stop crime, decriminalize drugs

It breaks Noni’s heart to see our criminal justice system and our jails clogged with young people whose only crime was to get busted with an illegal drug, and she wants to know what is so special about equally or more harmful alcohol and tobacco products that make them legal and everything else illegal.

"Drug classifications are arbitrary and vary from one place to the next," sighs Noni. "In my time I've seen more harm done by abuse of alcohol than by any other drug, and while I'm certainly not judging regular drinkers, I do think the government has got it wrong when it elevates alcohol over every other drug and ultimately seeks to make it the ONLY legal drug."

"As far as I'm concerned, all drugs are drugs and it would be nice if we could all get through life without them, but we can't," sighs Noni. "Making alcohol and tobacco legal and the others illegal is giving a rap to the legal drugs that they don't deserve."

"Why have drugs possibly less harmful than alcohol and tobacco been banned?" asks Noni. "Why are kids being busted, fined, jailed and even sentenced to death in some countries for possession of drugs that are only attractive because they ARE illegal or because they are more suitable for particular individuals?"

"What this country needs to do is legalize all drugs and provide a chain of one-stop drug outlets that provide a smorgasbord of drugs with all sales being monitored by health professionals to ensure that everyone knows the risks of what they're taking and nobody overindulges in anything."

"I'd ban the sale of cigarettes and alcohol from existing outlets and put them in the same basket as other drugs because that's what they are," says Noni. "There would be no unfair discrimination between drugs and when people pick up their liquor and cigarettes being sold alongside cannabis, Ecstasy, LSD, GHB, ice, heroin, cocaine and everything else they won't be deluded into thinking tobacco and alcohol aren't real drugs."

"Kids starting off with drug experimentation would be able to do so in a safe environment with professional advice," says Noni, "and isn't that better than what's happening now?"

"When all drugs are legal the tantalizing factor of doing something 'bad' is removed," explains Noni, "and a lot of kids, if given a choice they don't have now, won't even want to become involved with drugs."

"What this system would also create is a crime-free drug environment and dare I say it, a healthy drug environment, too," says Noni. "No pushers, pimps and muggers; no exorbitant prices; no busts; no jails."

"Wouldn't that be a more sensible system than the mess we have now?"

Read more by Noni on this subject:

legal v illegal drugs

classifying drugs and criminalizing users

cigarette muggers

Zaina and her partner were recently mugged for their cigarettes and she points out that this is what happens when governments regularly increase tax on a legal product that is addictive -- like cigarettes -- in order to fund schools and hospitals. The time has now arrived when cigarettes have become too expensive to buy for many smokers and some will necessarily resort to crime in order to get what they want. Is this how we want our schools and hospitals funded?

"I was standing outside a restaurant with my partner having a smoke when we were mugged by a gang of youths," says Zaina. "Okay, they didn't actually bash us up -- they pushed my partner and stole his packet of cigarettes -- but the effect was the same as a mugging."

"We felt violated and wounded by this experience," explains Zaina, "and more so because we had no redress -- we could hardly call the police and complain about being pushed around and having cigarettes stolen, could we?"

"This sort of thing never happened when restaurants allowed people to smoke inside," says Zaina, "and, as the tax on cigarettes goes up even more, I expect these muggings to increase and become even more violent. Is this really how we want our schools and hospitals funded?"

"By forcing us outside to smoke the restaurant owners are exposing us to muggers," says Zaina, "but I don't blame the restaurant owners because they are merely complying with the new rules. It's the fault of the mugging government in every respect!"

"The government enforced the no-smoking rules on public establishments and imposed draconian taxes on cigarettes and it might find the whole exercise backfires when someone gets badly hurt and takes legal action -- reversing the whole legal process that started the non-smoking campaign in the first place."

"Already we've read about lots of smoking-related violence -- smokers reacting violently against people trying to stop them lighting up in non-smoking areas, and anti-smokers behaving violently towards smokers smoking in smoking areas," says Zaina. "I don't know how many smokers have been mugged for their cigarettes like we have -- it's not the sort of thing that makes front page news, is it? -- but I predict an increase in this sort of crime when the taxes increase so much that poor people can no longer afford to buy their cigarettes."

"A huge increase in cigarette smuggling to avoid tax is also going on," sighs Zaina. "It's really upsetting to see a pleasurable thing like smoking attracting criminal elements."

"The government is crazy if it thinks that people will just cut down or stop smoking when it becomes too expensive for them to buy cigarettes," sighs Zaina. "We're talking about an addiction here, not a preference for one thing over another like buying a cheap bottle of wine when you can no longer afford French champagne, or a bottle of methylated spirits when you can no longer afford a cheap bottle of wine."

"Most smokers have already been forced by exorbitant taxes to buy cheaper brands of cigarettes, and when the cheapest brand become too expensive to buy the ugly consequences of the anti-smoking campaign are really going to manifest themselves big time."

"The government knows that cigarette smoking is most prevalent among low socio-economic groups," says Zaina. "What plans does it have to prevent theft, violence and slaughter when it raises the taxes on tobacco products to the tipping point?"

"I believe most smokers are honest law-abiding people -- we have accepted the new smoking rules and accommodated to them without stirring up a revolution," says Zaina, "but I do not know whether my partner and I will be able to sit by silently while not only the government bullies us but the poorer smokers, too."

"After our mugging experience we have decided to stay home from now on -- or to restrict our dining out experiences to places where there is a private smoking area," says Zaina. "But now we worry about being mugged at the point of sale -- places where we buy our cigarettes."

"When people get desperate they do desperate things -- and even if tobacco outlets are set up as fortresses the purchasers are exposed to muggers when they leave such establishments."

"Imagine having to look around and see who's watching you every time you buy a pack of cigarettes," sighs Zaina. "It's not a nice way to live and I am angry that the government is creating a criminal environment around the sale and use of a legal product."

"It is almost as if the government is deliberately creating a crime situation by raising taxes so much that poor people have to resort to crime to get their cigarettes (and then it can take the ultimate step to ban smoking altogether)," muses Zaina. "but since it makes such a big deal about tobacco tax being used to fund our schools and hospitals I can't see any logic in that argument."

"If our schools and hospitals are funded by tobacco tax, and everyone who smokes suddenly quits, buys their cigarettes tax-free off smugglers or mugs for them, then what? Where is the money for the schools and hospitals going to come from?"

"No, I don't think the government's ulterior motive in increasing tax on cigarettes is to create such a bad crime situation that it has a good reason to ban smoking -- that would be like cutting off its nose to spite its face," says Zaina. "So, that leaves me with the horrifying realization that the government hasn't a clue."

"It had no idea what Pandora's box it opened when it targeted smokers and put the tax screws on them, but it's going to find out pretty soon," sighs Zaina. "Reminds you of the invasion of Iraq, doesn't it?"

"In the meantime, I can't understand why schools and hospitals can't be funded by regular taxes," sighs Zaina. "If tobacco is so bad, then it's mind-boggling that the government would depend upon it in this way."

"And, if it's not so bad, then it's mind-boggling that the government would tax it to the point where consumers can no longer afford it and have to resort to crime."