r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	imtriing
Comment	x-posting my comment from the r/scotland thread on this article if anyone is in any way interested. Drug reform in this country needs to be sweeping and drastic. All the way down to how we educate people about drugs. Legalise everything, tax it and drive out the black market. Allow cannabis to be grown legally for personal use, and allow licenses to be acquired for the sale of cannabis in coffee shops similar to the Amsterdam model. Do not allow more than 2 permits per business, do not allow monopolies to form. Keep Richard Branson the fuck out. Allow pharmacies to prescribe the harder drugs with a doctor's prescription, on the understanding that the aim of the treatment and free access to the drugs is only as a method of weaning people off and getting them on the road to rehabilitation. Obviously this is something you have to be careful of, clearly needs more thinking so as to not breed a class of drug dependent people being taken care of by the state - but with the correct framework in place to ensure people dont fall through the cracks as they are currently, I am sure we would see an improvement. Fund and found needle exchanges in every major Scottish city where users can access clean kit, any support services they might need and ultimately the gateway to rehabilitation. Start treating drug abuse as a mental health issue and train mental health & addiction specialists to run rehabilitation units in every major city in Scotland. Focus drug education in schools on harm reduction as opposed to "drugs will kill you", treat the youth like humans capable of making decisions for themselves but arm them with the facts instead of fear-mongered bullshit. The tax money gained through the legal growth, sale and purchase of cannabis would provide more than enough capital to make all of those things absolutely plausible. All leftover tax revenue goes towards schools, the NHS and building a sustainable grid of renewable energy sources owned and operated by the Government, provided to the citizens of Scotland at a massively subsidized rate. You create jobs, you defeat the black market for drugs, you increase rehabilitation which likely lowers the rates of petty crime the country over (theft, burglary, etc) and create an industry that could fill the void in the areas of the North of Scotland that have slowly fallen by the wayside. But nobody will ever agree to that so why the fuck am I wasting my time writing all this shit out.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/bjvl3x/david_liddell_wanting_radical_change/embu0b5/
Created	Thu 2nd May 2019 5:20pm
Status	()

x-posting my comment from the r/scotland thread on this article if anyone is in any way interested.

Drug reform in this country needs to be sweeping and drastic. All the way down to how we educate people about drugs.

Legalise everything, tax it and drive out the black market. Allow cannabis to be grown legally for personal use, and allow licenses to be acquired for the sale of cannabis in coffee shops similar to the Amsterdam model. Do not allow more than 2 permits per business, do not allow monopolies to form. Keep Richard Branson the fuck out.

Allow pharmacies to prescribe the harder drugs with a doctor's prescription, on the understanding that the aim of the treatment and free access to the drugs is only as a method of weaning people off and getting them on the road to rehabilitation. Obviously this is something you have to be careful of, clearly needs more thinking so as to not breed a class of drug dependent people being taken care of by the state - but with the correct framework in place to ensure people dont fall through the cracks as they are currently, I am sure we would see an improvement.

Fund and found needle exchanges in every major Scottish city where users can access clean kit, any support services they might need and ultimately the gateway to rehabilitation.

Start treating drug abuse as a mental health issue and train mental health & addiction specialists to run rehabilitation units in every major city in Scotland.

Focus drug education in schools on harm reduction as opposed to "drugs will kill you", treat the youth like humans capable of making decisions for themselves but arm them with the facts instead of fear-mongered bullshit.

The tax money gained through the legal growth, sale and purchase of cannabis would provide more than enough capital to make all of those things absolutely plausible. All leftover tax revenue goes towards schools, the NHS and building a sustainable grid of renewable energy sources owned and operated by the Government, provided to the citizens of Scotland at a massively subsidized rate.

You create jobs, you defeat the black market for drugs, you increase rehabilitation which likely lowers the rates of petty crime the country over (theft, burglary, etc) and create an industry that could fill the void in the areas of the North of Scotland that have slowly fallen by the wayside.

But nobody will ever agree to that so why the fuck am I wasting my time writing all this shit out.