Free the innocent, stop deaths, help the police, stop crime, stop terrorism, protect our children, save the country billions, speed up advancements in science, bring back family values and legalise all drugs
Please read all of this, this is a very serious issue, many innocent people just like YOU, are currently incarcerated, having their lives ruined, being beaten and raped as we speak, this is a very serious reality, a very serious situation that needs to be rectified. Spread the word.
We aim to get enough voices/signatures together so that the government has to listen to us and legalise all drugs. There are millions of innocent people out there; whose only crime is ingesting a substance that someone in the past has decided should be illegal, being locked up with muggers, thieves, conmen, rapists and murderers. These people are not violent, not the minority and pose no threat to society. I hope you will join my cause, as we are meant to live in a free world.
Once I have figured out the best way to do so, I intend to get as many signatures (online petition) and as much backing from as many people as possible. If all goes well then we can find people to be heads in cities, towns and counties to round up people in their area. There is power in numbers and I know for a fact that there are enough of us out there to change these stupid rules, we can make a difference, all we need to do is stand up.
10 Reasons to legalise all drugs+6 more
comment from Transform: the campaign for effective drug policy+ I’ve added a few more arguments that I feel are important.
1-Address the real issues
For too long policy makers have used prohibition as a smoke screen to avoid addressing the social and economic factors that lead people to use drugs. Most illegal and legal drug use is recreational. Poverty and despair are at the root of all problematic drug use and it is only by addressing these underlying causes that we can hope to significantly decrease the number of problematic users.
2-Eliminate the criminal market place+save the country Billions of pounds
The market for drugs is demand-led and millions of people demand illegal drugs. Making the production, supply and use of some drugs illegal, creates a vacuum into which organised crime moves. The profits are worth billions of pounds. Legalisation would force organised crime from the drugs trade, starve the terrorists and criminals of income and enable us to regulate and control the market (i.e. prescription, licensing, laws on sales to minors, advertising regulations etc.)
Billions of the tax payers money goes up every year, spent fighting drugs when it could be put to much better causes like the NHS, our public transport system, helping drug addicts, raising drug safety issues, the roads or education.
On top of the billions we would save that at the moment we spend fighting drugs, if legalisation were put in place then tax on drugs would give the government/country billions of extra pounds, which at the moment are in the terrorists and criminals pockets.
3-Get our kids of drugs
As illegal drugs are purchased from the streets, there is no age limit for the buyers and in the dealers eyes, no distinction between selling drugs to adults from selling to minors. If drugs were made legal, very high penalties could be introduced for the sale of drugs to minors helping getting our children off drugs. Also our children could be monitored much more effectively as awareness would go up, signs of use in young people would be much more recognisable.
4-Family
Families are torn apart. Many of you (which is comforting) are strict law abiders and when a son/daughter, brother/sister etc is recognized to be using an illegal drug, divides can occur and unnecessary stress arises making life hell for those users who usually turn to drugs as a relief from stress in the first place, which only leads to further problems.
The illegality of drugs also starts people lying to each other, children lying to their parents, brothers lying to their sisters, lovers lying to their partners. This is because a lot of people think, that if something is against the law it is immoral (understandably as apart from taking illegal drugs all other crimes are immoral) these people, maybe even you, think that illegal drug use is bad.
People let their family/friends/partners know their views, so if they question their family/friends/partners “Do you take drugs?”, their family/friends/partners, will lie about it. This is because users see that the drugs are ok but do not want their friends/partners/family to think any less of them. This starts people lying to their friends/partners/family.
The only reason they are lying is because they feel they have to, to save the feelings of their friends/partners/family, and the only reason they feel they should lie is because, the people who think illegal drug use is wrong have been lied to in the first place.
This then makes it seem to people (especially children) that lying is ok, because they know best, when in some circumstances they won’t. They then might go onto lie about other things, more often and from this, bad situations could occur.
Also, it is very sad that a lot of parents don’t know their real sons and daughters and that a lot of friends/partners/family don’t know their real friends/partners/family. There are a lot of families who don’t even know who each other really are, legalisation could bring back lost family values, which, would in turn help this country in many other ways.
