Posted by alexandra_k on June 11, 2005, at 19:43:34
In reply to Re: Decriminalisation would at least be step in right, posted by Nickengland on June 11, 2005, at 13:57:54
> Well some very interesting points on both sides of the argument...
Yeah.
I haven't talked about this with anyone aside from my druggie mates who (fairly unsuprisingly) were all for it. It was an interesting conversation :-)
> It would take alot of guts for a country to try the idea of making all drugs legal, do you think New Zealand would do this in the near future?Yeah. It would take a lot of guts. I think decriminalisation on dope should be first. And... As a general strategy decriminalisation first - then think about the costs / benefits of legalisation. I don't think NZ will do this in the near future. We are still arguing about our present drinking age which was lowered to 18 and we are still looking at the mixed stats as to whether it is better there or how it was before at 20. Presently dope is a criminal offense. The cops fairly much turn a blind eye on personal use. Anything exceeding one ounce is considered to be dealing, though and things are a little harsher there.
I'd like to say that dope will be decriminalised here in the near future. But I don't know whether it will happen or not.
It was big on the agenda for the green party (environmentalists) last election. This is an election year, though, and I haven't heard much on it yet.
> I'm pretty sure over here they wouldn't have crack and heroin legal and ecstasy either.
Ecstasy was class B over here. Till people started dying of dehydration at dance parties. And dying of vomiting water at dance parties. Then it was upgraded to class A.
NOS is pretty big. There are NOS nightclubs. It is legal at present (no cases of death due to NOS). But one (fairly conservative) politician is wanting to crack down on that and make it illegal.
Our biggest drug problem is crystal meth. P. You can't even get speed anymore cause everyone is making P. And trips are hard to come by. They are controlling pseudoephedrine (dunno how to spell that) cold and flu tabs etc because people were making P out of them.
Ecstasy is big in Australia. It is pretty popular here too, but we pay a lot more for it.
>They down graded cannabis, its more or less ok to have it for personal use here now....but now there are some discussions going on about whether or not to up-grade back how it was before due to reports of psychosis links.
Ah. But usually psychosis occurs in people with pre-existing dx of psychotic disorders. Or in people with a family history of psychotic disorders. It is hard to know whether dope 'brings it out' or whether it would have come out by itself anyways.
Thanks for an interesting discussion :-)In our lifetime...
I hope to see dope legalised.
Or decrimanalised at the very least.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:506791
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050509/msgs/511197.html