Battlefront You're Already Involved

okay one more thing stay ubove the influnce and just say no becuz what u do now effects you later.

Amanda, 09 April 2009 14:59

Every year the government spends billions of pounds on ‘drug related crime’. This is split two fold: a.) The crime and related crimes involved in the distribution and sale of drugs b.) Crimes committed by heroin/crack cocaine addicts in order to fund their addiction. Heroin should be prescribed to drug addicts to curb crime. Danny Kushlick, Director, Transform: “Government drug policy has resulted in crime costs of over £100 billion in the last decade. Organised crime make billions every year from a totally unregulated and untaxed illegal drug trade. The government appears committed to continuing the nightmare for victims of crime who will continue to experience the chaos of violent unregulated street markets, and the thefts and robberies that result from the high cost of maintaining an illegal heroin or crack cocaine habit. “The Government is spinning failure as success. The simple fact is that the UK drug strategy has failed to reduce drug use and failed to reduce drug supply. Class A drug use by young people, whilst stable, is at its highest ever level and is the highest in Europe. It is the use of heroin and cocaine, the drugs identified by the Government as causing the most harm, that have seen the most dramatic rise in use over the last 10 years. They have cherry picked and misrepresented statistics to try and demonstrate success when the general pattern has be rising use and rising harm, especially amongst the most vulnerable groups”. The No 10 Strategy Unit Drugs Project: Phase 1 Report: “Understanding the Issues” highlighted the following facts: · Prohibition has failed to prevent or reduce the production of drugs · Prohibition has failed to prevent or reduce the trafficking/availability of drugs · Prohibition has failed to reduce levels of problematic drug use · Prohibition has inflated prices of heroin and cocaine, leading some dependent users to commit large volumes of acquisitive crime. Even if such supply interventions could further increase prices, this could increase harms, as dependent users commit more crime to support their habits. The more that the police tackle heroin, the less there is on the street, the higher the street price, the more crime committed to fund this. This is an OBVIOUS problem. It is simple supply and demand, and due to the nature of addiction, there will always be demand. I don’t like the term ‘habit’. Addiction is not the same as a liking. A heroin addict does not wake up in the afternoon, take a stroll in the park, then say to themselves ’know what? I’m not going to get a job today, I fancy some smack instead’ thereafter skipping down the lane, whistling a merry tune. The unfortunate truth is that drugs are widely available in every major city in the UK. The socially deprived and most vulnerable people in society are the ones worst affected by addiction to the drug. Addiction can occur after one hit. Imagine if in a desperate time as a youngster, your darkest hour, you were offered this drug? The symptoms of withdrawal from heroin depend on how severe your addiction is. On a scale of 0 to 4, the symptoms are: 0: anxiety and strong desire for the drug 1: watery eyes, watery discharge from the nose, and yawning 2: above symptoms plus dilated (enlarged) pupils of the eyes, loss of appetite, shakes, hot and cold flashes, and aching of your whole body 3: severe shakes, hot and cold flashes, aching, fever, high blood pressure, fast pulse, and rapid breathing 4: diarrhea, vomiting, low blood pressure, and dehydration. Additional symptoms of withdrawal from severe addiction may include: weight loss spontaneous ejaculation or orgasm. Withdrawal periods vary from person to person but the worst part usually lasts 7 to 10 days. 7 to 10 days. Which you go through before realising that once sober, society still frowns upon you. Some simple facts about methadone: · Methadone is a very addictive drug. It may be effective in helping heroin users to withdraw, but methadone misuse can lead to dependency problems. · Tolerance develops. This means the user increasingly needs more methadone to get the same effect · Side effects can include constipation, nausea, sweating and itchy skin. · Unsupervised or sudden withdrawal can lead to a period of diarrhea, insomnia, vomiting, hot and cold sweats, and cramps. But fear of withdrawal is not the only factor in the life of an addict. Because of the circumstances of their past, which can include a history of child abuse, sexual abuse, violent crimes, some addicts feel like the hit is the only way out. These people are vulnerable and unhappy, not pleasure seekers. Many people who campaign against the legalisation of heroin just see it as giving criminals a reward. The simple fact is that addicts commit crime to fuel their addiction. Howard Roberts, deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire, told an Association of Chief Police Officers' conference in Manchester the idea should be assessed. He said the treatment would cost £12,000 a year per addict but added that drug users steal property valued at an average of £45,000 a year. "Personally, I don't think either a repressive or a liberal policy can do much to free a heroin user from addiction. We can only decide whether to increase the suffering of drug victims or alleviate the consequences of addiction – for users and society alike." Nordt and Stohler Since 1994, Switzerland has been giving hardened drug addicts free heroin on prescription in a bid to stabilise the health of current addicts and to protect the public from the open drug scene. The scheme got official federal and public approval when the initiative came before two national referendums in 1997 and 1999, and there are now 20 clinics across the country. Switzerland has had such excellent results with their programme that 71% of the Swiss people voted in a referendum to keep it as a treatment option in their country. Programmes for the administration of heroin under medical supervision are still viewed warily by the World Health Organization, which is heavily influenced by governments with repressive drug policies, principally the United States. Major detractors of this system point out that only a small percentage of the Swiss participants in heroin maintenance became abstinent. That may be so, but those who did not become abstinent still benefited greatly. Their quality of life was greatly increased; many became employed; crime, and this is a very important factor, among participants was reduced to almost zero. I believe that these consequences far outweigh whether someone has become abstinent or not. You see, the problem is that the media, politicians, the public at large, can't abide the thought of someone not wanting to get off heroin. So heroin trials must be seen as a path to abstinence. I see heroin clinics more as a way to improve the lives of heroin addicts and the lives of general society, than as an abstinence strategy. Treatment clinics would not raise the level of ‘acceptability’ of the drug. Prescription of what was (until as late as the 1950s) medication to an ill person is not implying that recreational use of the drug is acceptable; it is merely stating that heroin addiction is an illness and should be treated as such. In conclusion, some way of removing heroin from the hands of unscrupulous drug dealers and into the control of some form of official body is the only way to stem the widespread damage being caused to society at present. If heroin use can't be stopped (as has been shown with prohibition) safer methods of control must be put into place.

Matt Steer, 29 November 2008 05:24