[rael-science] [with Rael's comment] The time has come to decriminalise all drugs‏

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org   
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RAEL'S COMMENT: This is absolutely right! The criminalization of drugs is putting depressed and hopeless people in jail, where they get more hopeless and depressed and then can become real criminals. Punishing sad people who try to escape in artificial heavens is not only stupid; it's criminal. Instead, society should have values based on love, sharing and compassion, which give feelings of hope and oneness to everyone.

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Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/editorial-the-time-has-come-to-decriminalise-all-drugs-8399736.html

The time has come to decriminalise all drugs

Progress towards a sensible drugs policy is glacially slow, but the latest report from the Home Affairs Select Committee on Britain's ineffectual prohibition laws suggests the balance of opinion at Westminster may be tilting towards common sense at last. Sad to say, the Government shows few signs of following suit.

Not only is there much to be welcomed in the committee's conclusions – there is also much that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. MPs praise measures in place in Portugal (under which possession of small amounts of a controlled substance results in either a fine or a rehabilitation programme, but no criminal procedure); they evince keen interest in the legalisation of marijuana in two US states and also in Uruguay (where the government is proposing a state monopoly of production and supply); and they call for a Royal Commission to conduct a "fundamental review" of UK drugs policy, to report by 2015.

Quite right. Britain's existing laws are indeed, as committee chairman Keith Vaz puts it, "not working". It may be that drug use has dipped slightly in recent years. But one in five secondary school children still admits to having experimented with illegal substances at some point. And there are any number of factors outside of government policy that explain a drop in usage – the economic climate and the proliferation of "legal highs", to name but two – none of which constitutes a long-term solution.

This – liberal – newspaper would go further than Mr Vaz et al and advocate the swift decriminalisation of all drugs. First, there is a simple principle: individuals should be free to make their own choices, providing they do no harm to others. But for those not convinced by John Stuart Mill, the practicalities alone surely clinch the argument.

As Prohibition in the US proved, bans are as counter-productive as they are futile. Drugs are no different. The deterrent effect of punitive laws is minimal. Illicit substances are still widely available, and they are less pure and more dangerous; meanwhile, swathes of the population are criminalised unnecessarily, those who need help struggle to find it, and those caught out are sent to jails also awash with drugs.

Even the advent of super-strength cannabis – the dangers of which have been covered in detail in The Independent – argues for better healthcare rather than impotent sanctions that merely drive its use underground.

And all this before the rise of drugs-funded global gangsterism is even considered. With 60,000 dead in Mexican turf wars alone, and the lucrative proceeds of illegality bankrolling everything from gun-running to human trafficking to war, the sooner so pernicious a symbiosis is broken up the better.

A Royal Commission to consider UK laws is just the first, small step towards a rational, rather than moral, response to drugs. The Government has dismissed it out of hand, however, amid rather confusing Home Office claims to be "open to new ways of thinking". Changing tack on so emotive an issue is, of course, tricky for any government. But that is no excuse for this one so mindlessly to dig in its heels.

There is, then, still a long way to go. But the fact that a cross-party group of MPs is taking so open-minded a stance is, by itself, a shift that cannot be dismissed. Even less so as it comes just months after the UK Drugs Policy Commission – made up of relevant experts, scientists and police officers – concluded its six-year inquiry in favour of decriminalisation.

The "war on drugs" was always misconceived. It is time to acknowledge that the war that could never be won is now categorically lost. The Home Affairs Select Committee's proposals are only a start – but they are at least that. Banning drugs has not made them go away. As MPs have rightly concluded, it is time to think again.

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL" means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic, anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
 
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history, 
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
 
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
 
Rael
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