Speaking personally, I see absolutely nothing wrong in people who are in pain getting off their faces, if it helps them cope with it. There is far too much "advice" handed out when it comes to deciding what is safe to put in our bodies over which the "authorities" cannot seem to agree from one year to the next. Red wine is good for you, then it isn't, then it is. The same is true of Margerine and Butter, Coffee and Chocolate etc.etc, ad libitum, ad nauseam.
I think that it is about time that the finger-wagging know-it-all's and the control freaks of Whitehall and Brussels were told what to do with their "advice".
I think that the law governing the classification and control of drugs is a hopeless waste of time and resources. It would be far better to legalise the lot and control the sale through licensed outlets. At least then, if we have to put up with the consequence of people abusing substances there would be some recompense in the form of taxation to help pay for clearing up the mess. As it is, at the moment, we have all of the drawbacks and all of the bill to pay for, while all of the profits go to criminals, leaving those who are chronically ill to be criminalised along with the rest. How fair and free is that?
As far as the argument that these substances should be controlled because they can kill goes, well, so can water if you drink enough of it. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. There will always be those who feel the need to overindulge, how can you legislate against that? "But we must prevent these horrible things from falling into the hands of our children", the control freaks bleat. Has 35 years of prohibition of Cannabis really prevented it and other "controlled substances" from falling into the hands of children? It is illegal to sell alchohol and tobacco to children but does that stop them from getting their hands on it?
A free society is predicated on the principle that it's members have the freedom of choice in all things; in political and religious beliefs, in morality and ethics and everything that flows from it. It may be seen as unfortunate and regretable but freedom also means allowing people to sometimes make the wrong or mistaken choices. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, what monstrous arrogance it is that some of us feel the need to stand up and claim to know what is best for the rest of the population and then push that partial opinion into legislation.
Whenever the subject of controlled substances comes up in conversation, time and again the one question that is never asked is why our young feel the need to use these substances to escape temporarily? Why do they feel the need to blank out the reality of their lives? What is it about the world which we have created that appalls them so? Perhaps Nanny State, the finger-waggers and control-freaks would be better occupied in finding the answer and solution to this puzzle.
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Interestingly, this little story has cropped up in the online version of the Guardian this morning...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_ne...494908,00.html