Decriminalisation of drugs... your thoughts?

Remove this Banner Ad

Herne Hill Hammer said:
Kids will continue to die because they're popping pills of questionable origin, not because of politics or money.

If the government funds a pill testing program for music festivals and a group of mates go to a testing station and they all have their gear tested, if the doctor doing the testing gives them the all clear and they ingest and one of the users dies, then what? Who's responsible, the kid who died, the doctor that told them their gear was ok or the government for funding the program that told them their pills are ok?

Can someone in this thread please step it out for me, in dot point format if needed, how decriminalisation would work, from whoa to go?

Who can grow and supply the drugs, government or private?

What drugs will and won't be included?

Who can buy, what age, how much and what price? Any restrictions at all on quantities per transactions?

Who guarantees the quality, and what does it get benchmarked against? Will we have an Australian Standard with minimum requirements like there is for everything else or will they be assigned a UN number like all other hazardous and dangerous goods and be accompanied with a MSDS?

With decriminalisation, what would be an offence, if any, for which you could be charged and incarcerated?

How do we treat addicts and how many bites of the cherry do they get if they need repeat treatments over the years? Who pays for the treatment?

That's a start, I'm sure other questions will pop into my head.
Click to expand...
Pill testing isn't a panacea, its about harm reduction and it would save some lives.

" Kids will continue to die because they're popping pills of questionable origin, not because of politics or money."

It is of questionable origin because of prohibition. Could people still die if it was 100% pharmacological grade ? Of course..... Just like other legal substances but the risks would be reduced.
I do think in NSW the governments response has been about politics and their donors.....They set up an " expert panel " to advise them but ruled out pill testing before they even started (why ?) and then put the the chair of of Liquor and gaming authority on the panel of three......?! That pretty much says it all to me

Can someone in this thread please step it out for me, in dot point format if needed, how decriminalisation would work, from whoa to go?

I think its already begun.
Countries like Portugal started going down this path a long time ago and legalization of cannabis is basically going on in the USA and Canada.
Even New Zealand recently made some changes and have moved ahead of us.
It will probably be a slow moving drip by drip process like this for a long time. Making small changes and then adapting with what is learnt in a evidence based approach.... rather then the ideological s**t show we have now.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

jooce8891 said:
people dont overdose on caps from taking too many, they overdose from whats laced with it most commonly fentanyl.
Click to expand...

I'm calling you out on that. Do you have a source?
 
jooce8891 said:
pill testing DOESNT say the drug is 'safe' all it does is tells you whats inside of the drug...
Click to expand...
If what's in it is on the very short list of things they're testing for.
jooce8891 said:
people dont overdose on caps from taking too many, they overdose from whats laced with it most commonly fentanyl.
Click to expand...
Victoria Police say they do overdose from taking to many. Do you know better?
 
Bugger all fentanyl

This vial contains a potentially fatal dose of fentanyl:

1548329694417.png



If it was getting put through something as non uniform as the typical illicit pill blends, then there would be people dropping dead all over the place.

There's a reason this stuff is administered only by anesthetists or via time delayed trans-dermal patches.
 
Last edited:
Snake_Baker said:
Bugger all fentanyl
Click to expand...
Once again, I'm talking about my own personal experiences, and its still beside what my point was, all i was doing was giving an example of what i know.
and again it still proves this point:
jooce8891 said:
people dont overdose on caps from taking too many, they overdose from whats laced with it.
Click to expand...
Its just a couple of studies have shown other things are more commonly laced with mdma thats not fentanyl.
 
YahooGulliver said:
If what's in it is on the very short list of things they're testing for.

Victoria Police say they do overdose from taking to many. Do you know better?
Click to expand...
yeah, its extremely rare to die from an actual overdose
https://deserthopetreatment.com/drug-overdose/ecstasy/
before you can ever reach the point of over-dosing you'd go unconscious unless you take a stupid amount beforehand but that'd most likely be a suicide.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/can-you-overdose-mdma
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Snake_Baker said:
Bugger all fentanyl

This vial contains a potentially fatal dose of fentanyl:

View attachment 610267



If it was getting put through something as non uniform as the typical illicit pill blends, then there would be people dropping dead all over the place.

There's a reason this stuff is administered only by anesthetists or via time delayed trans-dermal patches.
Click to expand...
https://deserthopetreatment.com/drug-overdose/ecstasy/
> Although it is possible to die of an ecstasy (MDMA) overdose, these events are quite rare. Most overdose deaths result from excessive consumption of opioids like heroin and opioid prescription drugs.
https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/fentanyl/
>Fentanyl is part of a group of drugs known as opioids.
 
