Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Sunday 19 April 2009

Sensible advice on drugs SCANDAL

Tim Worstall has an excellent post today about a government advice line that actually seems to be giving out sensible advice about drugs. He references a Telegraph story which has the usual SHOCK HORROR approach to the idea that a measured approach could be taken to advising youngsters about drugs.

The thing is, this is exactly the sort of approach that should be taken. If officialdom just trumpets the line to young people that all drugs are very dangerous and the risks are very high then eventually youngsters will see for themselves that their friends have taken things like cannabis and ecstacy (it is statistically almost impossible to not know at least one person who has done so when you are young) with no ill effects and will realise that the "advice" given is nonsense. Far better to give measured advice on the relative risks.

Why is it so hard to be sensible about this subject in this country?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most currently illegal drugs should probably be legalised in some way. The problem is politicians don't really care about good policies as much as they care about getting elected and staying in office.

The cannabis community online are pledging a collective vote, promising to vote in the General Election but not for any candidate that wants to keep cannabis illegal regardless of the candidate's political party affiliation or any other policies they may have.

If drug policy was based on what is right sense would have won long ago - but it's not, it's about votes and the tabloid press.

Derek said...

I would love to believe the LibDems would follow through on some of the things they've said about drugs - there are people like you, Mark, who seem to understand the issue.

But then there are also people like Tom Brake - MP for Carshalton in Surrey - who play the prohibitionist line, so I don't really know what to believe about you guys.

Illegal drugs are not controlled drugs though, we need a change urgently.