Comments on: The science and politics of mind-altering drugs

By: aramharrow

aramharrow — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:29:18 +0000

I think that people on both sides tend to conflate “harmful/undesirable” with “illegal,” both assuming that illegal things must be inherently bad, and assuming that if a drug is harmful then it follows that it should be illegal.

Of course, as Nutt points out, most of the harms of illegal drugs comes from their illegality (I saw a study claiming that 80% of heroin deaths are for reasons due to their illegality, such as impurities and needle-sharing), which becomes self-reinforcing.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 16:37:58 +0000

“drugs are bad, m’kay”.
Ahahahahah!! Well played, sir.
I think people have a natural tendency to alter their minds and I don’t think it’s anything new.
A lot cultures had their equivalent of Indian peyote rituals. Here in Arizona they have legalized pot for medical purposes (which means anyone can go to a doc, complain about pain, and go get a weed card for 300 bucks), what I am interested in knowing is does that take a huge chunk out of the cartels? I would assume so, and if so, is that really a bad thing? The bottom line is people are gonna get high regardless of the laws.

By: Dave White

Dave White — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 08:47:40 +0000

I was lucky enough to see Professor Nutt speak at Merseyside Skeptics in the pub. He’s an eminently sensible man, with a rational, evidence based look on drugs. This is so refreshing when compared to the typical stance of “drugs are bad, m’kay”.

I’m not after the entire populace being high as kites, but I imagine criminalising people for what is a minor infraction is more likely to ruin people’s lives than the drug use itself.

Disclosure: I work in the field of mental health care. I regularly partake in the consumption of nicotine, caffeine and alcohol but I do not use illicit drugs