Alcohol 'more dangerous than heroin'

[Skipper]

But banning simply dosen't work. You are proof of that. Drugs and pot were illegal when you were taking them and yet you still took them so how do you think banning will work?!

I don't think anything conventional will work in terms of this problem. The only thing that will work, for sure, is choice of the individual to not participate.

But the individual does participate. Regularly. Why have all the society wide negatives that come with the issue and not the benefits? If people are going to do it, tax it and stop the money going to illegal dealers. Bring the issue out into the open and treat proper addicts where possible. In Holland where weed is tolerated, although still not completely legal, user rates among youngsters is lower than most of Europe and also in Portugal where they have decriminalised all substances user rates have fallen. So there is nothing to suggest user rates would rise if we were to legalise, so what benefit does full, strict banning bring?

@Adrian

Decriminalisation, such as what has been done in Portugal dosen't fully legalise drugs, it just takes away the punishable criminal side of possessing substances. Their decriminalisation has worked to the extent user rates have fallen and also illnesses from things such as needle sharing has also dropped. Full legalisation would mean the substances could be produced by either government or private companies at set strengths and doses and also sold via licensed premises. You still loose out on tax and still keep illegal dealers when you just decriminalise.