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If Drugs Were Legal

Evidence from Switzerland suggests that prescribing heroin can reduce crime and increase levels of employment among addicts. While still illegal in the UK, cannabis was downgraded to a category C drug in January 2004. Would drug legalisation really reduce crime overall, and would it make drug use any safer?

Based on rigorous research and interviews with experts, the programme hears the arguments for leaving the most dangerous drug of all – crack cocaine – illegal, and examines how a legal and regulated system of drugs would work.

It is 2015. In the film, an ex-drugs policeman investigates two girls’ deaths. The government, persuaded by the vast economic cost of prohibition, has decided to legalise drugs. The UK, along with a coalition of progressive countries from Europe, Canada and Australia, has opted out of the UN treaties which control drugs. Much of the trade from possession to use, and production to supply, has been legalised.

The drama opens with the collapse and subsequent deaths of two girls in a club which is licensed to sell drugs. In the scenario, most drugs are readily available, with government health warnings and lists of ingredients, from various outlets. Drugs of addiction, like heroin, are free but only available on prescription from Swiss-styled heroin clinics.

Cocaine is still illegal. The whole trade is regulated by a new agency, called Ofdrug. The film follows the investigation into the two girls’ deaths by an Ofdrug agent who works closely with an ex-drugs policeman. Experts such as former chief constable Francis Wilkinson argued the case for pro-legalisation, while David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance was one of the voices arguing against.

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  1. All drugs should be legalised everywere. The war on drugs and drug prohibition is an infringemen on freedom and causes huge amounts of damage.

  2. I think some drugs are just too dangerous too legalize, but cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms and other drugs that don’t kill or cause people to go into a critical state medically should be made available with proper medical research/dosage/a minimum age for consumption and antidote made available kind of like how marijuana has CBD strains and concentrates that act like an antidote to get rid of uncomfortable psychoactive effects from too much THC dominant strains. .

  3. Its fair to note, all governments that are participating in the “war” on drugs DO NOT WANT TO WIN. They want to perpetuate the drug “war” because it makes far more profit then legalization and taxation of drugs. 4 lobbies will forever keep drugs illegal. The pharma lobby, the prison industrial complex lobby, the alcohol lobby, gun lobby…for obvious reasons .

  4. As long as the pharmaceutical industry is not involved, I’m all for decriminalizing drugs.

  5. I’ve been smoking weed since I was 14 – 22 now. Got a first class masters degree in chemistry, so it has not affected me too badly! Why on earth should I be criminalised for choosing to smoke weed?? I prefer it to alcohol, and yet the local alcoholic has more rights to freedom than I do – very unfair. 

  6. uh if they were legal im sure they  would be designed to be safe, i mean its the street chemists who “want to cut costs” with stuff like pmma

  7. I stopped it at 5 mins. Yes, my choice and am moving on. I like this documentary site, it’s very useful for entertainment and if one picks and chooses (as we all are entitled to do), one can glean a good bit of information. I like my info with the “bark on”, raw info, good and bad, true or false, is up to the viewer to sift through based on their own perceptual library of what they think are facts. But, I’m gonna bitch a little here because I’m annoyed by the direction some documentaries are taking these days by introducing cheap dramatics and staged stuff which blur the lines and IMO, by virtue, “dumb” it all down. This caters to laziness to both the audience and producers. Perfect examples of this metamorphoses can been seen these days on the History and Discovery channels. Three words,.. “Hillbilly Hand Fishing”?

    As far as docs go, this is only slightly more useful and entertaining than shows about Bigfoot, UFO’s and, if I see one more crosslegged, rasta-hat wearing bearded vegetarian utter the word “hister” one more time, I’m going to get out of my seat, walk next door and kick the neighbour in the nuts!

  8. coke and heroin should be legal too, like ppl who want to use that STILL will use it.

    • are really like drugs are already legal that destroy ppls lives and kill millions every year, turn on the tv, alcohol, and Rx drugs. cigs, spice, everything. stop acting like anyone has any control over this topic.

  9. Also, forgot to mention this movie is total crap , propaganda.

  10. Would like to correct the descpiption for this movie , crack cocaine is deffenetly NOT the most dangerous drug, its called meth, look into it, info about it i mean, dont try it for godsake xD. Also OMG legalize them ALL, everysingle person can have and make them at any moment, these simplistic 0 tolerance stupid laws aint working zzz

  11. It’s all a media mind #$%@  Where’s new news coverage of all the ODs on illegal drugs???

  12. What propaganda! 

  13. The big mistake was to legalize plants.
     Medicinal plants can give  a person everything hir needs to alter consciousness, in a raw, natural form.  Cannabis does not need to be refined, magic mushrooms do not need to be refined, opium poppies do not need to be refined,  Khat does not need to be refined etc. 
    It is an absolute human right to grow plants and to consume plants.  Government acts immorally when it attempts to separate we human beings from our environment and nature. We will never obey these types of laws. They go against natural law principles.

