Politicians are retards. Nothing new there, I mean, that’s a fact that most people agree on. However, on some topics they are beyond retarded. Allowing propaganda and false beliefs to take precedence over reality.
The war on drug is one of these topics, at least here in Sweden. When the rest of the world is starting to open their eyes, the swedes stand firm in their belief that everything that they don’t like can be exterminated by criminalization and a good spank by the authorities.
Harm reduction is a key concept in all this, which I’m a firm believer of. I like to see myself as a person with a logical view of things, and I don’t see things in black and white.
The things that the opponents state are close to ridiculous and they have a tendency to fall (at least for the sake of argumentation) on their own stupidity:
” We oppose so-called `harm reduction´ strategies as endpoints that promote the false notion that there are safe or responsible ways to use drugs. That is, strategies in which the primary goal is to enable drug users to maintain addictive, destructive, and compulsive behavior by misleading users about some drug risks while ignoring others. “
(Quoted from the Wikipedia article about Harm Reduction)
What these flaming morons say here is basically that they think you are too stupid to make proper decisions in your life, such as “I don’t think I need another beer tonite”, or “Hm, I had a drink earlier so I should probably not get in the car yet.” If these retards didn’t have their head stuck so far up their arses they would realize that there are responsible ways to use drugs.
What I’m getting at is that the definition of ‘Drug’ is a pretty wide one. Butane gas could be considered a drug. However, everybody knows that it’s very likely to kill you if you try it. Alcohol is just as much a drug, as is nicotine, caffeine, cannabis, etc. Nicotine itself could kill you if someone dipped the tip of a pen in it and “stabbed” you with it. So it’s safe to state here that different drugs have different dangers and different doses. Some are safe, some are less safe. And in all honesty I would personally place cannabis on the safe side and alcohol on the harmful side in this equation, but from their point of view alcohol isn’t even included.
Tobacco and alcohol together account for about 90 percent of all drug-related deaths in the U.K. Yet both of those substances are legal. In the United States, a study published in the journal of the American Medical Association in 2000 shows that 95 percent of drug-related deaths in the United States are from alcohol and tobacco use.
Harm reduction isn’t about “enabling drug users to maintain destructive behavior”, since that is the definition of abuse, and that need to be dealt with. This is universal, no matter if a person has a problem with alcohol, cannabis, gambling, or sex, abuse is never a good thing. Harm reduction helps from this aspect, by allowing the people that do have problems to get the help they need.
It furthermore isn’t about “misleading users about some drug risks while ignoring others”. Ironically, this is exactly what is going on today with the zero tolerance method applied in the less evolved parts of the world.
“Here, have a few beers, go get drunk, and then spend the rest of the night acting like an idiot, breaking windows, and stirring fights with random people. If you’re lucky you make it home to your bed before you pass out, but that’s ok, you know. Because, it’s alcohol! It’s a industrial solvent, but still, it’s legal so go ahead. But don’t you dare stay home with your friends in front of the XBOX with a joint, because that’s bad!” — If that is not misleading, I don’t know what is.
About 22000 deaths in Great Britain each year are attributed to alcohol. That is just fatalities, not counting the lives ruined either by alcoholism, rape, abuse, or violence. Now, to tilt the wheel a bit;
” Scientific medical research has actually demonstrated that the moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with better cognitive (thinking and reasoning) skills and memory than is abstaining from alcohol. Moderate drinking doesn’t kill brain cells but helps the brain function better into old age. Studies around the world involving many thousands of people report this finding. “
(Quoted from Does Drinking Alcohol kill Brain Cells?)
What I’m trying to explain with all this is that the world isn’t black and white. It’s the abuse that is dangerous, not the use. We will make it much further with information than we ever will with prohibition. You can’t stop people from doing what they want and what they like, and reading my little statement above regarding getting drunk and violent, the first thought to fly through your head was (hopefully) “but I don’t do that! I can drink sensibly!”. And there, ladies and gentlemen, is the thin red line between use and abuse.
Also add to this the fact that whenever something becomes illegal, the criminals take over since there are great profits to make from it. There are numerous examples of this in history and the present. Look for example at the US alcohol prohibition, the “ban” of prostitution in Sweden, and the “war” against Christiania in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Alcohol prohibition not only increased the drinking, and actually caused deaths due to the secrecy of the alcohol joints, but it also made the mafia rise around it.
The same thing is happening in Denmark now, with gangs fighting in the streets (yes, they are actually shooting each other, at a quite alarming rate) to keep their “cannabis turfs”. In Christiania you could actually buy your cannabis, and I don’t believe there were any gun fights there either. But it was closed down, and the criminals took over. The market was moved from the white (and controlled) to the black (and criminal). The same goes for prostitution, that has now more or less completely vanished from the radar. It’s there tho, and it’s bigger and nastier than ever. Human trafficking, drug abuse, and violence follows in its path.
We need to put an end to the war on drugs, and start spreading unbiased information. You can’t stop people from drinking or taking drugs, but you can inform them about the risks. If people know what heroin does to the body, they are less likely to end up with a needle in their arms. Instead, the kids of today are told in school that cannabis leads to psychosis, rape, violence, and drug induced frenzies (also known as “reefer madness”). However, upon realizing that cannabis in most cases lead to exciting conversations in front of the TV, that quite a few of their friends smoke, and that neither of them are convicted rapists or psychotic blood thirsty gang members, the cannabis “warnings” is (properly) discarded as propaganda. And this plants a seed of doubt in their minds; “What else is propaganda of what I’ve been told?”
A Swedish website was set up a few years ago, with the name “Drugs is poo”. It cost the taxpayers ridiculous amounts of money to make, and as for why you should say no to cannabis they stated something like “1. It is illegal, and 2. You can get busted”. And the users tend to agree. The source of cannabis induced paranoia stems from the fact that it is illegal. Needless to say, another site appeared just a few days after the release of the first one named “Drugs are Nice” (wordplay of “Bajs” (poo) vs “Najs” (nice)) that actually included facts, links to research and reports, and that didn’t contain a single line that wasn’t verifiable from other sources.
So stop seeing the world as black and white. Stop separating the “legal drugs” and the “illegal drugs”, and start looking at the actual research done on them. And for the record, I’m not pro banning of alcohol, I’m pro informing about the dangers of alcohol. And I’m pro sensible alcohol use. Give people enough information to make their own sensible decisions, and most of them will. The rest will get stuck in something, be it alcohol, cannabis, gambling, or sex – it doesn’t matter. It’s in their personality, not in whatever they get stuck on.
I’m walking on a limb with this post. I’m taking a chance when I vent these opinions, but please, if you want to bash me for it read it again. I’m not propagating for neither use nor abuse in this post. I’m just stating that there is a difference between the two, and that everybody should have the right to make their own choice based on facts. You might think that alcohol is not for you, but that doesn’t give you the right to deny other people from drinking. Or smoking.
