Should all drugs be legal?

In many communities’ ‘drugs’ are not only accepted but embraced. Shamans, Amazonian spiritual leaders, drink the hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca, Native Americans use peyote, and many other, indigenous cultures use psychedelic drugs to develop a closer relationship with God and nature.

 

It is, and always has been, a huge part of their culture.

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But how do we define a drug?

 

Google tells us: "A substance which has a physiological effect when introduced into the body." Tobacco and alcohol unquestionably fit these criteria and are legal in the UK. These are the western drugs of choice. Chose your poison.

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In 2018 there were 4,359 deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales. This is the highest number of such deaths ever recorded and the number has increased at its highest ever rate since records began in 1993. As our drug crisis worsens, is legalisation the answer?

At the end of the 20th century, Portugal was experiencing a hard drug crisis. A radical idea was proposed. In 2001, the government decriminalised all drugs for personal use. Overdose deaths fell 80%, incarcerations for drug-related criminal activity also fell and the number of people voluntarily entering treatment for substance abuse increased.

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Despite fear that decriminalisation or legalisation would increase the proportion of drug users, in Portugal’s case the number of addicts plateaued. Data also supports this trend, showing that 63% of people think that legalisation would make no difference to their drug consumption.

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Legalisation advocate and marijuana campaigner Josh Salmon suggests that if the drug market was government regulated, health and safety measures could be applied to make recreational drugs safer. He says it would allow easier access to support and rehabilitation, helping to remove the stigma around users.

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Salmon claims, “Bringing drugs into the legal markets would allow them to be taxed to a heavy degree, like we do with alcohol and tobacco…providing a huge economic boost. It would also allow drugs to be tested and used for medicinal purposes in the same way as marijuana.”

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Many believe that the legalisation debate is inundated with misinformation. Advocates have likely not battled addiction, been vulnerable, socially and financially desperate, fighting a mental illness and resorted to drugs as a means of escape. Conversely, some advocates claim that critics who demonise all drugs as destructive and evil, have blinded themselves to the fact that drugs are being used, to unbelievable effect, as a way of treating innumerable illnesses.

 

If they are so effectively dealing with physical disorders, why not medicate mental illnesses in the same way?

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The effect of drugs on psychological welfare is for most, a poorly understood area. Some drugs can cause a condition called drug-induced psychosis, the effects of which include anxiety, depression, paranoia, and hallucinations. This usually passes after a few days. But not always. For individuals with a genetic predisposition to mental illness such as schizophrenia, it can trigger long term mental illness. About 1 in 100 of the general population are considered schizophrenic but abusing marijuana at a young age increases your chances six or seven times.

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Therapist and counsellor David Cross says, “Drug use and mental health are intricately linked. It is indisputable that individuals suffering from mental illness are more likely to resort to drugs… It is hard to tell whether the issues are substance-induced disorders or pre-existing ones, activated and worsened by drug use.”

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Pro-legalisation campaigners argue that the way the government records drug-related statistics, particularly the oft-cited overdose deaths, is skewed and inaccurate. LSD, more commonly known as Acid, is a class A drug, possession of which could earn you up to seven years in prison.

 

The amount of LSD required for a lethal overdose is obscenely high, so why do people die? Due to the difficulty and risks involved in getting hold of the chemicals required to produce authentic LSD, street dealers use chemicals that produce similar effects but are significantly more damaging to the body. Users taking street drugs have no idea whether what they are taking is the legitimate substance. But in many cases when doctors ask the friends of an overdose victim slipping away on a hospital bed what they have taken, their response, LSD. Nobody questions if LSD was actually the chemical ingested.

 

Globally, the biggest drug threat, responsible for the greatest number of deaths, is prescription opioids. These substances, largely bought in pharmacies, have overtaken the combined deaths from cocaine and heroin overdose. There are millions of addicts to these substances, government supplied, prescription drugs. This is a very important thing to note when discussing legalisation and criminalisation because it suggests that government prescription is actually more dangerous than street drug supply. Opioid addiction is responsible for a significant proportion of heroin addictions. As prescription drugs become too expensive or too hard to get hold of, they turn to heroin and other hard drugs as a replacement.​

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Tommy Morgan currently lives on an underpass in Deptford. Recently turned 37, he’s been homeless for 4 years.​

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“I had a flat, a girlfriend… for me it started with an addiction to painkillers (opioids), when it got too difficult to get my hands on those I switched over to heroin." 

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Without a job or a home, isolated from family and friends, Tommy’s situation is bleak. He says he just isn’t ready to give up the heroin, at least for the moment.

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 “If I could kick the heroin I could get off the streets, no question, this is the lifestyle I’ve chosen…I gave up everything for it.”​

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When asked about legalisation, Tommy was doubtful.​

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“The government involved in drugs is a bad idea…. Addicts are prescribed methadone, legally, to get them off Heroin. Heroin is an 8-day kick, methadone is a month and a half.”​
The effect of drugs, long and short term, are little known and even lesser understood. Many argue that the unwillingness to bring drugs into the legal market is a flaw in reasoning. 

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Without a job or a home, isolated from family and friends, Tommy’s situation is bleak. He says he just isn’t ready to give up the heroin, at least for the moment.

 

“If I could kick the heroin I could get off the streets, no question, this is the lifestyle I’ve chosen…I gave up everything for it.”​

 

When asked about legalisation, Tommy was doubtful.​

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“The government involved in drugs is a bad idea…. Addicts are prescribed methadone, legally, to get them off Heroin. Heroin is an 8-day kick, methadone is a month and a half.”​

 

The effect of drugs, long and short term, are little known and even lesser understood. Many argue that the unwillingness to bring drugs into the legal market is a flaw in reasoning. Advocates suggest that with greater understanding doctors could medicate more effectively, legalisation could ease stressed economies through taxation, and the realms of human experience could be broadened.

Just as drugs are in their infancy, so is the drug debate, and with Boris Johnson's senior aides suggesting that the UK will soon allow a “legal market for recreational cannabis”, perhaps change, whether a positive or negative one, is closer than we think.

 

Often, the legalisation debate is an emotional one. Many people have lost family and friends to addiction and this gives them a rigid stance. Interestingly, the emotional influence on the debate has worked both ways. In 2018, then Home Secretary Sajid Javid introduced a law to allow the use of medical marijuana.

 

The law change was not the result of new scientific research coming to light, but the story of two young boys, denied cannabis oil to control their epileptic seizures, plastered over the front page of national newspapers. The government caved into media and public pressure and the law was changed.​