Controversially, perhaps, I don’t believe in the criminalisation of drugs (i.e., I don’t think that drugs should be illegal). Why? Because of bodily autonomy, this being the ‘ability of people to demonstrate power and agency over choices concerning their own bodies…’
As something we put into our bodies, it makes no sense to me that drugs are illegal.
Now, I’m not writing this from a place of having been ‘sheltered’ from the realities of drugtaking, or drug dealing, I know first-hand the devastating impact that drugs can have on lives. I am writing, however, from a place of having witnessed my closest family members have their lives controlled, in many ways, by drugs/alcohol (I write alcohol here as well because, I am of the opinion that alcohol is just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than any illegally classified drug, but, more on that later)… Yet, despite seeing first-hand the effects of drugs and alcohol, I am still very much ‘for’ the decriminalisation of currently illegal drugs. Why? Because the criminalisation of drugs under the ‘psychoactive substances bill’* is just another form of control.
*(The psychoactive substances bill is the most oppressive law in terms of controlling moral behaviour since the Act of Supremacy in 1558 that banned the practice of the Catholic faith. Both are based on a moral superiority that specifies the state will decide on acceptable actions and beliefs even if they don’t affect other people)…
BANNING DRUGS WON’T STOP PEOPLE FROM TAKING DRUGS
If we consider what drugs actually are, all drugs come from natural sources. Cocaine, for example, is extracted from coca leaves, weed from the cannabis plant, heroin from the Papaver somniferum plant. Drugs get such a bad rap in our society but, ultimately, they’re just a part of nature, and have been used by humans since the beginning of time…
Whether rightly or wrongly, drugs are a massive part of so many peoples lives. The universality of drug use throughout human history has led some experts to conclude that the desire to alter consciousness, for whatever reason, is a basic human drive. People in almost all cultures, in every era from prehistoric times*,have used psychoactive drugs.
*(Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of psychoactive plants and drug use in early hominid species about 200 million years ago).
For something that has been in our lives for so long, making drugs illegal, as we well know, will not stop people from taking them, for they have become so ingrained in our culture… I would argue, in fact that, the criminalisation of drugs only makes matters worse. Considerably so…
BANNING DRUGS IS DANGEROUS, JUST LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN ALCOHOL WAS BANNED…
People think that if we were to decriminalise drugs, then society would fall into chaos, that there’d be kids dealing drugs in schools, and people on every street corner ‘scoring.’ The reality, though, is that, if drugs were decriminalised, then crime would be more likely to decrease, not increase, and, there’s evidence to support this, just look at what happened when alcohol was illegal…
Although alcohol has never been illegal in the UK, the first half of the 20th century saw periods of prohibition of alcoholic beverages in several countries, including the US (1920–1933), whereby the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors was banned.
Making alcohol illegal didn’t stop people from drinking it though, it just drove the market underground instead. Organised crime (‘bootlegging’), took control of the distribution of alcohol, the most notorious example being Chicago gangster, ‘Al Capone’, who earned a staggering $60 million annually from bootleg operations. This led to a massive increase in gang violence as a result, as street gangs would fight each other over alcohol distribution and sale, much as organised crime gangs fight each other today over illegal drugs. When alcohol became legal, however, gangs formed on the basis of selling alcohol disappeared, as there was no ‘underground’ trade anymore. People could purchase alcohol from their local corner shop. This not only eliminated the risk of gang violence between the people selling alcohol, but it was also so much safer for the people drinking alcohol. How so? Because, buying alcohol ‘underground’ led to thousands of people dying each year due to the alcohol they were buying being tainted with toxins…
It was because of such dangers associated with the ‘underground’ trade of alcohol that saw prohibition coming to an end in 1933, and alcohol being decriminalised.
BENEFITS OF THE DECRIMINALISATION OF DRUGS
As we saw happen when alcohol was decriminalised, decriminalising drugs would not only, I believe, see crime rates decreasing, but it would also see health improving, as more people would, I believe, seek help for their addiction. Why? Because, when drugs are illegal, not only is someone addicted to them most likely dealing with the stigma and shame surrounding being an ‘addict’, and all the connotations that such a label brings with it, but they will also most likely be dealing with the stigma and shame of, legally speaking, being a ‘criminal.’ It’s unsurprising then, given this, that people, when they become addicted to drugs, don’t seek the help they need, precisely because of this stigma and shame they feel. They might fear the repercussions that may arise if they do attempt to seek help for their drug use, i.e., the police getting involved since, after all, they are committing an offense in the eyes of the law. The reality though, is that, most people take drugs in an attempt to block something out. No one says when they’re younger that their goal in life is to ‘become a drug addict.’ It’s not an aspiration that people have. It does ruin lives and it does end lives, unfortunately, but, whether rightly or wrongly, based on my beliefs that we should all have autonomy over what we do with our bodies, this including what we put into our bodies, taking drugs should not be illegal. It makes no sense to me that they are [illegal], and yet alcohol, which is just as harmful, is not. Not only is alcohol legal, but it is also pushed on us, praised, almost, with people who don’t drink alcohol, often being perceived more negatively than people who do, which is just so bizarre to me- completely nonsensical when the same people who are all for the criminalisation of drugs, are so ‘pro-alcohol’ (which is just as bad, worse* in fact)…
*(As a chemical that affects our bodies, alcohol does in fact result in more premature deaths and illnesses than all illicit drugs combined. Some 520,000 Americans die annually from alcohol and tobacco use. Meanwhile, the physiological effects of all illegal drugs combined kill an estimated 17,000 Americans annually).
Yet, alcohol is treated, not as a drug but as a cultural artifact, a valued legal commodity, a ‘necessity of life’, even…
THIS IS WHY DRUGS SHOULD BE DECRIMINALISED…
As I have highlighted above, to have alcohol which can be far more destructive than any drug legal, but drugs illegal?? Where is the logic??It’s completely hypocritical.
There shouldn’t be one rule for one thing, and another rule for another (although, there inevitably very much is– one rule for ‘us’ and another for ‘them’. But still, it just doesn’t make sense)…
We either need to decriminalise drugs, or we need to criminalise alcohol. And, because bans historically do not work, (not to mention the fact that the Tories love a drink #downitstreet #definitelyameeting), the decriminalisation of drugs, really, is the only viable option…
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