Thursday, April 01, 2010
Pussycat Pussycat II
As predicted the other day, Nanny has been roused to action by the shouty media and dog whistle politicians into banning Miaow Miaow (aka mephedrone).
This substance has allegedly been involved in the deaths of a number of people, yet there are no toxicology reports to back these claims up and there is heavy circumstantial evidence to suggest that the users were also taking other substances at the time.
However, facts and emotions tend not to mix and Nanny prefers to look busy rather than contemplative; therefore Nanny is trying to ban Miaow Miaow before mid April.
As with all of Nanny's "brilliant" plans there are a few flies in her oinkment.
Professor David Nutt, who was sacked as ACMD (Nanny's drug advisers) chairman after saying ecstasy was less harmful than alcohol, said that Nanny should have waited for the results of a study from The European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, which is due to report in July.
He noted that it was "very difficult to support criminalisation of people who are using drugs which are less dangerous than alcohol".
Adding:
"These knee-jerk reactions aren't dealing with the core of the problem.
They need to have a proper, mature debate about how best to deal with drugs.
Why don't we at least think about alternatives and allow people like me to mention them without being vilified.
We regulate other drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Why are we so hostile to (regulating) new drugs?
One way of reducing drug harm may be to regulate their use in controlled environments.
Maybe we would allow clubs to sell small amounts of drugs, like mephedrone and ecstasy, in a safe environment, just like we sell alcohol.
There is no scientific reason why mephedrone and alcohol should be seen as different.
I hope that we start doing some very careful assessments of the consequences of making it illegal.
We have to make sure there is not a rise in criminality, with gangs getting involved.
We've heard already the Chinese are gearing up to make another drug.
We will be in the same boat in a few more months, possibly with a more dangerous drug."
In a nutshell (pardon the appalling pun):
1 Booze, caffeine and fags are all drugs. Yet these drugs are part of our mainstream culture, and are used (one or more) by the majority of the population on a daily basis.
2 Drink, smoke or take caffeine in sufficiently high enough and regular doses, and you will become addicted.
3 Drink, smoke or take caffeine in sufficiently excessive doses, and you will die.
Can not the same be said of all other drugs (ie those that are illegal, or about to be made illegal)?
What am I missing here?
Why are some drugs illegal, yet the "holy trinity" not?
Answer: social acceptability and shouty media organisations crushing any attempt to discuss the issue calmly and rationally.
Factoid: at the turn of the 19th/20th century Harrods sold "Welcome To London" kits.
What did these contain?
Answer: Cocaine and a syringe
The prohibition movement (anti drugs, anti booze), which was growing at the time on the back of a "morality movement", managed to ban drugs but failed (in the UK at any rate) to ban booze.
Booze was banned in the US, with the consequences for organised crime that the US and the rest of the world still live with today.
Ban a substance and the only people who benefit are the drug dealers, who use the money they make from drugs to run their criminal empires and to inflict misery on the local populations that they supply.
However, Nanny doesn't care so long as she continues to be supported by the shouty media and dog whistle politicians.
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Ken,
ReplyDeleteYou make some interesting points.....The withdrawl effects from caffeine are not very pleasant as I found out a couple of years ago when I went through them.....I have said it before on here but it is worth saying again; We give far too much sway to single issue groups and people....There seems to be a need, at some level, for people to boss others around and force them to accept the single issue group's point of view.....The media encourage this as they have time slots to fill and in my opinion, often drive or make the news, rather than just report it.
Stalinist governments like notheing more than to ban something, actually that's wrong, they equally like taxing it and regulating it....Nanny knows best!!!!
You're spot on Ken. I recall seeing parents of Miaow addicts on telly moaning about how their kids have become distant and withdrawn blah blah blah.
ReplyDeleteNow Miaow will be illegal, the kids will still be getting "distant and withdrawn" (isn't that all teenagers anyway?) but will now have to deal with scum of the earth drug dealers, who will be only too happy to introduce Miaow fans to heroin, crack etc.
Well done Nanny. The certain result of banning Miaow Miaow is more petty theft, organised crime and forced prostitution. Just brilliant.
As they say, those that cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
You ask: Why are some drugs illegal, yet the "holy trinity" not?
ReplyDeleteBecause the holy trinity make money for the government.
Anonymous said:
ReplyDelete"Because the holy trinity make money for the government."
....well, except for caffeine. However after reading this (as she n doubt will) Nanny will no doubt slap a tax on coffee.
Just heard on Radio Merseyside news that a shop in Chester has been raided and stocks of currently legal mephedrone seized by Chester trading standards. Nanny is obviously jumping her own gun.
People with nothing better to do (mainly lobbyists like ASH, temperance/religious fundamentalists etc) love getting things banned which give pleasure, because they are too wrapped up in their own impotent lives to get carnal pleasure themselves.
ReplyDeleteIndirectly, caffine helps Nanny fill her coffers, since boring, hamster-wheel office work is unthinkable without regular infusions of caffine, and Nanny always gets her cut of the proceeds from such labor. Thus, Nanny gives it a pass.
ReplyDeleteI agree that all drugs should be made legal. I think it is unbelievably arrogant that being in possession of a plant substance (which in most cases, drugs are) should have been legislated as illegal and, in some countries, punishable by death.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do not believe that legalizing drugs will put a stop to the criminal element that deal in them.
Cigarettes are perfectly legal, as is alcohol; but these two products are illegally imported and sold all the time.
I suppose that in ‘Nanny’s’ eyes, if an individual was willing to pay £50 for a gram of cocaine, and risk prosecution, then it would be reasonable to charge in excess of that amount for a legal gram from a legitimate source, but even if Nanny were to enter a price war with the established drug cartels it would not stop the criminals.
"Cigarettes are perfectly legal, as is alcohol; but these two products are illegally imported and sold all the time."
ReplyDeleteOnly because of the high levels of taxation. If they were just charged at normal VAT + maybe 5-10% then smuggling would not occur.
Of course, Nanny wouldn't fill her coffers then...