5-Massively reduce crime
The price of illegal drugs is determined by a demand-led, unregulated market. Using illegal drugs is very expensive. This means that some dependent users resort to stealing to raise funds (accounting for 50% of UK property crime - estimated at £2 billion a year). Most of the violence associated with illegal drug dealing is caused by its illegality
Legalisation would enable us to regulate the market, determine a much lower price and remove users need to raise funds through crime. Our legal system would be freed up and our prison population dramatically reduced, saving billions. Because of the low price, cigarette smokers do not have to steal to support their habits. There is also no violence associated with the legal tobacco market.
Also it is not just drug crimes which are not reported to the police because of prohibition (i.e. someone could get assaulted and have their drugs stolen off them but not be able to report the crime as it incriminates them), other crimes go unreported as users of illegal drugs fear most contact with the police. A female drug dealer could be raped and not report the crime as she fears contact with the police, this leaves a rapist (who otherwise wouldn’t be there) walking the streets, to potentially rape ANYONE. Also any drug user can be beaten up, robbed and not report the crime as they fear contact with the police, this leaves thousands of thugs and thieves running free to potentially mug or rob ANYONE, it is not just drug users who are affected by this. If legalisation were to be put in place, not only would drug related crime go down (that of addicts who need help, having to steal, and sell their body to pay for their habit.) but arrests of the real villains out there would go up making our streets a safer place to be.
A large argument against legalising drugs is that a black market would still exist, this is true as it is for all things like cigarettes etc but the drug barons profits would be so severely slashed that they would not be able to afford to pay workers or avoid arrest as currently there ridiculous profits which is something between 75 and 90% means they can bribe some corrupt officials and keep up with the latest technology. Any way the fact that a black market would still exist is irrelevant, as less money for drug barons, criminals and terrorists is better than loads of money for drug barons, criminals and terrorists which at the moment they have.
6-Help the police
Prohibition of drugs makes our police force enemies (or at least seem like enemies), to millions of otherwise, perfectly nice, law abiding people. Should those who are there to stop anti social behaviour have to be feared, even hated by millions of people, who would otherwise have no problem with them. It makes many of us loose respect for the law and trust in the law which is a very tragic thing. Legalisation would mean that the police could go from being a good 6 million peoples enemies to their friends. This would help the country enormously.
7-Drug users are a majority
Recent research shows that nearly half of all 15-16 year olds have used an illegal drug. Up to one and a half million people use ecstasy every weekend. Amongst young people, illegal drug use is seen as normal, you are 95% guaranteed to know a user or someone who has used illegal drugs, even if you don’t know it. Intensifying the 'war on drugs' is not reducing demand. In Holland, where drug laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe.
Legalisation accepts that drug use is normal and that it is a social issue, not a criminal justice one. How we deal with it is up to all of us to decide.
In 1970 there were 9000 convictions or cautions for drug offences and 15% of young people had used an illegal drug. In 1995 the figures were 94 000 and 45%. Prohibition doesn't work.
Number of drug users among 16 to 59 year-olds in England and Wales, 2005/06 (British Crime Survey)[2]
Drug Lifetime Last Year Last month
Cocaine 2,273,000 (7.2%) 776,000 (2.4%) 376,000 (1.2%)
Crack 270,000 (0.9%) 53,000 (0.2%) 25,000 (0.1%)
Ecstasy 2,279,000 (7.2%) 502,000 (1.6%) 216,000 (0.7%)
LSD 1,733,000 (5.5%) 83,000 (0.3%) 25,000 (0.1%)
Magic Mushrooms 2,311,000 (7.3%) 302,000 (1.0%) 68,000 (0.2%)
Heroin 203,000 (0.9%) 39,000 (0.1%) 23,000 (0.1%)
Methadone 149,00 (0.6%) 33,000 (0.1%) 24,000 (0.1%)
Amphetamines 3,655,000 (11.5%) 426,000 (1.3%) 176,000 (0.6%)
Tranquillisers 868,000 (2.7%) 118,000 (0.4%) 64,000 (0.2%)
Anabolic steroids 194,000 (0.6%) 42,000 (0.1%) 20,000 (0.1%)
Cannabis 9,475,000 (29.8%) 2,775,000 (8.7%) 1,644,000 (5.2%)
Amyl Nitrate 2,661,000 (8.4%) 397,000 (1.2%) 179,000 (0.6%)
Glues 751,000 (2.4%) 30,000 (0.1%) 11,000 (0.0%)
Class A 4,416,000 (13.9%) 1,082,000 (3.4%) 513,000 (1.6%)
8-Restore our rights and responsibilities
Prohibition unnecessarily criminalises millions of otherwise law-abiding people. It removes the responsibility for distribution of drugs from policy makers and hands it over to unregulated, sometimes violent dealers.
