Sorry, I’ve just posted the same thing, didn’t see your post. I think it’s a good idea even though it has come from Brunstrom.
I think it’s a great idea.
If all drugs are legalised then they can be regulated and taxed. If the drugs are taxed then the users are paying into the system that they currently only take out of.
Any money made from the taxation of the drugs can be put into the Police and the NHS which seem to be the two main branches of the public services that spend stupid amounts of money on drug related problems like crime and O/D’s.
If people are stupid enough to use the drugs in the first place then we might as well get some money out of them 
The problem with is there will still be a black market for drugs, dealers selling smuggled drugs so not paying tax.
Drugs are bad mmm kay
ok i can understand the government getting annoyed because they cant have any drug money unless its taxed butttt
for god sake they just banned public smokeing and raised the age to 18 if they want money that bad scrap those 2 first and from what age will they allow you to buy drugs eh? and what are people going to act like if people start smokeing drugs in public places. saying that tho it might atcualy cause world peace if every one cheerd up and smoked the reef’a it would become a yearly christmas family event dope somkeing with nan
You have the same problem with cigarettes and alcohol at the moment, at least with them there’s some tax going into the public services etc.
Whatever people buy and sell there will always be people who try to avoid the taxes. I do think though that if people knew that the drugs they were buying were of a certain standard and quality they would pay the extra to get them from some kind of licensed place.
Not so sure mate, people are desperate for their next hit. They are happy to sleep rough and inject with dirty disease ridden syringes. I am pretty sure they wouldnt pay 17.5% VAT on top to make sure they quality is good.
IMHO there’d be no need for them to be more expensive than street prices if the Govt took a hand and regulated sales. I’d imagine the profit margins currently made by the people importing and selling illegal drugs are WAY higher than the sort of margin that Govt would need to sell them for, even including tax/VAT/some sort of contribution to the Govt coffers.
If you add to that the fact that you’d be getting something that was of a known, regulated, decent quality, then I’d imagine that current users would be really keen for the Govt to sell them drugs rather than to have to buy them from wherever, and run the risk of them being low quality and/or mixed with who knows what non-active and possibly poisonous material.
I’d favour legalisation, as long as it was brought in together with really strict additional laws that meant that if you committed an offence under the influence of drugs then you got the normal sentence for that offence, PLUS a big extra sentence for the fact that you were on drugs when you did it.
I’m in favour of personal freedom, as long as it doesn’t interfere with everyone else’s freedom to walk down the street without getting mugged (as a for instance). As long as you’re not committing crimes to feed a habit, then it’s probably your own decision whether you want to have that habit or not.
I think the idea is that existing addicts get their stuff for free from a pharmacist, it’s not sold to them like cigarettes and booze. By giving it free to addicts there is the hope that the crime and some of the associated health problems will evaporate.
That’s the first sensible statement I’ve ever heard him make. Trouble is, it’s him that’s made it, that immediately makes everyone think it’s a load of ********.
Switzerland had the right idea - legalise the lot. Reduced crime by a huge percentage at a stroke, and enabled addicts to shake free. Win-win-win - because the overall cost to society of coping with drugs ratcheted down as well.
The stoned masses on the streets off to buy their next score; not so sure I’d be too keen on that.
But that’s the situation we’ve got now, isn’t it? This proposal wouldn’t change number of users.