Pubdate: Mon, 28 Oct 2013
Source: Irish Independent (Ireland)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd
Contact:  http://www.independent.ie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/213
Author: Ian O'Doherty
Page: 30

A NICE IDEA - AND YOU KNOW IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN

Well, another day another debate about drugs. And, Ireland being
Ireland, another debate about drugs that immediately descends into the
kind of hallucinatory silliness you'd normally associate with a hit of
particularly strong acid.

Luke Ming Flanagan's suggestion last week that this country legalise
cannabis and save euro 300m in the process has been greeted with
derision in some quarters and, let's be honest, that should hardly
come as much of a surprise.

But the thing is - and I don't derive any great satisfaction from
publicly admitting this - he is probably right, if even for the wrong
reasons.

Because the idea that the State would automatically save three hundred
million quid in one fell swoop seems, to put it kindly, to be based on
voodoo mathematics.

Even if the figures were accurate, it doesn't matter. Because it just
ain't gonna happen.

Cannabis will never be legalised in this country because we simply do
not have a culture that allows citizens to make their own decisions
about what they do with their own body - as we know, allowing adults
to make informed choices about how they live their lives has never
been part of our social DNA.

The debate over legalising weed has long been characterised by
extremists on both sides - and both sides are equally irritating and,
sadly, equally prone to hysteria and hyperbole.

On the prohibition side, we are usually treated to scare tactics that
are as ridiculous as they are dangerous.

I've sat in rooms debating against anti-drug campaigners who will look
you in the eye and tell you with a straight face that dope is as bad
as heroin or crystal meth and, what's more terrifying, they actually
mean it.

No other public health issue would allow itself to be hijacked by
people who not only have no idea of what they're talking about, but
who seem strangely proud of their ignorance as they regurgitate long
discredited and demonstrably untrue allegations about cannabis leading
to paranoid schizophrenia, apathy and eventual chronic addiction.

Statistics show that those who smoke cannabis are no more or no less
likely to develop psychiatric disorders while, obviously, anyone who
is predisposed towards mental illness should stay away from smoking.
But that's the same argument that warns those who are lactose
intolerant to stay away from dairy products and we all know that if
you have a peanut allergy then you should probably steer clear from a
packet of dry roasted.

The debate should be about allowing independent, mature citizens the
right to make an informed choice about what they do or do not consume.
Instead the prohibition lobby continues to spread misinformation while
the pro-legalisation brigade continue to extol the virtues of cannabis
with an evangelical zeal that is as stubbornly wrong-headed as the
ones their opponents resort to.

Because contrary to what the professional dope smokers would have you
believe, cannabis won't suddenly make you a better, happier person who
is suffused with Zen-like serenity.

People can and do develop a habit and while it is not a physically
addictive substance, the pro-legalisation lobby needs to at least be
honest enough to admit that some will become psychologically reliant.

In fact, the dishonesty, dissembling and rambling, tedious
propagandising on behalf of dope is enough to turn anybody into a full
blown prohibitionist.

But if we were ever to grow up and actually discuss the matter like
adults, then we would stop making asinine Reefer Madness-style claims
about its dangers or, equally, the painfully Cheech and Chong claims
about its benefits. We would simply say that as long as someone is
minding their own business, is harming nobody else and, above all,
treating the drug with the respect it deserves (not driving while high
or operating machinery being the most obvious examples), then it is
their own private business.

Anytime I've written about this in the past, numerous readers are
quick to accuse anyone who smokes a spliff of being directly
responsible for gangland murders.

Well, the answer to that one is simple - allow mature adults to grow
enough for their own consumption.

In the meantime, Ming, there is the little issue of trying to get the
country back on its feet.

So if you could, y'know, like, try to concentrate on the more pressing
matters at hand rather than calling for stoners to be allowed to skin
up, that would be great.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt