Decriminalisation or Legalisation? Which is better?
Decriminalisation is a "policy" decision to not enforce certain laws and makes for bad law. Decriminalisation does not address the supply of the drugs or attempt to reduce demand through sin tax measures. Decriminalisation is an admission that prohibition (the current law) has failed and the costs associated with busting and jailing every drug user is too high. Decriminalisation replaces a failed policy with one of looking the other way. The law itself is not changed, so the opportunity for graft is enormous with police extracting "on the spot fines" to look the other way. As decriminalisation is a policy decision it is subject to immediate change by the policy setters of the day. Decriminalisation as a policy has worked - in Portugal for instance, but it is the poor cousin to legalisation.
Legalisation means a change in the law regulating and controlling the various drugs. Each drug is different and as such requires a different control regime. Trying to control cannabis like alcohol or tik is unrealistic. Legalisation of certain drugs does not mean that those drugs should or will be freely available. The point of legalisation is to control the industry from production, to distribution, to tax, to consumption. Legalisation controls the age from which a person may purchase and consume a drug, while decriminalisation does not. Legalisation will always be harder to do. It requires new and innovative thinking. It requires an understanding of each of the drugs and how different they are from production through to the effect the person feels. The allure of tik to disenfranchised persons sitting in a shack.... which when you smoke it makes you feel invincible and like Superman... is massive. The health consequences are also massive and tik will change that person's personality. They NEED medical help, but they will not get it while they are on the "outside". Each drug has it's time and place: tik's place is in a trench in the middle of a war staying awake after 36 hours of fighting or flying a kamikaze plane into an aircraft carrier's deck. Since we're not at war or intentionally flying jets into the ground tik should be locked in the Pharmacist's safe!
Decriminalisation is a "policy" decision to not enforce certain laws and makes for bad law. Decriminalisation does not address the supply of the drugs or attempt to reduce demand through sin tax measures. Decriminalisation is an admission that prohibition (the current law) has failed and the costs associated with busting and jailing every drug user is too high. Decriminalisation replaces a failed policy with one of looking the other way. The law itself is not changed, so the opportunity for graft is enormous with police extracting "on the spot fines" to look the other way. As decriminalisation is a policy decision it is subject to immediate change by the policy setters of the day. Decriminalisation as a policy has worked - in Portugal for instance, but it is the poor cousin to legalisation.
Legalisation means a change in the law regulating and controlling the various drugs. Each drug is different and as such requires a different control regime. Trying to control cannabis like alcohol or tik is unrealistic. Legalisation of certain drugs does not mean that those drugs should or will be freely available. The point of legalisation is to control the industry from production, to distribution, to tax, to consumption. Legalisation controls the age from which a person may purchase and consume a drug, while decriminalisation does not. Legalisation will always be harder to do. It requires new and innovative thinking. It requires an understanding of each of the drugs and how different they are from production through to the effect the person feels. The allure of tik to disenfranchised persons sitting in a shack.... which when you smoke it makes you feel invincible and like Superman... is massive. The health consequences are also massive and tik will change that person's personality. They NEED medical help, but they will not get it while they are on the "outside". Each drug has it's time and place: tik's place is in a trench in the middle of a war staying awake after 36 hours of fighting or flying a kamikaze plane into an aircraft carrier's deck. Since we're not at war or intentionally flying jets into the ground tik should be locked in the Pharmacist's safe!
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