Do YOU think that illegal drugs should be decriminalised?

Do YOU think that illegal drugs should be decriminalised? - Bob Ainsworth, a former Home Office minister has been calling for it. See this BBC News report. My personal opinion is that the overwhelming need is for legal drugs - by which I mean the drugs medics prescribe - to be very severely restricted, and I suggest that the heaviest prescribers should be charged with a criminal offence. And maybe we could have something like a 'Three strikes and you're out' system - three offences and they get struck off the Medical Register.

The main drug-pushers in the country are, of course, the doctors, largely paid by the state - and their recklessly high prescribing of drugs, most of which do far more harm than good, e.g. statins, antidepressants and antipsychotics, is arguably a primary cause of the drug culture pervading and damaging so much of our society.

Here's a contrarian viewpoint with information you may not have encountered before: The secret history of Big Pharma's role in creating and marketing heroin, LSD, meth, Ecstasy and speed.

Spending hundreds of millions of pounds on drugs treatment programmes has failed to improve the success rate of addicts coming off heroin and cocaine.

Addicts kick drugs 'at a cost of £1.85m each'

Extract from Telegraph article:

"Spending of hundreds of millions of pounds on drugs treatment programmes has failed to improve the success rate of addicts coming off heroin and cocaine, according to a report.

The budget of the National Treatment Agency (NTA) has increased from £253 million in 2004-05 to £384 million last year, it said. But the number who emerge from programmes drug-free is still small.

Last year, 5,829 users were cured of their addiction, compared with 5,759 three years ago."

The astronomical expense of the monumentally useless/inefficient National Treatment Agency beggars belief! - It should be dismantled - if that's the word - immediately, if not sooner! - But of course our profligate and equally useless Department of Health defends the National Treatment Agency!

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

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Warning about dangers of 'safe' alternative to ecstasy

Warning to clubbers over dangers of 'safe' alternative to ecstasy - Independent

Extracts:

"A teenage clubber who collapsed after taking a new dance-scene drug, which has been marketed as a "safe" alternative to ecstasy, is lucky to have survived, doctors report today.
The 18-year-old girl had taken the drug, benzylpiperazine, or BZP, at a London nightclub on a bank holiday weekend last May.

Shortly after swallowing five tablets, she collapsed and suffered a seizure lasting 10 minutes. She was taken by ambulance to hospital where she was given emergency treatment. Her pupils were dilated, her heart was racing at 156 beats per minute and her body temperature and blood pressure had plummeted."

"They warned colleagues to watch out for other young people suffering adverse reactions to the drug, which was legally available over the counter in the UK until last month.

The active ingredient in BZP is piperazine, which was developed in the Fifties as a worming medicine for veterinary use.

It has a similar chemical structure to amphetamine, a stimulant, and has become an increasingly popular alternative to ecstasy and amphetamines, being sold under names such as Pep Twisted, Legal E, Nemesis and Euphoria.

Last month, Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), made the unlicensed sale of the drug illegal."

It is reported that the UK has the highest level of problem drug use and the second highest level of drug-related deaths in Europe.

UK 'has worst drug problem in Europe' - Independent

Extract:

"The UK has the highest level of problem drug use and the second highest level of drug-related deaths in Europe, according to a report being published today.

Despite successive governments' attempts to control the demand for and supply of illegal drugs, drug policy appears to have had "minimal" impact on the overall level of use in the UK, according to its authors.

However, they do credit drug policy with succeeding in addressing certain illnesses and aspects of criminality associated with problematic drug use.

The report, by experts Professor Peter Reuter of Maryland University in the US and Alex Stevens of the European Institute of Social Services at Kent University, has been commissioned for today's launch of the independent UK Drug Policy Commission."

The legally prescribed drugs cause far, far more problems and far, far more suffering than the illegal drugs, in my opinion...)o:

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Britain's fight against illegal drugs 'a total failure' report will warn

Britain's fight against drugs 'a total failure' - The Observer

Extracts:

"Government attempts to persuade thousands of young people to stay away from drugs have failed and done nothing to curb the soaring popularity of illegal substances, a devastating report will warn this week.

The number of young people using cocaine and cannabis has increased rapidly over the past 20 years despite high-profile campaigns, such as the £9m 'Frank' initiative aimed at 11 to 15-year-olds, according to an in-depth examination of official efforts to tackle Britain's chronic drug problem. It is also expected to claim that Britain's 'unusually severe drug problem compared with that of our European neighbours' is linked to social and economic deprivation, that punitive laws have had little effect and that police efforts to disrupt the drugs trade have also failed."

"Their findings are a scathing indictment of decades of education, prevention and awareness-raising campaigns intended to warn youngsters about the perils of narcotics. The three main strategies into which successive governments have ploughed tens of millions of pounds - mass media campaigns such as 'heroin screws you up' in the 1980s, initiatives in schools aimed at pupils as young as seven and targeting of vulnerable groups - have made little or no difference, it says.

