Surely the government has to start listening now....

I think we're like this because we have always been treated like kids by 'the authorities'.
It's true some people will suffer if there were legalised drugs in the way that some people suffer from alcohol. But a sustained campaign of information has led to a massive reduction in a freely available and very addictive and harmful drug like nicotine.
That is the way to go in a free society, not prohibition.
I agree that productivity is useful if we are to have things we need but I think there are other things in life which are more important than the purely material ones. music and fun are as important to a good life( as is the ability to get off your head from time to time.)
And in reply to this thread title, no the government will not listen because we are now being led by a Scottish Presbyterian who thinks that fun is sinful and an opposition led by an Eton educated toff who thinks that the oiks are too stupid to make choices for themselves

I've often thought that british people like getting off their heads so much as a kind of rebellion to the 'british gentleman' sterotype that we often get portrayed as. I dont think this is something that the government have had any influence over but more to do with our culture.

I get your point about music/fun etc etc but that its virtually impossible to lead that kind of rosey lifestyle in this country (and even in the Western world)

As far as i'm concerned its all about moderation. Anything in excess is harmful to you, just like anything can be done in modration and a full healthy klife led at the same time.

Of course u will get people going to the excess with everything, whether its drugs, food, gambling, shopping, driving fast or sleeping too much, but as forks said, prohibition is not the way.

You cant take heroin or crack in moderation

maybe not crack because of the amonia but heroin u can. i lived with 2 lads in tenerife when i was selling timeshare who were smack heads. lived with them for 3months and never clicked because they were makin enough money and it was top notch stuff. heroin itself in the purest form is a lot less dmaging to your health than cigarettes or alcohol. its all the shit the crims put into it thats does the damage.

that's very true but that's why there are so few (relatively) crack and smack addicts. most people know that you can't mess with them. The ones that do are either badly educated or who don't care if they live or die, and they will harm/kill themselves whatever is banned or not banned.

I think the reason we like to get off our heads is that this is such a tightly regulated society that we have few outlets for letting go. other societies have carnival for instance when normal rules are suspended and you are allowed to go nuts. when we try to do that in events like notting hill carnival the people who are terrified of disorder eventually health and safety it to death.

It may be less damaging to your healthy but what about your mental health?

What happens to the people who start taking it, fall into the trap, quit their job, go onto benefits, spend all their money on it, end up stealing to cover their habit etc etc etc

The majority of people cant get hold of it either.

I grew up in the Northeast of Scotland which has a horrendous problem. Saw so many people in my year at school get massively into it because it was delivered into the local harbours and so easy to get hold of.

When I worked on the building site we used to get them coming round asking for 'orders' of what cd's / clothes / electrical goods we wanted. Give them a list and they used to go and nick them from the shops and sell them to the lads for ridiculous prices....£1 a cd , £10 for a top range jacket etc etc. I asked them to go and nick me a Technics mixer from the dj shop for a joke, the boy came back the next day and said he had been collared trying to nick it out the display window

WHY DONT I KNOW PEOPLE LIKE THIS?!?!??!?!? :angry:

as i said,you're always goin to get people fucking their lives up in some way or another, whether its drink, drugs or gambling etc. i just think that regulation would not only make it easier to handle but would create more awareness and dispell naivety, possibly even lower the number of problem cases.

but it is cheap to produce and could be dispensed to addicts by a doctor thus cutting out the need for crime/dealers etc. This is what used to happen in the 50's and 60's.
I also lived with a heroin addict who held down a job and was fine unless he couldn't get it. The thing about it which is not got over in the media about it though is that it is fantastic when you first start taking it but it soon becomes necessary to have it just to feel normal and the high goes away and leaves you with a life time addiction. But that is very like nicotine also and we live with that by selling it legally and educating people about the dangers. I also think we are in danger of getting a backlash on nicotine if we go any further down the road of trying to ban it. Some of the claims made about secondary smoking rest on very shaky research and are in danger of being discredited. once education turns into propaganda people stop believing it.

thats a something that i hadnt taken into consideration. i guess i'd just been getting carried away when as soon as plans for reclassing smoke come in loads of ministers are shown to be closet potheeds :chill:

my favourite politicians excuse.........

ex shadow chief secretary to the treasury Oliver Letwin said: "At Cambridge, some friends put some dope in my pipe "

like i say i never said it should be legalised, but regukation would make it a lot safer than it is now.

same as tabs with the 'kids dont smoke cigarettes and if you do, take fewer draws, remove from ya mouth between puffs and leave a longer stub'

lol i can't believe people think it would be a good idea to legalise drugs, i went through a phase of taking regularly but this was through clubbing, if id never been clubbing there's a good chance i wouldn't have taken half the stuff i have like most people. I also knew the risks of drugs therefor if anything happened i knew it was my own stupid fault, and i stopped when i realised it was fucking me up mentally.

Drugs can fuck people up, and alot of people have the opinion of if it's banned then i wont touch them, so legalising some drugs could lure people into a false sense of security and into thinking that they're totally fine and trying stuff they might never have.

Alcohol and tabs are bad too, but that doesn't mean cos they're on the market that we have to legalise everything thats bad for us does it?