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The price of going soft on cannabis: Labour's experiment 'pushed up hard drug use and crime'
dailymail.co.uk ^ | April 5, 2013 | Steve Doughty

Posted on 04/07/2013 12:11:59 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper

[UK] Labour's liberalisation of the cannabis laws was a disaster that pushed up drug use and crime and doubled the number of drug victims in hospital beds, two major research studies said yesterday.

They found that after police were told to go easy on cannabis smokers, there were increases in assaults, theft and car theft, burglaries, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

The chance that a young person who had never smoked cannabis would try the drug went up by a quarter after it became unlikely they would get more than a warning if caught by police, one project found.

The likelihood that they would smoke it on a regular basis went up by 8 per cent.

According to a second study, an experiment in relaxing cannabis laws on the streets of South London led to a rise of 40 to 100 per cent in the numbers of men admitted to hospital due to their use of harder drugs.

That report, by researchers from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: ‘We find the depenalisation of cannabis had significant longer-term impacts on hospital admissions related to the use of hard drugs.’

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: legaldrugs; libertarian
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To: Jonty30

And cut them off from public health care.


121 posted on 04/08/2013 1:54:53 PM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: stormhill
After the repeal of Prohibition the rate of alcoholism increased to 1000%.

Sounds like teetotaler urban legend to me - have any evidence?

I'm not really that interested; do your own research.

But you were interested enough to post the claim?

You're in luck - I've already done the research: No study finds a drop of more than 40% in drinking during Prohibition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_during_and_after_prohibition).

Look, you don't need to justify your getting high to me.

I don't get high - but I'll keep that in mind.

Get some help

What is it you think I need help with?

122 posted on 04/08/2013 2:08:53 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

Mental, just mental


123 posted on 04/08/2013 2:13:40 PM PDT by stormhill
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To: stormhill
Yeah, replying to posts addressed to me is just nuts.
124 posted on 04/08/2013 2:14:49 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
Of course not!

Being obsessed is just nuts.

125 posted on 04/08/2013 2:25:59 PM PDT by stormhill
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To: stormhill
What's nuts is posting, with no evidence, that after the repeal of Prohibition the rate of alcoholism increased to 1000%.
126 posted on 04/08/2013 2:38:43 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
And you're still at it?

You remind me of Paul Simon's song, "Still Crazy After All These Years."

There's a line that goes:

"...I fear I'll do some damage one fine day./But I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers/Still crazy after all these years..."

No doubt we'll read about you in the news one day...but not in a good way.

I dropped this thread yesterday morning and you come along picking up where the other idiot left off and have the nerve to complain you're only responding to posts to you! Sheesh!

127 posted on 04/08/2013 2:41:20 PM PDT by stormhill
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To: discostu

Folks like you, who exercise common sense, are becoming rare here on FR.

So many who claim to be for freedom, demand their freedom on the one hand, and are all too willing to approve of the taking of freedom, on the other hand.

Their problem is they are afraid of freedom...now someone will respond to this statement by saying something stupid like “So you approve of murder”...or something along those lines...they are so afraid of what they claim they want. So I’ll say something radical, that would provoke many here...I believe there is no such thing as...To Much Freedom...


128 posted on 04/08/2013 2:43:01 PM PDT by PoloSec ( Believe the Gospel: how that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again)
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To: stormhill
You have nothing to say but can't bear not having the last word. Sad.
129 posted on 04/08/2013 2:45:10 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies
Sorry, lad.

Won't give you the satisfaction

130 posted on 04/08/2013 2:46:02 PM PDT by stormhill
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To: JustSayNoToNannies; Fightin Whitey
It's called "humor" - you might want to look into it.

Yeah. You would really need to be stoned to think it's funny.

131 posted on 04/08/2013 4:31:22 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: wardaddy

I’ve heard it said that college students don’t even bother to date anymore-—dating is an outmoded concept. They just “hook up”, and if something comes of it and they’re not too drunk to remember each others’ names, maybe they might hang out together. Maybe not.

