From time to time, Government’s and politicians make mistakes. This is a perfectly natural occurrence and is easily dealt with in most cases with a swift apology and the problem rectified. So why is the drug problem different? How can these swine’s still not see the mistake they’ve made after all these years of countless protests and petitions?

“I loved when Bush came out and said, ‘We are losing the war against drugs. You know what that implies? There’s a war being fought, and the people on drugs are winning it.”

― Bill Hicks

Britain’s economy is sick, it needs a bigger injection of cold hard cash than the annual Ministry of Defence salary bill, and that’s pretty damn big. Times are tough on the majority of hard-working, law-abiding citizens and some nights people find themselves talking amongst the light of a fire, asking themselves “Who let this happen George? and how the hell do we fix it?” 

Funnily enough on other such occasions, usually when there’s a more exotic musk to the night, some of those same people find themselves cowering in the shadowy corners of their dwellings feeding each other hash cakes and asking a slightly different question in a slightly different way like “Hey man, why can’t we like.. buy these legally y’know?” And in their defence, It’s a pretty good question.

The illegal drug trade in Britain was estimated at being worth £4-6 billion a year by a report from the UK home office in 2007 and globally speaking has been estimated to be worth over $400 billion US dollars. And it all goes into the pockets of criminals. I mean come on, does that not take the piss? not even a little bit?

One of the worst parts about the drug problem is that politicians and “the man” only seem to see drug users as two sets of people, criminal hybrid money machines distributing Satan’s own stash or helpless victims self mutilating themselves with addictions and disease. Both of which are currently true under current laws, but there is a third addition. Those of us who discover we can use these things responsibly, those of us who just enjoy a smoke with friends or an intense eight-hour trip into the void. We are the people continuously ignored by the powers that bein favour of a system that pours billions of pounds into the pockets of violent criminals.

If policies in this country were changed and drugs were lawfully regulated, taxed and distributed by licensed vendors in the same way as alcohol, thus removing the criminal element and involvement, opening up a new significant income of that beloved cash for the benefit of the country. Does that sound like a better idea to anyone else aswell? Prison capacity is another issue that could benefit from decriminalization as small time drug offenders take up their fair share of room too.

The social stigma attached to the recreational use of certain drugs has an equally damaging effect on society as people are more prone to believe whatever tripe it is their friend “thinks” they know. For example, whenever I tell anyone about my experiences with LSD I will, without fail, be “informed” by whomever it may be that I’m speaking to about “a friend” they know who thought he could fly while on acid and jumped off a roof. The other story that is more common in colleges and universities is of people (and in my experience with hearing this story they are usually on magic mushrooms for some reason) is of people kidnapping midget’s and hiding them and/or trying to sell, kill or my personal favourite “free” them..

Now..

I’ve taken my fair share of tryptamines and phenyethylamines and I can safely say, as I’m sure anyone else with any actual drug experience can, that at no point was there ever present any desire to “Catch me a live one.”

Creatine, for example, is the worlds most researched sports drug. We know an awful lot about the effects it has on humans as not only is it endogenous to the human body but it is currently not a scheduled substance. So, if you were looking to conduct clinical trials to study its effects on human muscle cells, for example, it probably wouldn’t be as much of a hassle to get it cleared by the local ethics committee and crack on with it. Now, the trouble comes in when you try and do the same thing with a schedule one controlled substance, Cannabis, DMT, PCP etc, You find that the majority of the time these projects are dismissed as pointless and of no scientific value yet there are still so many unknowns and unanswered question about them that this stance just doesn’t seem right.

Surely with more research comes more insight and understanding as well as the ability to update the old archaic zero tolerance motif to something a little more.. groovy. 

The legalisation of Cannabis in the UK is something I’ve supported for a while now and all around the world other countries seem to be putting our own stubborn statutes to shame. Holland is the obvious example with its blazingly liberal appeal to anyone even slightly interested in sex, drugs and euro-pop. But it’s not alone in that strip club. Portugal became the first country in the world (besides North Korea who do not regulate the use and distribution of Cannabis, or even classify it as a drug) to legalize all drugs and start treating addicts as sick people not criminals although you can be arrested or assigned mandatory rehab if you push your luck. Small scale possession of Cannabis for personal use has also been decriminalised on state level in many countries including the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia,Israel, Belgium, Cambodia.. you get the idea.

“War on drugs UK”, from where I’m standing is a failure of the british political system to modify laws as a nation grows and changes over time. It is also a failure in common sense as the money accumulated from the distribution and taxation of drugs could be put to very good use indeed. So why is it not happening already? It couldn’t be that those with something to lose out of its legalisation have something to do with it could it? Not those darn corporations!? Well actually yes, it probably is.

Can you imagine the loss in revenue incurred by pharmaceutical companies around the world when people decided they wanted to eat a cookie rather than a swallow pill or inject themselves with god knows what. Never trust a clear liquid in a vile.. ever. Included as one of the “fundamental” herbs of traditional Chinese medicine and is known to help with Glaucoma, spasticity in multiple sclerosis, breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, brain cancer and opioid dependence as well as helping to prevent deposits in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease.Thats not a bad repertoire to have on your side.