Maybe cannabis is the gateway to legalisation of all drugs

[Chris Jay]

So what your thoughts on legalising/decriminalising all drugs. Ironically a green activist recently called me a drug addict.
 

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“Criminalisation is a total farce,” says Chris Jay, the founder of the South African chapter of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml), which advocates for the right of adults to use cannabis. “I think countries need to look at the bigger picture and look at models that are tried and tested for decades, such as in the Netherlands and Portugal, and legalise all drugs.”

Since 2008 Norml has organised pro-cannabis marches in South Africa, and it supports the Dagga party, which was instrumental in the 2018 legalisation of cannabis in South Africa, a law Jay believes still falls short in addressing the problem.

Source
 

Oregon Just Voted to Decriminalize Heroin, Cocaine, and Meth

 

The new punishment for petty possession of any illegal drug will be the legal equivalent of a traffic ticket. Source

 

 

[Bakstein420]

I dont think heroin and meth should be decriminalized, that shit fucks up peoples lives.

[Totemic]

For dealers of the hard one's, cocaine, opiates, meth, a custodial criminal sentence is fitting. They destroying lives.

As for a user, criminalising their use/addiction, does nothing to help them out. The R250k cost of pulling a user from arrest to prison sentence could be used for positive interventions and help.

 

[Ill_Evan]

48 minutes ago, Bakstein420 said:

I dont think heroin and meth should be decriminalized, that shit fucks up peoples lives.

 

2 minutes ago, Totemic said:

For dealers of the hard one's, cocaine, opiates, meth, a custodial criminal sentence is fitting. They destroying lives.

As for a user, criminalising their use/addiction, does nothing to help them out. The R250k cost of pulling a user from arrest to prison sentence could be used for positive interventions and help.

 

Using funds for the rehabilitation of addicts is only possible if the product isn't illegal in the sense that it currently is. That's what decriminalization means @Bakstein420, not that you yourself can go and get a quick bag of heroin for a fun Tuesday  I think it'd only be available illegally on the streets or legally in a clinic. I believe that is how Portugal and Netherlands operate. 

[420SA]

I'm all for it. More often than not, those who are using hardcore drugs are numbing some sort of trauma that needs to be addressed. Locking the user up will just make matters worse for them, psychologically and financially. Plus, in this country's prisons, those drugs are more easily accessible than on the streets.

The state doesn't give two shits about your well being, so them locking you up under the pretense that it's for your well being is absolute shite and they have no data to back that up. Really makes no sense

[PsyCLown]

I feel decriminalization is a good idea and more countries should adopt it.

 

I also feel that certain substances should be made legal, particularly majority of psychedelics and other drugs which are generally not habit forming.

You cannot trip on psychedelics every day as tolerance builds up and after a while tripping loses its appeal and you do not care much for it anyways. Not to mention the positive effects some of these substances have for / on people. Some popular ones being mushrooms, LSD, Ketamine, DMT (Ayahuasca, freebase, changa etc.)

The issue with making some substances legal is, where do you draw the line and what does one need to consider in order to make that particular substance legal yet keep other similar substances illegal / decriminalized?

 

Ironically a lot of the newer, "worse" synthetic drugs are analogues and were created due to other, often safer and more tried and tested drugs, were made illegal and have become difficult to get. Flakka (Alpha PVP) is a good example and of course how could we forget about 25i-NBOMe (fake LSD) and to a point mephedrone (4-MMC / m-cat) and there are many more. Alternative, sometimes cheaper or just easier to source drugs which are sold as something they are not as well as people cutting the stuff with deadly shit causes lots of issues and deaths.

If you are able to get access to a pure product which is consistent, I feel overdoses and deaths will be less likely as you won't be going from something weak and watered down to something super pure by accident.

Not to mention the havoc it is causing the to world with cartels and clandestine labs creating these substances and having to dump the waste / by products as they cannot legally and easily dispose of it and then law enforcement ruining precursors which are in essence limited - such as Sassafras oil which is used to synthesize MDMA, it is created from the root bark of a tree and I believe this tree grows quite slowly.

It is actually two sided as people are cutting down loads of these trees to synthesize MDMA which is a problem in itself, then law enforcement destroys the oil they confiscate which just makes matter worse as it won't stop people from producing MDMA but will lead to more trees being cut.

 

We all know the war on drugs does not work and just costs everyone a fuck ton of money. Not saying people do not get fucked up and do stupid shit when high, but the same happens when people are drunk or abuse scheduled medication which was legally obtained.

People will do what they want to do, as long as there is a demand for it there will be a supply.

Just because it is illegal does not mean it is unsafe, just because it is legal does not mean it is safe.