And that is a recipe for disaster, especially for the girls....because as you say, wardaddy, females can’t divorce sex from emotion the way males can. The girls are going to get their hearts and minds messed up badly, and they’ll never understand why.

I feel sorry for girls today. Look at what they have to choose from. Young men look so strangely feminine and delicate. I don’t know, maybe it’s the hormones in the meat. But think back to the days of the Marlboro Man commercials. Do you see males who look like that nowadays?

I’m blessed. My husband is one of those real Southern men who always likes to be behind the wheel and who won’t let his wife pump gas. I admit it....I like feeling safe and cared for.


132 posted on 04/08/2013 6:00:30 PM PDT by CatherineofAragon (Support Christian white males---the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization)
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To: JCBreckenridge; wardaddy

“I’m not sure why you’d refer to a faithful conservative young catholic Freeper as ‘pathetic’...”

It’s because you are pathetic. You are, also, one hateful person.

I don’t believe you to be a “faithful conservative young catholic”, either.

Why didn’t you capitalize “Catholic”?

“Gosh, I remember real men like Ike.”

How can you remember men like Ike if you are so young?

You totally misconstrued wardaddy’s post, as you usually do with other FReeper’s posts.

“On one hand you say premarital sex is wrong, and on the other, it’s apparently ok. Funny that.”

He said nothing of the kind.

“Though, since you’re a boomer, I can certainly see why this would be the case. ;)”

BOOMER. That is your beef.

If you are so young, I don’t understand how you can remember Ike.

Ike who?


133 posted on 04/08/2013 11:57:35 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (Old age and treachery always overcomes youth and skill.)
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To: dixiechick2000

“It’s because you are pathetic.”

I’m not quite sure what you have to base this opinion on. I look around me and I see that the decisions that are being made today are detrimental to my future, and the future of everyone my age.

The high spending, high entitlement age, which I expect to see run out within the next ten years or so. It is not so much that the entitlements and spending is already there - but that we are doubling down and adding to the burden at a furious pace. Am I the only one who sees that the train is headed someplace where we do not want to go? That eventually the track will run out?

My frustration is with the folks who are making the decisions - by and large boomers. Folks who spend my money and my earnings tomorrow for benefits for themselves today.

“I don’t believe you to be a “faithful conservative young catholic”, either.”

I see. What makes you think this?

“How can you remember men like Ike if you are so young?”

Perhaps because I’ve read what they’ve written, read what they said? I studied him in school - and was surprised to see someone who saw things much the way that I did - something I didn’t learn from the boomers, btw. I learned that he had a vision of America and progress that is not often found today. He believed in forging ahead and taking on challenges rather than shrinking from them. His generation won in WWII. The Boomers? Lost in Vietnam. My generation? Won in Iraq and will win in Afghanistan. The only generation to fail to win a war was yours. Not mine. Yours.

“You totally misconstrued wardaddy’s post, as you usually do with other FReeper’s posts.”

I’m told if you’re getting flak, you’re obviously over the target. I stand by what I said. His response speaks volumes to me. He expected to get a ditto about the worthless young folks, worthless young folks, I might add, that are protecting his sorry carcass in Afghanistan and in Iraq. I don’t really have much time for ‘conservatives’ like that who expect people to look back on his generation fondly, the generation from Slick Willy to Barack Obama. What is your legacy? Vietnam? Kerry? The failure of the manned space program? The crash in 2008? The first black, woman, transsexual, whatever to be elected?

“He said nothing of the kind.”

Ahh, he spoke of taking up with the young women that apparently the men of today can’t satisfy. I wonder what his wife thinks of that post.

Did I meet Ike? No. But I do know what he was about by reading Ike and what he had to say. It’s called history. Perhaps Boomers like yourself ought to study it. You would learn something.


134 posted on 04/09/2013 1:57:10 AM PDT by JCBreckenridge (Texas is a state of mind - Steinbeck)
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To: PoloSec
So many who claim to be for freedom, demand their freedom on the one hand, and are all too willing to approve of the taking of freedom, on the other hand.

