Pubdate: Thu, 10 Dec 2015
Source: Bundaberg News Mail (Australia)
Copyright: 2015 The Bundaberg Newspaper Company Pty Limited
Contact: http://www.news-mail.com.au/contact/feedback/
Website: http://www.news-mail.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/657
Author: Dieter Moeckel

WAR ON DRUGS FAILING

SO 'ICE' is an epidemic.

In 2013 it was established that less than 7% of Australians over the 
age of 14 years had used methamphetamine at least once in the past year.

Methamphetamine first synthesized from ephedrine in 1918 (and 
amphetamines synthesized in 1888) were used during the Second World 
War o enhance endurance during long range bomber flights.

Servicemen often believed it was bromide to suppress their libido.

Truckies used amphetamines to combat fatigue and increase alertness.

Today, amphetamines are still used medically to treat narcolepsy (a 
sleep disorder) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Recreational users use amphetamines to increase their sense of 
wellbeing and exhilaration, and to reduce fatigue.

Deaths from overdose or dehydration are a direct result of ignorance 
of dose, time before the drugs take effect and impurities as supplied 
by an uncontrolled black market.

Recent methamphetamine deaths can be shafted home to the Australian 
governments.

No government, no matter how repressive, has yet been able to enforce 
non-violent personal behaviour laws as 'Prohibition' so vividly demonstrates.

It is time to end the drug war and its nonsensical attempt at moral 
social control. Drugs are not evil. The social problems faced by a 
free society is not recreational drug use but drug prohibition.

Legalization and government oversight of dose, purity, manufacture 
and supply accompanied by rigorously honest, genuine, factual 
education will save many more lives than the obscenely hysterical and 
hypocritical war on drugs.

Harm minimisation such as drug testing and needle exchange admit that 
the war on drugs is a failure.

As do the generally lenient penalties of a few hundred dollars for 
possession of marijuana when the draconian drug laws allow a maximum 
penalty of imprisonment for 25 years for possession of a dangerous 
drug i.e. marijuana.

We need to give credence to the words of Albert Einstein when he 
said, "Nothing, is more destructive of respect for government and the 
law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced."

DIETER MOECKEL

Wonbah
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom