Life is dangerous and invariably fatal.

 

Narcotics Are Legal In Portugal. Problems Are Solved Thereby [ 19 March 2009 ]
QUOTE
The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal
In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs,.. (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin)........ Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offence..........

There is clearly a growing recognition around the world and even in the U.S. that, strictly on empirical grounds, criminalization approaches to drug usage and, especially, the "War on Drugs," are abject failures, because they worsen the exact problems they are ostensibly intended to address......... Beyond one's ideological beliefs regarding the legitimacy of criminalization, drug policy should be determined by objective, empirical assessments of what works and what does not work.  
UNQUOTE
I am not sure this is true. It does make sense though.