His honour Chris opined;
>Soz Maggie, but that is bollocks. >Illegal drugs, and alcohol (to a much, much lesser extent), are the >direct cause on the level of criminal activity. > Feeding a habit is >responsible for Assaults, burglary, theft, shoplifting, vagrancy, >begging, robbery as well as a multitude of Pubic Order offences. I am not saying that alcohol does not cause problems as it clearly does but not to the extent of illegal drugs. SNIP >But then that is my opinion, however, I do see the impact of these >things on society in my work as a Magistrate where, as well as >convicting and sentencing on these crimes I also get to spend time with various other agencies within the criminal >justice systems. Last week I was at a Youth Offenders Institute (age 15 to 18) where 85% of the inmates were there as > punishment for a crime where drugs were related. surely everything you say here points to the problem being the criminalisation NOT the drug itself. Remove the law and deal with the small %age of the people who will develop problems in medical & education terms. The police and magistrates can then concentrate of real crimes. There would be massive problems, but I firmly believe much less - including the end to the damage done to countries involved, Columbia, Afghanistan etc. If you prefer turn your argument around - if Alcohol was illegal there would be exactly the same problems as we have with illegal drugs - I can say that with real conviction because look what happened in the US under prohibition and what happens today in counties where the govt tries to ban it. I used to spend most of my spare time in the company of drug users, they always seemed like a decent bunch of people to me. Theres fcuk all on tv anyway. _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist and the hardest time in a sailor's day is to watch the sun as it sails away
