Flowers and Drugs

It is a short distance between the natural innocence of a flower, to the unnatural misuse of a drug. This is the way of the poppy and heroin, and there is also a relatively short distance between talking about legalising this offending drug, and it actually happening! This is the way of most lawmaking. It is a crude but effective process. The 'learned professors' make studies and proclamations for their own benefit in the hope they will become well known, and as they do, they sow the seeds of the future. For us! It is we, or our children, who will reap the whirlwind of the thoughts which have been sown. In this case, the sheer suggestion that hard drugs should be legalised, where society can control the use and habits of the user!

In another,earlier time, Scotland would have been above this kind of suggestion, but not now. Why? Because we have a serious drug problem, but instead of taking the tough option of ridding our streets of this drug by the already available lawful means, we propose to add more to our streets, but by legalising its use. There is something basically wrong, and even offensive about this suggestion. You don't have to be too clever to realise the flaw in the argument. Making something legal, doesn't make it right! Or to put it another way, two wrongs don't make a right!!

Scotland's morality (am I allowed to say that? Some would say morality should not come into this, or anything... but that's for another time) and legal system was above reproach, and the envy of a watching world. Not now. We have become the laughing stock of emerging nations, who seem better placed to recognise bad law (and bad morals) when they see them.

Will legalisation reduce drug use? No, because we will be the ones, lovingly providing the service. Will legalisation eliminate the drug black market? No, because there will always be those who do not wish to be part of any 'drug program' and who still think they can control their drug use. This in turn will feed into the lawless behaviour of the illicit drug user.

Who would benefit from hard drug legalisation? Only the drug users, and they will be ever grateful for their free supply of their drug of choice. Heroin, cocaine, ecstacy, marijuana, why not let the users choose for themselves, and then we can pretend we are helping them to 'get clean' as we continue to feed their habit. It's not rocket science, and in the meantime the authors of the original studies are rich and beyond reach of the legal system they have helped to create. Of course our country will never be the same again anyway!

Do you remember the children's story of the 'Emperor's New Clothes'? Sound familiar? And we have the nerve and temerity to laugh at the simplicity of the fable. Who is laughing now?