Making the news today....

[sime42]

Chris Whitty made a good point this morning. About the irony of libertarians like Boris and Truss being so against a ban on something so addictive that it actually takes away freedom and choice in most cases.

 

I'm fairly ambivalent to indifferent about the ban. Not sure why some are getting so het up about it. If the government are looking to save money by improving public health they really ought to look at the disastrous food landscape here. They really should have implemented Henry Dimbleby's National Food Strategy a couple of years ago. What's wrong with cracking down on excessive sugar and crappy "food"?

 

One of the dissenting voices on this vote today was this woman. Does anyone take her seriously anymore? Her interview with Chris Mason yesterday was a bit of an eye opener, even by her standards. She still seems to accept no responsibility for the cluster fck she set off. Weird.

 

Six things that stand out for me in Liz Truss book - Chris Mason

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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The BBC's political editor Chris Mason on what the former prime minister has to say about the state of conservatism.

 

 

BBC iPlayer - Newscast - The Liz Truss Interview

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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Former Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks to the BBCs Political Editor Chris Mason.

 

 

 

 

 

[sime42]

Britain's food tsar Henry Dimbleby steps down over obesity crisis

WWW.EURONEWS.COM

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Henry Dimbleby, the UK's food tsar, has quit over what he calls a 'lack of government action' over obesity in one of the worst...

 

[Johnsond]

7 hours ago, Mark J said:

Do you think all drugs should be banned? Genuine question as I'm 100% against any attempt to restrict access to any of them. 

 

 

Do you genuinely think. Heroin, Crystal Meth, Fentanyl etc etc should be legal ?. 

[Squaredy]

5 hours ago, Johnsond said:

Do you genuinely think. Heroin, Crystal Meth, Fentanyl etc etc should be legal ?. 

Do you think them being illegal stops people getting them? 

 

And if you accept that supply of drugs such as you mention still happens on a vast scale despite being illegal, are you happy that all this business is managed (quite literally) by criminal gangs?

[Doug Tait]

And it still costs the NHS but we have to fund the policing of it on top.

[Johnsond]

1 hour ago, Squaredy said:

Do you think them being illegal stops people getting them? 

 

And if you accept that supply of drugs such as you mention still happens on a vast scale despite being illegal, are you happy that all this business is managed (quite literally) by criminal gangs?

No of course it doesn’t just as this stupid bit of legislation will not stop smoking. The scale of as you describe it is a fraction of what it would be if it was legalised. But what kind of world will we live in if that shit is made legal and therefore presumably acceptable 🤷‍♂️it’s an ongoing fight unfortunately 

and why would I be happy about criminal gangs running anything, we have a weak police and judiciary that should be far harder on this crap. I’ve personally lost two mates over the years to alcoholism and one ex army colleague to a heroin overdose. Additionally to that I literally threw a family member out of my house when it was plain his income was coming from similar activities. There’s a huge difference in the outcomes between shooting up on heroin and buying some old Holborn. 

[sime42]

Prohibition never normally works. Heroin is arguably much safer than Fentanyl.

 

Taliban poppy ban puts Europe on fentanyl alert – POLITICO

WWW.POLITICO.EU

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Drug users could switch to more dangerous synthetic opioids as heroin supply dries up.

 

 

[Mark J]

13 hours ago, Johnsond said:

Do you genuinely think. Heroin, Crystal Meth, Fentanyl etc etc should be legal ?. 

Absolutely. Some people will always overdo things and aren't mentally stable, so there will always be those who go too far. But legalisation and education are proven to go a long way towards minimising the harm that drug use (including alcohol and smoking) cause to people and society. The money raised in taxes would be useful too.

 

My question to you which you didn't answer is:

Do you think all drugs should be banned?

 

You seem to give alcohol a free pass, it would be a class 'a' drug if it was a new drug.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2024 by Mark J

[Mike Hill]

On 13/04/2024 at 20:19, Johnsond said:

Explosives-filled shipwreck has safety work delayed as objects found

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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The SS Richard Montgomery's explosive cargo has been lying on the Thames Estuary bed for...

A job and a half to sort this out. I’d say it’s literally impossible to put a price on what it would cost to get that to an ALARP  level that would satisfy all stakeholders and signed off. 

 

Could they not rig it , cover it in a million ton of sand,then set it off?

How viable is the cargo after 77 years in the sea?

[Steven P]

Drugs, sugar, plastic bags, tobacco, alcohol, some dogs, vaping? are all put in the governments "Too hard to deal with it in this parliament, lets ban it" bucket. Take a longer term approach and education, good habits, social acceptance and so on you don't need to ban nearly as much. But... that means you have to fix the early years education system, the primary school years education system, the secondary education system to fit that in, provide or encourage alternatives, and then wait 20 or 30 years for those children to become adults, and then parents to pass all that on to the next generation and change society. So it goes into the too hard bucket, no political gain in a 30 year program to do good, ban it all.

 

So not sure a ban is a good thing, educate and let us work it out. As for drugs - I could support some sort of legalisation to remove them from criminality, but am not sure this would work - we have had years of no education just blanket "Zammo says don't", if they legalised a lot of drugs I could see the UK going on a massive bender for a couple of years.

 

The alternatives to tobacco and alcohol (that we would do instead) are not good sources of tax income - take away the 22 billion or so from Tobacco and Alcohol duty (plus a couple of billion on sugar taxes) and we are looking at 25 billion in fuel duties going when we all get electric cars.... I might also wonder if the chancellor is as keen as the prime ministers say they are to ban everything./