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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Anyone recognise the group of young guys who always seem to be hanging outside the betting shop by the Tesco at Turnpike Lane Station? Are they the same group who were ASBOed off Duckett's Common? I've seen the same guys just hanging there about half a dozen times over the last few weeks. Definitely not there to have a flutter on the GGs...

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It's odd, TBD, that there are so many posters who are virulently against betting shops " because they destroy lives and break up families " ; yet so many who are prepared to minimise and condone the use of drugs which do the same thing. There is no such thing as a harmless drug. People who think there is should go along to an open meeting of Narcotics Anonymous and listen to the stories.

I knew the alcohol argument.would come up. Your " someone " doesn't apply to me. I have experienced and seen the chaos arising from alcohol abuse so I don't drink it and I reject your accusation of hypocrisy. Alcohol is, of course, a mood-altering drug.

The difference is, as Phil K says, the sale and consumption of alcohol is legal. That of marijuana is not. I personally think the world would be a better place without alcohol but until the Government declares it a prohibited substance the point is moot.

The world would be a dramatically worse place if alcohol were illegal.  That's know as the prohibition back in the US.  It was an unmitigated disaster. It's a great way of fuelling crime and handing thugs a multi-billion pound market.

Drugs, including booze aren't going away. Ever.  Humans have been using them for millennia. It's what a lot of people want and they will go to extreme lengths to get it, regardless of consequences.   Accept it and regulate it so that the fallout of that activity is minimized. That's what good policy making is about. 

Don't talk about 'drugs' being harmful. No such thing in the aggregate. 

Every drug has a different harm profile.

No-one dies from weed, but heroin will stop your breathing. 

The latter is more dangerous. But it is equally possible to live a long, normal functional life as a heroin user.  The illegality causes overdoses like Philip Seymour Hoffman's (unpredictably quality -> unpredictable dose -> overdose -> breathing stops).

From that it's quite obvious that weed can be much more freely sold (the risk & harm is less) than heroin.  Perhaps heroin only on prescription.

It was a smart arse who probably wasn't even a drug dealer. I saw nothing sexual in it other than the opposite genders of the protagonists. That boy was a lamb compared to young Giles selling E to the girls in the year below him behind the bike sheds at their posh school.

It's not harmless and that why it should be managed.  It's just not as problematic as you think it is.

The subject has been demonised, made free of nuance, the understanding of the subject among the general population is non-existent and dialogue level of most participants borders on hysteria.

If you want to protect kids from drugs - take the market away from the criminals that rock up at street corner. Manage and regulate it instead.  Like pharmaceuticals. Or even like booze/cigarettes  if you're feeling cavalier. Kids can't just rock up to Boots and buy prescription only drugs, nor would a pharmacist try to tempt them either.

It will also kill the stupid 'legal high' market, which people turn to find some equivalent to 'the good stuff', except that they're all bottom of the barrel drug-analogues with a radically worse or not understood safety profile.

It depends on the Pharmacy...

Sure, there's always bad apples but then you take away their license and shut the shop.

Testing kits will not detect the presence of some adulterants or establish purity.  They only detect the presence of a substance. It still leaves room for other crap to be in 'that pure powder'  that the kit can't screen for.

Somewhat safer but definitely not safe.  

Before Thatcher banned it the government would supply long term patients (mostly war veterans I think) with Heroin. It was amazing, they could drive with it and everything. It went through their system and had no ill effects. The stuff junkies get is very adulterated.

Correct. The law does more damage to society than the drugs.

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