Their problem is they are afraid of freedom...now someone will respond to this statement by saying something stupid like “So you approve of murder”...or something along those lines...they are so afraid of what they claim they want.

I wish I could ascribe the double standards to something as excusable as fear. It seems likelier to me that they simply want freedom for themselves but not others ... hence their semantic distinction between "liberty" (good) - the freedom they want - and "license" (bad) - the freedom that others want.

135 posted on 04/09/2013 8:19:26 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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To: Right Wing Assault; Fightin Whitey
If you were really committed to winning your arguement, you would have called in sick. I win.

Is that a quote from obama?

It's the "arguement" of a veteran choomer, no doubt.

It's called "humor" - you might want to look into it.

Yeah. You would really need to be stoned to think it's funny.

Even a stoner would understand it wasn't meant seriously.

136 posted on 04/09/2013 10:17:28 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

Consensual crimes are rarely harmless. They hurt law-abiding neighbors who live next to whorehouses and crack dens. It’s called the broken-windows effect. Little things like broken windows create a sense of lawlessness and hopelessness.

Lots of people are harmed when libertarians start breaking windows, doing drugs and fornicating. Our increasingly childless, selfish slacker aborting society is going down in flames because of godless libertarians.


137 posted on 04/09/2013 4:16:17 PM PDT by heye2monn
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To: heye2monn
But laws, while imperfect, do work. People might still do bad stuff, but they do much less of it.

Laws against consensual "crimes" work drastically less well than laws against real crimes that violate actual rights; the FBI reports that two-thirds of murders get solved, whereas the proportion of drug "crimes" that are even made known to law enforcement is assuredly several orders of magnitude lower.

Consensual crimes are rarely harmless. They hurt law-abiding neighbors who live next to whorehouses and crack dens. It’s called the broken-windows effect. Little things like broken windows create a sense of lawlessness and hopelessness.

First, I note that your latest post has nothing to do with your previous claim.

Second, law-abiding neighbors don't like to live next to smelting plants either - that's what zoning laws and similar regulations are for, and orderly regulation of consensual acts is prevented by blanket bans.

Lots of people are harmed when libertarians start breaking windows,

You're confused - the core of libertarianism is respect for individual rights including property rights.

doing drugs and fornicating. Our increasingly childless, selfish slacker aborting society is going down in flames because of godless libertarians.

So you think libertarianism is the dominant force in society? Tell it to the FReepers who maintain that libertarianism is too small to be worth making common cause with because they get less than 1% of the national vote - and please explain why libertarian economic principles haven't been enacted if what you say is true.

138 posted on 04/10/2013 7:13:25 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

Libertarianism, especially among the young, is indeed predominant. Eighty percent have premarital sex, and a high percentage shack up. They support redefining marriage because it meshes well with their general penchant for promiscuity, and want to do drugs, drink Bud at football games, and abort away our future — rather than study or settle down and get married at a young age.

When the slacker generation meets the entitlement generation, financial and economic disaster ensures. Yes, despite its political disorganization and weakness, libertarianism is extremely destructive to our society.


139 posted on 04/12/2013 6:33:29 PM PDT by heye2monn
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To: heye2monn
So you think libertarianism is the dominant force in society? Tell it to the FReepers who maintain that libertarianism is too small to be worth making common cause with because they get less than 1% of the national vote - and please explain why libertarian economic principles haven't been enacted if what you say is true.

Libertarianism, especially among the young, is indeed predominant. Eighty percent have premarital sex, and a high percentage shack up. They support redefining marriage because it meshes well with their general penchant for promiscuity, and want to do drugs, drink Bud at football games, and abort away our future — rather than study or settle down and get married at a young age.

What you describe is not libertarianism - which is simply a political philosophy of minimal government - but at best a list of things libertarian governance would permit. And note that premarital sex, shacking up, drinking Bud at football games, not studying, not settling down, and not getting married at a young age are all already legally permitted; are you suggesting that if not for the alleged dominance of libertarianism these things would be illegal?

140 posted on 04/15/2013 7:49:09 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
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