Legalisation restores our right to use drugs responsibly to change the way we think and feel. It enables controls and regulations to be put in place to protect the vulnerable.
Human rights
It is your right as a human being to do what you want, to have what you need and to enjoy yourself, as long as you are not hurting anyone. This is an issue of choice, a breech of human rights. People should be allowed to do as they please in their own private time. Prohibition was only brought about within the last century. The declaration of human rights states under article 27 “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and it’s benefits. And under article 29’1) everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his/her personality is possible.
2)in the exercise of his/her rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due to recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and general welfare in a democratic society.”
Most of you opposed to drug legalization would suggest according to article 29 of human rights part 2 that drugs are illegal to maintain public order and if made legal people would start doing them and there would be chaos well my reply would be, people already take drugs My question to you would be does that warrant criminalizing them, criminalizing millions of otherwise nice, functioning ordinary law abiding citizens. All of us in fact take drugs the only difference is 2 letters IL. I can think only of enlightened eastern priest’s who do not.
9-Race and Drugs
Black people are over ten times more likely to be imprisoned for drug offences than whites. Arrests for drug offences are notoriously discretionary allowing enforcement to easily target a particular ethnic group. Prohibition has fostered this stereotyping of black people.
Legalisation removes a whole set of laws that are used to disproportionately bring black people into contact with the criminal justice system. It would help to redress the over representation of black drug offenders in prison.
10-Global Implications
The illegal drugs market makes up 8% of all world trade (around £300 billion a year). Whole countries are run under the corrupting influence of drug cartels. Prohibition also enables developed countries to wield vast political power over producer nations under the auspices of drug control programmes.
Legalisation returns lost revenue to the legitimate taxed economy and removes some of the high-level corruption. It also removes a tool of political interference by foreign countries against producer nations.
11-Give poorer countries more trade, better working conditions
Drug barons we have already noted, make billions free of tax every year. They employ thousands of people in poor countries, to produce drugs but the pay is not very good and the conditions are even worse. Also these people who have no other source of income are criminalized by the illegality of commonly used drugs and are to victims in the drug war. If all drugs were legalized, legal jobs would be provided for thousands of people living in poverty and these innocent people would finally be given proper working conditions, where they could not be taken advantage of, as at the moment they have no other option, we can give them one. The poor countries in general would be given trade.
12-To current users
Those of you who use drugs I know you have thought if drugs were made legal, tax will be extortionate well the price of illegal drugs at the moment is ridiculous example £20 for an eighth of an ounce of weed the same weight as a penny. The cost of producing an eighth of weed ranges from about 0.0000000000010p to 0.001p so even with high tax on drugs they will still be much cheaper than they currently are. Compare it to tobacco, it costs £2.60 for a pouch of 12.5grams of tobacco, this item already has very high tax, 12.5grams of weed is about a half ounce (14 grams) a half ounce costs £60 to £80 so to go back to my point before, if you had the choice to buy a half ounce for £2.60 or £80
What are you going to do. As the legitamite companies will be able to sell for much cheaper this will slash criminals profits to a point where it won’t be worth braking the law anymore.
13-Provide access to truthful information and education
A wealth of disinformation about drugs and drug use is given to us by ignorant and prejudiced policy-makers and media who peddle myths upon lies for their own ends. This creates many of the risks and dangers associated with drug use.
Legalisation would help us to disseminate open, honest and truthful information to users and non-users to help them to make decisions about whether and how to use. We could begin research again on presently illicit drugs to discover all their uses and effects - both positive and negative.