  14. The big mistake was to legalize plants.
     Medicinal plants can give  a person everything hir needs to alter consciousness, in a raw, natural form.  Cannabis does not need to be refined, magic mushrooms do not need to be refined, opium poppies do not need to be refined,  Khat does not need to be refined etc. 
    It is an absolute human right to grow plants and to consume plants.  Government acts immorally when it attempts to separate we human beings from our environment and nature. We will never obey these types of laws. They go against natural law principles.

  15. The big mistake was to legalize plants.
     Medicinal plants can give  a person everything hir needs to alter consciousness, in a raw, natural form.  Cannabis does not need to be refined, magic mushrooms do not need to be refined, opium poppies do not need to be refined,  Khat does not need to be refined etc. 
    It is an absolute human right to grow plants and to consume plants.  Government acts immorally when it attempts to separate we human beings from our environment and nature. We will never obey these types of laws. They go against natural law principles.

  16. The big mistake was to legalize plants.
     Medicinal plants can give  a person everything hir needs to alter consciousness, in a raw, natural form.  Cannabis does not need to be refined, magic mushrooms do not need to be refined, opium poppies do not need to be refined,  Khat does not need to be refined etc. 
    It is an absolute human right to grow plants and to consume plants.  Government acts immorally when it attempts to separate we human beings from our environment and nature. We will never obey these types of laws. They go against natural law principles.

  17. PCP (Phencyclidine) also known as dust, rocket fuel, and wack is a very dangerous drug. This article talks about the history and development of this drug, its side effects and symptoms. PCP abuse should be fought against and understanding drug testing methods for testing and detecting PCP is an important tool for that.
    What is PCP, exactly? While developed during the 50’s to be used as anesthesia, phencyclidine, or PCP, has never made it to the market for human use. Due to the erratic side effects, it was deemed illegal. Now going by such street names as angel dust, rocket fuel, and wack, PCP is sold as an illicit substance, and a very dangerous one at that.
    People who use PCP experience different sensations. Most commonly, users experience a disassociation of time and space from where and when they are at the current moment. While high on PCP, a person may feel weightless, euphoric or even experience hallucinations. Many times, abusers of this drug suddenly feel paranoid due to disturbing hallucinations.

  18. Mate…whats happening…hahahahah,
    I totally agree with the legalization of all drugs as many of you.
    Fully agree to how it can completly ruin someones life.I’ve been smoking dope for over 25years and feel,at age 42,stronger at mind as ever before,and stonger than many many others at my age in terms of body strength,dope to me has,as strange as it may seem,put me in a state of health concious.This should be the first “drug” to be taken down from that bad shelf.Then the rest.
    To all the people taking all the other drugs,apart from those who have a medical condition,you knew they were addictive.
    I’ve lost many friends through this procces.Thats the only reason that makes me agree to legalizing “all” of them!!
    Because it may take many years before anything “might” happen,my advice to all those new to any drug is to KEEP AWAY from man made,anywhere in the world! Just stick to dope,green.soon you’ll realize what a great move that was.
    ps
    Do you really think goverments around the world will legalize their number one tax free income just to save a few lives?! Think about it!!!

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  20. Nearly all the arguments for legalising weed apply to every other drug. All drugs should be legalised not so everyone can get high but so those that are chosing to get high can have a better quality of life. There’s less chance of getting stuff cut with dangerous substances, less of the “forbidden fruit” effect on young people and teenagers and last but not least less people having their already dismal existences ruined by law enforcement and prison.

  21. The hotly debated pot ballot measure attracted 3 or more. 4 million yes ballots. Meg Whitman drew a few. 1 million voters. It’s not clear whether she will run again but proponents on the marijuana measure, Proposition nineteen, are already planning to produce another attempt in 2012. They think the florida vote shows legalization is usually a matter of when, definitely not if, never mind until this time they fell more than half a million ballots short of success.

  22. i think it would fix alot of bad sides of drugs, there would be more inforemation about doseages, less OD unless there complete idiots or commiting suicide.
    the quality of drugs would be far better… rather then what ever the cook finds in the laundry couboard eg. glucose at best more like detergaints and and anykinds of fillers.
    lesschance of getting laced marajuana.. where i live they mostly found to contain ketimine and PCP.

    you going to know what your getting, you be informed on how to use it, large pharm corperations are going to be reseaching it to create better recreational drugs. and people are less likey to turn to prostituetion and crime to afford god knows what there craving and it will take the maket away from people causing the communities alot of problems

  23. this guy is right A(UPz)A

  24. This is anti-drug propaganda.

    There is an extreme difference between hard drugs like heroin and soft drugs like marijuana. This documentary groups them under the same umbrella.

    Each “expert” on this show either claims that the legalization of drugs will bring about something I like to call the “Drugocalypse”, while the “pro-drug” people all say something akin to “yes, drugs are the greatest scourge to ever plague mankind, but legalization is the only way to alleviate the horrors caused by them.”

    Give me a break. I’ve smoked weed for two years, and the only downside is that I end up eating twice as much food. (and at 120 pounds, this is really more of a good thing)