30 Days Planned Blogging

Day 03 – Your views on drugs and alcohol.

Well this is very apt and politically relevant with Prop 19 failing to be approved in California yesterday.

I believe that everything in moderation is a good and healthy way to live your life, ironically there are many drugs that are illegal but I honestly can not see how they can be more harmful to the user and/or society than alcohol is. Alcohol is both freely available and widely sold drug that people are regularly encouraged to use by their peers and by society.

Society regales in stories of alcohol use, which are told by all cast, creed, class and age group in almost every country with some tellers revelling in the abuse and excessive use of this widely available and legal mind altering drug.

I believe that the governments and the public would benefit far more if drug harvesting, manufacture, purification, distribution and sales were legalised and officially monitored by government/or whomever in the same way as tobacco and alcohol. It would be safer, it would be cleaner, it would raise taxes (because it is bound to be highly taxed), it would eliminate the criminal element, it would reduce crime, it may even reduce the need for users to commit petty crime to obtain the funds to purchase their drugs and it would definitely remove the money making machine that funds most criminal gangs and terrorism organisations.

For those that say if you legalise it, more people will use it; I say so what! And they are ignoring the fact that the illegal, unclean version that is sourced from a criminal element which provides much needed funds for more damaging criminal activity, is widely available in almost every country, in almost every city and town, for sale to buyers of any age range, any class and any creed or religious persuasion, to purchase with ease, now. It is also sold with no ID required, no moral checks, no system in place to recognise, identify or support addicts or over-users/abusers and isn’t always of a consistent quality or purity.

Education and understanding is what is required so that we the people can make an informed and educated choice – in a ‘free country’ we should be able to have choice as long as it doesn’t harm ourselves or those around us (which makes you wonder why alcohol and tobacco are still legal).

Just one final thing, I would dearly like to see smoking rooms re-introduced into pubs and clubs, I miss smoking inside with a pint and a paper and detest the anti social way I have to leave the building and my friends to go outside to smoke (I smoke cigars so I also have to stand outside for longer, sometimes for so long that I now don’t bother and only smoke at home where I feel more comfortable). I also hate the way the streets of many cities and towns look now with the crowds of smokers outside every venue, it looks very unappealing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that I can go home not smelling of smoke and I really like the smoke free pub and club environment but why there can’t be a smoking area indoors, I do not know. In the ‘good old days’ you had a lounge, a bar and a smoking room; bring that back, please.

For more information on the danger and damage drugs cause – see this official report released this week by The Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs