Well said Ross.
Unfortunately, the same backward approach applies across all portfolios, including healthcare, managing the economy, education, social services etc, etc.

You think after 48 years more funding will solve this? Decriminalisation Is the only policy to have worked across the world

Is there anything to be said for another committee? What about if we brought Custard Creams to meetings?

How about treating addicts as a medical situation not criminal one?

Kevin, I don’t think I’m very good at this sarcasm lark. Never mind.

Good point Keith, but the problem with discourses surrounding drugs within both government and in the media is that they fail to distinguish between “use” and “abuse”. The fact that the vast majority of drug consumers do so problem free is an inconvenience to the moral crusade around drugs issues. The recent Home Affairs Select Committee on drugs was criticised for precisely this fact. It focused almost solely on the problematic side of drugs while taking no consideration of the fact that there is a majority out there who would like to consume drugs safely and responsibly but are denied that right by overzealous politicians and moral entrepreneurs.

You are right though, the reasons people tend to run into problems with drugs are usually personal or emotional and have very little to do with the substance itself. Pharmacological determinism is convenient for politicians, it lets them have something to blame, taking the heat off themselves and their anti-social policies. Plus it lends them great election ammunition.

Agree Patrick but i would like to see some reform in our courts i think the time has come for these guys to stop policeing themselves.

Nidge is a fictional character played by Tom Vaughan Lawlor!

Nidge would laugh and import more heroin. Probley hire one of those semi submersible subs.

 “The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.”
Albert Einstein

I think youl find in the coming years this will make no difference to the drug problem we face today and for the past 48 years since the first conviction we have seen use steadily rise.