Are prohibitionists really this stupid?

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Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight

Price doesn't seem to be the issue, it is the type of person drug addiction attracts.

Bet the majority of looters during the recent UK riots do drugs too, they are just that way inclined - law breakers see?

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I expect most or many of them did drugs like tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, but then again so do many people who abhor the riots.
Drug addiction can affect anyone, for example tobacco addicts come from all sections of society, from the chavs sat on a street corner to the president of the USA.
I think you and Rollo should do some reading of Professor David Nutt's blog - Popular intoxicants
The top eight countries in the world for cannabis use are places where it is illegal either totally, or for recreational use:
Cannabis use statistics - countries compared worldwide - NationMaster
Harm of various drugs to users and others:
Drugs that cause most harm: Scoring drugs | The Economist
A graph published originally in the Lancet also showing that alcohol and tobacco are more harmful than many illegal drugs
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...dence).svg.png

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Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight

£30 for a wrap, not a massive price is it?

Drugs - Cocaine

But glad you agree addicts DO commit crime to pay for their habit, like I said they did.

H similar prices for a hit

Heroin Prices 2009 | Heroin Opiate Prices

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A ten bag of cannabis unsurprisingly costs £10 and generally weighs between 0.7-1.2 grams, enough for one person to become fairly intoxicated on
Compared to 12 cans of Strongbow cider for £8, or 3 for £20 in Tesco, which would if consumed in one sitting would have most people on the floor throwing up everywhere Strongbow Cider 12X440ml - Groceries - Tesco Groceries
Addicts to intoxicating drugs will commit crimes to get hold of them if they cannot afford to get hold of them without doing so.The legality of the intoxicating substance is irrelevant.

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Originally Posted by Starter

And your solution is?

Remembering that rigorous law enforcement has completely failed over and over to even slow the drug trade down.

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Let them OD who cares?

If drugs were legalised then they'd be taxed so would cost more not less, which kinda ruins your argument doesn't it?

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Originally Posted by Captain VXR

Addicts to intoxicating drugs will commit crimes to get hold of them if they cannot afford to get hold of them without doing so.The legality of the intoxicating substance is irrelevant.

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As I already said.

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Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight

Let them OD who cares?

If drugs were legalised then they'd be taxed so would cost more not less, which kinda ruins your argument doesn't it?

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Economies of scale and the reduction of risk factors would lower the price of drugs.
A dealer who sells 100 grams of cannabis and 50 mdma pills per week will have a higher unit cost than a shop selling 10,000 grams of cannabis and 4500 mdma pills per week, and also the risk of being caught by the Police and jailed, or having their merchandise stolen means they push up the price. Illegal drugs are easy money, people wouldn't be selling them if they could earn more working legitimately in an off licence or tobacconist, for example.
Try purchasing alcohol in a dry country like Saudi Arabia, I can guarantee it will not be cheap.
Cannabis prices are cheaper in the Netherlands than Britain, below is a menu from a dutch 'coffee' shop
http://www.coffeeshop.freeuk.com/Grph/ShopMenu.jpg
Compared to £10 for 0.7-1.2 grams of inferior quality (by comparison) cannabis you'd find in the UK

So why is legal cider more costly than illegal drugs then?

Tax of course.

But I'm not all that bothered re the relative costs, merely pointing out that drugs cause crime like I said before and legalising them would not solve that problem. Just massively increase the number of users and cost to the state to sort out the mess afterwards.

Let them kill themselves, no great loss.

legal cider is cheaper, as I demonstrated.
How about a £3 2l bottle of White Ace? Cheap enough?
Seeing as the Netherlands has a mary jane lower use rate than Britain, I would doubt that long term use would noticeably increase, and the drugs would be safer as they could be quality controlled etc

Cocaine cheaper than lager and wine as drug price falls by half - Telegraph

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Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight

Cocaine cheaper than lager and wine as drug price falls by half - Telegraph

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Pub lager yes, but a crate of Stella cans will have a cheaper than £1 price per can
2 packs of 18 cans for £20 (56p per can), or £18.99 each (£1.06 per can)
Sainsbury's online groceries
Crap wine can be purchased for £3.20 per bottle
Sainsbury's online groceries

So as I've said, price isn't really all that relevant to any of this, booze/drugs are cheap (shame tobacco isn't but persecuting smokers is the norm in the UK these days).

Step away from the price thing it doesn't lead anywhere, druggies commit crime FACT and still would if drugs were legalised, the UK is not Amsterdam (AFAIK Holland would like to criminalise drugs use anyroad)

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Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight

So as I've said, price isn't really all that relevant to any of this, booze/drugs are cheap (shame tobacco isn't but persecuting smokers is the norm in the UK these days).

Step away from the price thing it doesn't lead anywhere, druggies commit crime FACT and still would if drugs were legalised, the UK is not Amsterdam (AFAIK Holland would like to criminalise drugs use anyroad)

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Alkies commit crime. Cannabis smokers like myself are far more persecuted than tobacco smokers.