Tim Worstall

Legalise Drugs Now!

The Guardian does sometimes come up with a surprise like this stunningly sensible piece on drug legalisation. The harm done by their illegality is greater than the harm that would be done by their legalisation. Wuite apart from the fact that at an irreducible minimum any sane concept of human rights includes the idea that we own our own bodies and can thus decide, for ourselves, what we wish to put into them.

I’d add just one thing:

As with all NHS prescriptions, your co-payment will only amount to about £6.50.

At that price the NHS would be making a profit on the transaction so huge are the margins created by the illegality.

In

6 responses

  1. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    My guess is that the drug companies would want to charge a great deal more than £6.50 to the NHS! Think of all that ‘research’ quality control etc etc
    I totally agree all drugs should be legalised so that they can be controlled more effectively.

    Reply
  2. Alex Fradera Avatar
    Alex Fradera

    I thought he could be pushing even harder the point that legalisation will reduce the number of pushers preying on your kids to near-nil. Besides some kind of companionship/solidarity (which in any case would be at a lower premium once the act of taking it is no longer marginalised by illegality) there’s no reason to introduce it to other people.
    Consequently, you could make a case that the numbers of users could actually decrease, not increase, in the longer term, as fewer people will be induced to enter the pool…

    Reply
  3. Ian Reid Avatar
    Ian Reid

    There are two major problems with legalising drugs. The first is there are two very powerful cabals, each having a huge vested interest in the current status quo. The first cabal is the law enforcement community. Everyone, from the Chief Constable who can ask for more officers to help in the “War on Drugs”, to the jailers who can make money from buidling and running prisons makes a fortune from this war. Then there are all the lawyers, counsellors, probation officers, gun manufacturers, charities which are in the loop. The second cabal are the criminal gangs supplyings the drugs. They are making huge profits, which would be wiped out by legalisation.
    The second problem is that this is an international problem, and legalisation in one country is probably impractical. Huge pressure would be brought on any country which legalised by it’s neighbours, and no big pharmaceutical companies would enter a market based on just one country. Both the supply and the consumption must be legalised.
    I fear we are in for decades more of this insanity.

    Reply
  4. Rob Read Avatar
    Rob Read

    For another discussion using google I worked out that ecstacy pills were at least 14 times i.e 1400% more expensive because the substance is illegal.
    You’d have to show you have 14 times more addicts funded by crime after decriminalisation of drugs to say it’s a bad idea.

    Reply
  5. Danny Kushlick Avatar
    Danny Kushlick

    For those interested in how and why legalisation will happen, please read ‘After the war on drugs – options for control’ visit http://www.tdpf.org.uk

    Reply
  6. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    It’s interesting how much more difficult it is to legalise drugs than to make them illegal. If we look back far enough, any drug was legal. And some were used by very accomplished and well respected people. I suppose it would be interesting to compare the reasoning behind making drugs illegal in the first place with the arguments to legalize those same drugs now.

    Reply

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