From: wes676767@aol.com
Subject: SNET: 10 Reasons To Legalize ALL Drugs
Date: 9 May 2000 20:30:51 -0400
To: CTRL@listserv.aol.com, snetnews@topica.com, AGENDAS@maelstrom.stjohns.edu

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10 Reasons to legalise all drugs
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 most 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

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 forces organised crime from the drugs trade, starves them of 
income and enables us to regulate and control the market (i.e. prescription, 
licensing, laws on sales to minors, advertising regulations etc.)

3 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. 

4 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. Intensifying the 
‘war on drugs’ is not reducing demand. In Holland, where cannabis 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.

5 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.

6 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.

7 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.

8 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.

9 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.

10 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.

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.

"If the (drug) problem continues advancing as it is at the moment, we’re 
going to be faced with some very frightening options. Either you have a 
massive reduction in civil rights or you have to look at some radical 
solutions. The issue has to be, Can a criminal justice system solve this 
particular problem?"

Commander John Grieve, Criminal Intelligence Unit, Scotland Yard, Channel 4 
1997

Britain declared war on China to protect its opium trade. Now the war has 
been declared on drug users in Britain.
 
http://www.transform-drugs.org.uk/10reason.htm

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