Responses to common statements in favour of drug decriminalisation / pill testing / safe injecting rooms:

"It's about harm minimalisation." That can't be questioned from the perspective of drug takers. What people are worried about is the effect that it could have on the willingness of people to take drugs for the first time, once people have grown up with them being legal for 15 years.

"The war on drugs..." It's not a war on drugs. It's a law against drugs. That comparison has no value.

"...is not working." Isn't it? Do we judge other laws on whether they've wiped out the behaviour they're against? Aggravated assaults are up this month, maybe the law against it isn't working. The law is working fine for people who follow it. Is it too much to ask that people who want the protection of the law, actually follow it?

"People are going to take drugs anyway." Yes, some people are. We write laws for the protection of law abiding citizens, especially minors, who may not always obey, but they do listen to the messages we send as a society. And they can tell when the message is weakening. Its weakening now because of this debate.

"Adults should be able to do what they want if they're not harming anybody." You may not be a kid or have a kid, but it takes a village, and your freedom is not infinite, and nor should it be. Minors are more susceptible to side effects, but they want to do what grown ups get to do.

"What teenager doesn't take drugs because they're illegal?" Me. I'm pretty interesting and unique, but not THAT unique, so there must be others. I have never taken any illegal drugs, and given my taste for cider and sauvignon blanc, I can say I wasn't as stoic against legal drugs.

"Alcohol is worse." Maybe, I'm not so sure. But who says legalising alcohol was the right choice?

"Prohibition was a disaster." Yes, and that's for so many reasons. It was badly handled, and it has severely limited our ability to reduce the harm of something that is pretty much universally considered harmful.
 
Number37 said:
The same people that argue they're being stopped from using drugs are the ones that admit they use drugs.
Click to expand...
NO, as I've said before I've had one experience with an illegal drug in my life (DMT) and I'm all for legalization, regulation and taxation, particularly psychedelics, along with increased rehabilitation and counselling services.
 
jooce8891 said:
you dont get it dont you? pill testing DOESNT say the drug is 'safe' all it does is tells you whats inside of the drug... then the user makes the decision to take it or not
Click to expand...

No YOU don't get it!

I'm not anti-pill testing, I'm anti-Government funded pill testing.

If a moron wants their illegal, garage produced pill tested THEY can work out how that happens and then THEY pay for it!

It's not the Government's responsibility to test your pills, it's ridiculous to suggest otherwise.
 
Last edited:
Deliverance said:
And if allowing people to "make their own decision" causes increased risk of harm to other people, are you OK with this?
Click to expand...

That's it. Peoples harm minimalization only goes so far, it's one thing to support pill testing it's another thing to support legalization of non-prescription recreational drugs. I don't think there is any way that is going to minimize the total social harm caused if you made every substance legal. In saying that on a drug by drug basis decriminalization, legalization and commercialization could be an effective strategy.

Unfortunately given the problem with prescription opioids it wouldn't seem that legality is much of an issue and access can cause it's own problems when its the wrong sort of drug.
 
CatFan79 said:
No YOU don't get it!

I'm not anti-pill testing, I'm anti-Government funded pill testing.

If a moron wants their illegal, garage produced pill tested THEY can work out how that happens and then THEY pay for it!

It's not the Government's responsibility to test your pills, it's ridiculous to suggest otherwise.
Click to expand...
Making pill testing legal does not make it the government's responsibility to administer and to pay for the pill testing
 
Eastern Rangers said:
That's it. Peoples harm minimalization only goes so far, it's one thing to support pill testing it's another thing to support legalization of non-prescription recreational drugs. I don't think there is any way that is going to minimize the total social harm caused if you made every substance legal. In saying that on a drug by drug basis decriminalization, legalization and commercialization could be an effective strategy.

Unfortunately given the problem with prescription opioids it wouldn't seem that legality is much of an issue and access can cause it's own problems when its the wrong sort of drug.
Click to expand...


Drugs are so prevalent in society now that " non-prescription recreational drugs" are everywhere.

ANY type of oversight would be an improvement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Seeds
Society/Culture Your favourite philosophical thought experiments
2 3
Replies
50
Views
2K
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Footy Is The Win
  • Locked
Society/Culture What's your thoughts on pregnant men?
Replies
1
Views
513
Gethelred
Gethelred
Seeds
Politics What in your view should be the goal of government?
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
Rotayjay
Rotayjay
Chief
Admin Announcement Drug talk: No thanks. It's always been that way on BigFooty
Replies
0
Views
366
Chief
Chief
darth_timon
  • Poll
Politics Is Education better off Privatised?
Replies
19
Views
541
Rusty Brookes
R
Seeds
Politics Post your radical manifesto
2 3 4 5
Replies
112
Views
4K
Leeda
L
mr bagcroft
Politics Rich Men North of Richmond
2
Replies
49
Views
3K
Chief
Chief

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top