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a dream about drugs

Page history last edited by Andrew Alder 2 years, 12 months ago

Perhaps one of my good ideas

 

Page contents


 

 

There has to be a better way

 

Some ideas...

 

For traffickers, how about just imprisoning them until they have personally consumed the whole haul? That would not disadvantage the genuine addict, in fact addicted mules might even start getting caught deliberately. But those in it for personal gain would have something to think about.

 

Let's not decriminalise. Let's legalise. Everything. But license users, and as part of that license they must spend some time volunteering in a remediation program that addresses the effects of the drug.

 

An alcohol license, maybe just one day a year. Tobacco, a week in a cancer ward. Heroin, three weeks handing out 'done in a prison, or changing bed pans in a hospice.

 

Anyone giving any of these to a minor gets the book thrown at them. No license for a significant period. Probably gaol time (but it most often doesn't help the kid to send a parent to gaol, so far better to just take their stuff away, and let all their friends know why and that anyone supplying them in turn faces similar action).

 

Similarly, anyone supplying drugs to an unlicensed person loses their license, but not permanently if they behave. Option of gaol time instead.

 

This has more teeth than may be obvious. The first time the word went around at a pot party "Don't giver any to RIchard, he's lost his licence to smoke and anyone who gives him stuff risks losing theirs too, we told him not to come he's just not being fair to anyone by even being here", society would have changed significantly. Even worse in heroin dens... "Where's Fred? Oh didn't you hear, he offered a deal to a minor and it was a police setup, he can't get stuff any more, too risky. So where is he now? Oh, the judge said three weeks working in a hospice and he could reapply, and 'done is keeping him sane... almost..."

 

And speed...

"Hey. Harry's still an awesome dancer but I offered him a hit and he said no, has he lost his ticket or got religion or what?

Oh, he's got religion sort of, don't talk to him about it... last week working in a hospice he met Bill there who is really spaced, Bill was once a great guy with an awesome artistic talent and they were good friends but he's now badly demented, and it shook Harry up... so he's a straight now, still has his license last I heard but doesn't do anything any more.

Thanks for telling me, I'll keep clear of him... can't stand straights..."     

 

That would put the pushers out of business, and eliminate cross selling.

 

 

The reasons

 

Myself

 

Firstly, I am no friend of heroin. Two of my friends have died horribly because of the stuff.

 

I am even less a friend of marijuana. Several of my friends are now schizophrenic and unemployable, or that is the medical diagnosis. But they just behave as if they've had one reefer too many. They're pernanently on a trip. That's my diagnosis. And it's an epidemic. And society is in denial. It is horrible stuff, and particularly effective at destroying the brains of young men.

 

I am no friend of tobacco. One of the reasons I have never wanted to smoke anything is that as a child I saw the hell both of my parents went through trying to give the stuff up.

 

I love my glass of wine and/or a double scotch with ice and water. But I recognise that alcohol damages society more than all the other drugs combined. I have seen its damage, particularly to parents of schoolfriends. If prohibition would work I would say we need to consider it, and I'd be prepared to very reluctantly do without myself. But to my great relief prohibition didn't work in the USA and doesn't now work in Saudi Arabia. So I am spared the decision.

 

I love my cup of coffee even more. So much so that I'm now permanently and strictly on decaff because of tachycardia caused by overindulgence. I have probably done myself some permanent damage, and I felt great at the time. Beware! And as for "energy drinks", they strike me as too stupid for words.  But we need to draw the line somewhere, and sales of caffeine to adults should probably continue to be unrestricted. A study into the effects on children of caffeinated soft drinks including of course Coca-Cola and Cottees Coola cordial is overdue  Coke managed to still sell and expand after they were forced to remove the cocaine (very,very early in their history unless you count a medically insignificant trace, see Snopes) , so they'll survive.

 

Others

 

I have heard the stories of over a hundred prison inmates (the guys in green) in connection with Christian ministry. Never ask the time or the crime, but when they are ready they often tell you.

 

In three cases of all those, there was no drug connection. That is, if they'd never done drugs, all but three of the guys whose stories I know would not have gone to gaol.

 

Food for thought?

 

Keeping these guys inside, each costs us a cool quarter of a million dollars a year, even in "minimum" security. A substantial fraction of them are on methadone treatment to control their heroin cravings. There has to be a better way.

 

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