14a-Make all drug use safer
Prohibition has led to the stigmatisation and marginalisation of drug users. Countries that operate ultra-prohibitionist policies have very high rates of HIV infection amongst injecting users. Hepatitis C rates amongst users in the UK are increasing substantially.
In the UK in the '80's clean needles for injecting users and safer sex education for young people were made available in response to fears of HIV. Harm reduction policies are in direct opposition to prohibitionist laws.
14b-Raise awareness
With alcohol, paracetamol and antidepressants deaths are sometimes self inflicted, people get depressed and destroy themselves (the same goes for heroine), sometimes this is just a cry for help. But with drugs like ecstasy, deaths are never intentional, no one takes ecstasy with the intention of killing themselves. Deaths in these cases are caused by dirty drugs or poorly informed users.
The very few deaths that happen at the moment with illegal drugs would go down as drug awareness would go up. Just as every Sarah tom Sharon dick or Harry knows that drinking to much alcohol kills you people would become aware of proper safe drug use stopping unnecessary deaths like those of ecstasy which in all cases an autopsy has always shown to much alcohol in their system and or overhydration or dehydration.
As drugs would be purchasable from shops or chemists there would be no, more tragic deaths of people who have taken dodgy drugs mixed with poisonous substances so criminals can further there profits. Also the money and time that legalisation would save the government, would help us stop problematic use and help reduce deaths from misuse of legal drugs like paracetamol, alcohol and antidepressants, and illegal drugs.
Lastly as mentioned before the system where addicts register themselves to get their drugs for free and increased penalties for anyone found in possession of addictive/destructive drugs would mean help reduce the already quite low death rate of addictive drugs like heroine and crack.
To those of you who have had problems due to illegal drugs or who have lost someone to illegal drugs I am very sorry and sympathise with you, I have lost a friend to heroine. I know you want something to blame but again I mention drugs being illegal doesn’t stop people doing them so we need to legalise/medicalise-(addictive substances) to raise awareness and stop deaths.
15-Help advances in science
A University of Birmingham study suggests the popular rave drug ecstasy might be effective in treating cancer.
A five-year study found ecstasy and many other drugs used as anti-depressants -- including prozac -- have properties that stop cancer cells from growing.
Scientists often have to go through a lot of long procedures that can sometimes take years to be able to study illegal drugs. If legalisation were put in place then it would make life easier for the scientists and health professionals out there to analyse and extract the useful properties of thousands of potentially life saving drugs. Cannabis has already been shown to have numerous health benefits and everyday scientists are discovering more useful properties of illegal drugs (before prohibition came into place psychiatrists were using some hallucinogenic drugs to effectively treat people with depression, also, before prohibition ecstasy was being used as a very effective marriage counselling drug.). With legalisation, we could speed up this process of scientific discovery, to possibly help us find a cure for cancer or aids.
16-Prohibition doesn't work
There is no evidence to show that prohibition is succeeding. The question we must ask ourselves is, "What are the benefits of criminalising any drug?" If, after examining all the available evidence, we find that the costs outweigh the benefits, then we must seek an alternative policy.
What are laws for, but protecting people from violence, hate crimes, theft and violation of a persons body.
Legalisation is not a cure-all but it does allow us to address many of the problems associated with drug use, and those created by prohibition. The time has come for an effective and pragmatic drug policy.
Whose side are you on?
Lastly if you oppose legalisation, then you are on the side of the drug barons, you are helping the mafia, all of the criminals and terrorists who benefit from the huge profits that prohibition creates, the answer isn’t more police to solve these problems, as the people at the top of the drug chain, the real criminals, the real bad people, are almost untoucable and a lot of them are making billions of pounds from another country, living it up on an island, that prohibition and any one who supports it is paying for. Think about who you want to support, the criminals, the terrorists or our government?
Taken from urban75.com and statistics from transform-http://www.tdpf.org.uk/ On the 20/9/07 . Added to by me ;-)
Arguments against legalisation
From non users
1-More people would start doing them
A lot of people use the argument, that if we legalised drugs then more people would start doing them. Repeating a statement from earlier, in Holland, where drug laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe.
