As something that we put into our bodies, it makes no sense to me that drugs are illegal.

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…

BANNING DRUGS IS DANGEROUS, JUST LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN ALCOHOL WAS BANNED…

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 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 see crime rates decreasing, but it would also see health improving, as people would be more likely to seek help for their addiction.

When drugs are illegal, not only is the person addicted 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, given this, that people, when they become addicted to drugs, don’t seek the help they need, precisely because of the 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, not out of a desire to be a full-time criminal, but in an attempt to block something out.

It makes no sense to me that drugs are illegal, yet alcohol, which is just as harmful, isn’t. In fact, not only is alcohol legal, but it is also pushed on us, with people who don’t drink alcohol often being perceived more negatively than people who do…

Why are people who are all for the criminalisation of drugs so pro-alcohol?

As a chemical that affects our bodies, alcohol results in more premature deaths and illnesses than all illicit drugs combined. Yet instead of being taken seriously, alcohol is valued as a commodity, a ‘necessity of life’, even…

There shouldn’t be one rule for one thing and another rule for another. 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.