'Prevention is cited as the main policy area aiming to reduce drug initiation and continued use. The policy is predicated on the assumption that prevention efforts reduce drug use, but there is as yet no clear evidence showing that prevention has had this effect in the UK,' the authors conclude.

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence recently drew similar conclusions about the usefulness of drugs prevention campaigns."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Scientists, writing in The Lancet medical journal this week, say that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than ecstasy, LSD and cannabis.

Alcohol 'is more dangerous than illegal drugs'

Extract:

"Alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than ecstasy, LSD and cannabis, according to a new drug classification table proposed by leading experts.

Ecstasy, currently a class-A drug, possession of which can result in a seven-year prison sentence, is placed near the bottom of the new table.

At the other end of the list, which gives each substance a “harm score,” alcohol is ranked fifth - not far behind cocaine and heroin.

The new ranking method would make alcohol a class-A drug under Britain’s current ABC classification system, the experts said.

The team of scientists, led by Professor David Nutt, from the University of Bristol, and Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, want the current ABC system scrapped.

The system is “arbitrary,” not based on scientific evidence and only increases the confusion surrounding drug issues, they said.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, Prof Blakemore said the table is intended to guide policy makers when drawing up a replacement for the current Misuse of Drugs Act.""

"The drugs 'harm index'
1: Heroin
2: Cocaine
3: Barbiturates
4: Street Methadone
5: Alcohol
6: Ketamine
7: Benzodiazepines
8: Amphetamines
9: Tobacco
10: Buprenorphine
11: Cannabis
12: Solvents
13: 4-MTA
14: LSD
15: Methylphenidate
16: Anabolic steroids
17: GHB
18: Ecstasy
19: Alkyl Nitrates
20: Khat"

Well I'd like to suggest these scientists check out prescribed steroids and HRT. - In my informed opinion, as a steroid victim, these drugs are far more dangerous, and harm far more people than anabolic steroids, and should be much higher up the list. - I agree with them that benzodiazepines are very dangerous. - Benzodiazepines are another drug that doctors prescribe incautiously to their innocent victims/patients.

Clenbuterol: illegal weight-loss wonder drug with a host of dangerous side-effects. - The SAFE way to lose excess weight is to eat less salt/sodium.

Clenbuterol: The new weight-loss wonder drug gripping Planet Zero

Extract:

"Clenbuterol is illegal in this country for human or even animal use, to treat asthma or anything else. This is because it causes side effects, such as palpitations and arrhythmia [irregular heartbeat], and has been responsible for several cases of poisoning in humans. This may not trouble Planet Skinny, but it is seriously worrying doctors on both sides of the Atlantic.

In most countries in Europe, Clenbuterol is forbidden for use in animals that will enter the food chain. But that does not always prevent its use. Because it increases muscle definition and reduces fat, livestock are often dosed with the drug to make them appear more attractive to buyers. In Spain in 1994, 140 people were hospitalised after they consumed meat tainted with the drug and suffered dizziness, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, shakes and headaches. Just over a year ago, the Chinese newspaper People's Daily reported that 336 people in Shanghai had been poisoned after eating pork tainted with Clenbuterol. The drug had been banned by the Chinese government in the 1990s.

Last week a Home Office spokesman told The Independent: "Clenbuterol is a hormone growth stimulant and a Class C drug. It is an offence to supply or have intent to supply Clenbuterol. There is no possession offence - although obviously if somebody had so much that they seemed to be intending to supply, they may be prosecuted. It carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.""

All that is normally necessary to lose excess weight is to eat less salt, i.e. to reduce one's sodium intake, and to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. This is the SAFE, reliable way to lose weight fast.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Illegal drugs can be harmless, report says. - Britain's drug laws "not fit for purpose"

Illegal drugs can be harmless, report says - Guardian article

Extract:

"Illegal drugs can be "harmless" and should no longer be "demonised", a wide-ranging two-year study concluded today.

The report said Britain's drug laws were "not fit for purpose" and should be torn up in favour of a system which recognised that drinking and smoking could cause more harm.

The RSA Commission on Illegal Drugs ,set up in January 2005, also called for the main focus of drugs education to be shifted from secondary to primary schools and recommended the introduction of so-called "shooting galleries" - rooms where users can inject drugs.

The report, compiled by a panel of academics, politicians, drugs workers, journalists and a senior police officer, also called for the Home Office to be stripped of its lead role in drugs policy.

It recommended the Misuse of Drugs Act be scrapped in favour of a wider-ranging Misuse of Substances Act, and the current ABC classification system be abandoned in favour of an "index of harms"."

Well, it's certainly true about smoking and drinking. But what isn't generally realised is that many prescribed medications are very harmful indeed, often causing serious chronic illnesses, when prescribed inappropriately or in too high a dose or for too long a time or without proper warnings to the patient about possible adverse side-effects. These dangerous prescribed drugs include steroids, e.g. prednisolone, prednisone, HRT and many others. - Always check out the side-effects...

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)