Pubdate: Wed, 01 Jan 2014
Source: Belfast Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2014 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/42
Author: Eamonn McCann

LET'S TALK ABOUT DRUGS, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THEM

A study of drug-related deaths in Scotland in the 1990s revealed that 
every single death where ecstasy was identified as cause, or partial 
cause, was reported in the media. A number of these deaths were 
splashed on front pages.

Deaths related to other drugs were much less likely to make the news. 
Only one-in-three of deaths related to use of amphetamine was covered 
at all. One-in-50 diazepam-related deaths was deemed worthy of ink.

Deaths from ecstasy were significantly lower than deaths from heroin, 
morphine, methadone, or cocaine, while alcohol and tobacco-related 
deaths were so common that not only were they unlikely to be 
reported, the fact that they were drug-related tended not to register at all.

Across the UK as a whole, the numbers of deaths recorded in autopsy 
reports as having been associated with ecstasy were, year by year 
from 2007 to 2011: 10, 12, two, four, six.

The figures for UK deaths in which an ecstasy-type drug played a role 
either on its own, or in association with other illegal drugs, were: 
45, 33, six, eight, 20. On this basis, ecstasy is relatively safe 
when compared with the main legal drugs. The number of deaths 
attributed to cannabis use in Britain, or Ireland, over the same 
period was nil. Same as everywhere, same as always.

If we base our conclusions on available, reliable statistics, 
cannabis is to be recommended over alcohol, tobacco and a range of 
other illegal and legal drugs.

Of course, relative safety is not the only consideration. The illegal 
status of comparatively harmless substances means that even personal 
possession can result in a criminal record potentially devastating 
for prospects in life, particularly of young people not yet launched 
on a career.

Facts such as these which would facilitate rational public debate on 
the appropriate laws to apply to different drugs are rarely 
spotlighted either in the media, or by politicians.

Many in positions of influence apparently prefer to keep the people 
in ignorance, lest the irrationality of their stance is exposed - 
greatly to the satisfaction of the booze and fags lobbies.

Not only is booze within the law, it is advertised in a way that 
suggests it's impossible to enjoy a night out without gulping 
quantities down. In the year just past, we even had a day devoted to 
celebration of a brand of the addictive killer concoction.

But to suggest the sale of cannabis on the same basis is enough to 
incite fits of the heebie-jeebies. Even sections of the medical 
profession join in the hysteria. I've heard a GP tell a community 
meeting that one toke of a cannabis joint can result in a life-long addiction.

Can cannabis or ecstasy lead on to more harmful drugs? Yes, of 
course, and this will be true until such times as people - and we are 
dealing here mainly with young people - don't have to venture into 
murky territory outside the law to acquire tiny amounts, where they 
quickly discover other illegal substances also circulate.

Insofar as there is a link between cannabis and ecstasy on the one 
hand and, say, cocaine and heroin on the other, this arises from the 
fact that cannabis and ecstasy share the same legal status as the others.

This was likewise true in the United States in the 1920s and 
early-1930s during prohibition: alcohol could be bought only in 
illegal speakeasies, where abundant quantities of heroin, in 
particular, circulated widely and the Capones of this world ruled the roost.

The evidence suggests that here now, as there then, alcohol is the 
main "gateway" drug, with the Capone role taken by local criminals, 
including paramilitaries and ex-paramilitaries, especially on the 
loyalist side. A large proportion of the illegal drugs on sale in 
nationalist communities is bought by the pushers from loyalists.

Illegality is also key to the adulteration of, for example, ecstasy. 
There can be no quality control, or tests, to establish whether a 
particular batch contains other, unidentified substances.

In spite of the overwhelming evidence, it seems that no MLA is 
willing to stand up in the Assembly and state the plain facts. In so 
doing, they'd risk the wrath of the Minister for Health and others 
who are ever-ready cynically to use apparent deaths from ecstasy to 
spread dangerous misinformation.

If only in the interests of preventing further tragedy, it's time we 
wised up to the truth about drugs and the relative dangers of drugs 
and started loudly to tell this truth.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom