"While controversy rages over whether cannabis acts as a
'gateway'.."
Is this a big problem? I smoke pot before taking a variety of
other drugs - but only because pot is more available. I'd have
still tried the other stuff had I never tried cannbis. And some
of it is much milder in its effects thjan cannbis on me (ie
LSD).
Maybe if the gateway is lined with freedom of choice and
information, rather than shady dealers and
moralising/puritanical poltice then the gateway wouldn't be so
sacray huh? Huh?
"If trading in cannabis is to be legalised, then why not also
legalise ecstasy and other hallucinogens, cocaine and heroin?"
An erroneous question. The issues between these drugs are
connected *and* disperate. Legalisation of one does not imply
the others. However, I am pro-legalisation of all of these
drugs. If you legalise it, you control it, you take it from the
criminals. This does not mean it will be sold along with sweets
in the cornershop. It could mean getting it free from doctors in
certain kinds of local surgery (eg crack, heroin) *or* in
licensed bars/clubs/etc like pot, LSD, X, GHB, coke, and other
goodies.
'interfere with the careful interplay of chemical and electrical
impulses between cells, throwing out the whole balance of the
brain - either by causing too many chemicals to be released or
by stopping chemical transmitters in a cell reaching the vital
receptors'
yeah, so does cocoa.
"('set') of the individual taking it, and the social context
('setting')"
Right. Now recall a society is a group of sets an settings, not a
monolith.
"But perhaps the most insidious aspect of the campaign for
legalisation is the claim by some of its supporters that drugs
have a mind-expanding effect on individuals and a progressive
impact on society"
The writer has forgotten what s/he said about set/ting.
"it is manifestly illusory"
So? Its still fun.
So? for some it isn't.
So? so is your self-induced "truth".
"There are few things more tedious"
Then don't join in and leave the tedious pharmo-mystics to
their indulgence.
"constrained in a society whose potential for advance appears
to be exhausted"
How exactly?
"It invites a growing scale of professional intervention in
personal life, in the forms of counselling, therapy and
rehabilitation programmes, all booming in parallel with the
expansion of drug-taking"
Too simplistic.
"It is not clear, however, why replacing the police and the
courts with social workers and doctors would be much of an
advance."
Because you are exchanging a punative and retributive system
of "justice" with one concerned with individualised
help/advice.
Anton
Hey! I wrote this high on legal chemicals!
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