You will actually find that before prohibition, when heroin was legal and readily available, there were no deaths at all.

Now it is illegal, heroin kills about 1,000 people per year.


Prohibition in Australia has its origins in the 1920’s when the temperance movement was gathering pace. Regulations restricting the use of heroin, morphine and cocaine were introduced during the 1920’s and 1930’s in accordance with international treaties, predominantly led by the US.

In 1953, despite opposition by the Australian medical profession, the Menzies government, under pressure from the US and its captive UN agencies, passed a law banning the importation and manufacture of heroin.


Before the 1953 law, a heroin addict could get a prescription from his or her local doctor and collect a dose of pharmaceutical-grade heroin, in the form of heroin linctus, from the nearest pharmacy. In 1953, users suffered few indirect side effects from heroin. Property crime linked to narcotics was non-existent and although trafficking in heroin was a criminal offence, there were no prisoners in any Australian jail in relation to drug dealing.

Now under prohibition, heroin will kill about 20 people this week, mainly because of the uncontrolled dosage. Australia ’s 150,000 addicts and regular users, will need, at an estimated $1,000 per head, a massive $150 million this week to feed their habit. This will result in a monstrous amount of muggings, burglaries, armed hold-ups, home invasions, stolen cars and traumatised victims.

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"The first stage of the great adventure has concluded happily, and here I am installed in Mexico, although I have no idea about the future" Che Guevara

In a five-year trial in Switzerland, prescription-grade heroin was supplied to hard-core addicts from a series of clinics. Each addict was injected under supervision.

The results were:
• There were no overdose deaths for the five years of the trial.
• The crime rate amongst addicts was down 75 per cent.
• Homeless participants fell from 12 per cent to one per cent.
• Participants with jobs rose from 14 per cent to 32 per cent.

The solution is quite simple, but probably very unlikely:

• Take the distribution of drugs out of the hands of criminals and put it under government control (at least we get to vote for these crooks). Governments have no qualms about raking in billions of dollars as their take from the distribution of the killer drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

• Remove penalties for possessing small amount of “soft” drugs, such as cannabis and for drugs supplied under prescription.

• Make hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine and amphetamines available by prescription from pharmacies and doctors at a price that does not force addicts and users into crime.

• The government to tax all drugs and to put all revenue back into drug rehabilitation and anti-drug advertising.

• Legislate for harsh penalties in relation to:

Operating any machinery while under the influence of any drug.

Exporting drugs

Trafficking in drugs outside the government-controlled distribution network.

• Prohibit the advertising of all non-medicinal drugs, including alcohol.

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"The first stage of the great adventure has concluded happily, and here I am installed in Mexico, although I have no idea about the future" Che Guevara

quote:

Originally posted by rooibos Do you have any fucking clue what you're talking about? Or do you just believe everything you read.

thank you. right on. I'm not sure if that molestation thing is correct, because I've never heard that. But the American media is so screwed up. You can never believe anything you read or hear because it all is biased. The writer or speaker has opinion, and they always put their spin on things. If you are going to molest a child, it's not because you did ecstacy or snorted blow, it's because you wanted to molest a child. And if you really believe what you said, explain why their are hardly any problems like that in Amsterdam

prove me wrong then earthsnail. molest a child WITHOUT being on drugs and then we'll get a debate. u won't do it until u actually get a hit of justin timberlake's Passion of the Weed.

run for president tobias

u know what i'd do if they legalized all guns? i'd shoot all your mothers and get a tax break

he can't run for president. he protects murderers. iraqi prisoners killed our troops. i say we make them naked and suck our dicks. legally

quote:

Originally posted by Earthsnail run for president tobias

Haha, but then I'd probably see the fun side of blowing stuff up.

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"The first stage of the great adventure has concluded happily, and here I am installed in Mexico, although I have no idea about the future" Che Guevara

quote:

ya. are u trying to tell me that the WALL STREET JOURNAL made up an article about drugs causing child molestation because of the quarterly percentage drop of of Intel's stock?

wtf?

I think soft drugs should be decriminalized

Niccotine is the most harmless drug in the world, but look at what it costs our health care system each year.

Marijuana could be legalized, yes, but dont you think it would be stupid for america to legalize marijuana, when its doing such an anti smoking push? I do not think that smoking marijuana is any better than smoking cigs, and i do, or have smoked both. But I can understand why you would think marijuana should be legalized, but i do think that users who smoke a substance should have to pay their own hospital bills if they come down with an illness that can be related to smoking.

Now if you think that mushrooms, crack, ecstasy, coke, or anything of that sort should be legal you are a fucking idiot.

If harder drugs were legal it would just be bad for society, and i think you would have to be an idiot, not to realise this. Alcohol is a very weak, and possibly beneficial drug if used right, but despite that, it still takes many lives each year. Once the use of other drugs grew, you would realise how dangerous they really are.

It always cracks me up when people say something like "more people died from choking on peanuts last year, than ecstasy use"
How many people in the world eat peanuts?
Compare that to the number of people who do ecstasy.
Besides a huge part of the peanut related deaths were probably infants..

I personally think any natrual drug, wheather it be psyclobin or simple THC, could be legalized.

If you look at DMT, the strongest most intense drug in the world that's known to man (I don't mean strongest as in health wise, but effect), it's already in every one of our brains and gets released all the time, especially during REM. So technically, we're all carrying around a schedule I drug, yet its illegal. What I don't understand is why. It's equilivent to salvia divinorum. It's literally harmless unless you smoke it, which even then won't cause much harm becuase it's not a drug you can abuse. The trip only lasts 15 mins, 20 at the most, and has no side effects, it wont turn you insane, etc.

My guess is the goverments are scared of it (it being any type of drug). The taxing if it were legal (look at salvia though). Theres not much else. It would be safe to legalize any type of drug (I'm not talking synthetics), its just how its controlled what matters, and thats where the problem is, you can't control it, legalized or not.

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Aer yuo drameign?

Last edited by rooibos on Dec-07-2004 at 00:13