With legalisation drugs would be clean, awareness would go up and therefore use would be safer. Also mentioned earlier, addictive/destructive drugs like heroine and crack would only be available to people who register themselves as addicts, and very high penalties (higher than they are at the moment) would be introduced to anyone selling addictive drugs. This would dramatically lower crime and problematic use.
Also an adult in this country can make up there mind and has the right so should be able to make up their mind, whether they want to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes or take an illegal drug, but children may not be as well informed, or mature enough to make that decision, again repeating a statement earlier, as illegal drugs are purchased from the streets, there is no age limit for the buyers and in the dealers eyes, no distinction between selling drugs to adults from selling to minors. If drugs were made legal, very high penalties could be introduced for the sale of drugs to minors helping getting our children off drugs. Also our children could be monitored much more effectively as awareness would go up, signs of use in young people would be much more recognisable. Also the illegality of drugs just like that of joy riding or running across train tracks encourages use in a lot of rebellious teenagers
2-You would be helping criminals
Allowing hard (class A) drug dealers to freely make money from innocent people would make the problem worse. Some people would see selling drugs as an easy way of earning a living, and they would now feel able to do this without prosecution.
This argument would only be valid if the government made absolutely no attempt to legislate against this kind of behaviour. Increasing penalties against un-licenced drug sellers would be a simple solution for this problem, in the same way that a person selling home made morphine or asprin would be penalized for breaching copyright laws and purchasing chemicals without a pharmacutical licence. In this way, only people who are determined to make money from selling drugs, rather than helping a friend to get an ounz of weed would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
3-But drugs are bad for you?!?!
For the argument “but drugs are bad for you!” if this was the reason that drugs were illegal then tobacco and alcohol would be forbidden as they have more health risks and cause more deaths than all the non addictive illegal drugs out there put together (literally, look below, do the math.). Also anyone can legally buy a knife, a baseball bat, an axe or an air gun. Our homes are full of weapons, though people are allowed to have them. Anyone can go out and kill someone with these items. Gun and knife companies make billions and the sole intention of a gun or weapon, is to harm, is to kill. All people want IL-legal drugs for (just like legal drugs) is to have a good time, drugs aren’t meant to hurt people.
Numbers of deaths where selected substances were mentioned on the death certificate in England and Wales, 2005[5]
Drug Deaths
Heroin and morphine 842
Methadone 220
Cocaine (including crack) 176
All amphetamines 103
(of which MDMA/ecstasy) 58
Cannabis 19
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) 4
All benzodiazepines 190
Zopiclone/Zolpidem 48
Barbiturates 14
All antidepressants 401
Paracetamol (including compound formulations) 466
Codeine (non-compound formulation) 44
Dihydrocodeine (non-compound formulation) 106
Aspirin 19
Tramadol 53
Alcohol* 6,627
Tobacco** 86,500
Numbers of deaths where selected substances were mentioned on the death certificate in Scotland, 2005[7]
Drug Deaths
Heroin/morphine 194
Diazepam 90
Methadone 72
Cocaine 44
Ecstasy 10
Temazepam 7
Alcohol* 2,052
Tobacco** 11,300
Also a lot of people say that if legalisation were put in place, then the few deaths there are from illegal drug use at the moment, would increase. Firstly the percentage of deaths of people who use illegal drugs is much lower than that of legal drugs like alcohol and as mentioned before, with tests put in place before anyone could take any drug (for allergies, physical problems or mental health problems) and much higher penalties than there are at the moment, for people selling drugs illegally, which would stop criminals from making money/remove dirty drugs from the market, the few deaths that there are at the moment would be reduced instead of increased. As mentioned before, all the deaths that happen due to illegal drugs (and legal) are either caused by dirty drugs, misinformation or problematic use, with before mentioned systems put in place use would undoubtedly be safer and the government would have billions more pounds, and thousands more hours to help problematic users of all drugs, this would help reduce the very high death rate of people who drink alcohol (6,627 a year).
Also if the reason drugs were illegal were health risks then Mcdonalds and sweet production companies would be shut down in a day along with all fried foods and desserts band.
