Source: RT
Doctors have an “ethical responsibility” to back the legalization of drugs, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has advised for the first time. An editorial in the BMJ, the UK’s most widely-read medical journal, argues that laws against drug use have harmed people across the world, while stressing that drug addiction should be viewed as a health problem and police involvement must end. The BMJ says the “war on drugs” has failed and “too often plays out as a war on the millions of people who use drugs.”
*
The call for reform reflects a shift in medical opinion. In June, Britain’s two leading health bodies, the Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health, called for the personal use of drugs to be decriminalized. The group said criminalizing users deters them from seeking medical help and leads to long-term harm, such as exposure to hard drugs in prison, the breakup of families, and loss of employment.
*
Drug deaths in Britain are presently at an all-time high. The BMJ says that the number of heroin fatalities has doubled in the past three years because of government policies. Official figures show that 579 people died from using heroin in 2012, compared with 1,201 in 2015.
*
The journal’s editor in chief, Fiona Godlee, says: “There is an imperative to investigate more effective alternatives to criminalisation of drug use and supply.” She added that the government should “move cautiously towards regulated drug markets where possible” and doctors should “use their authority to lead calls for a pragmatic reform informed by science and ethics.”
*
Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg writes in the BMJ that the government could consider introducing a version of the Portuguese movement, where drug users are referred to treatment rather than being punished. Drug deaths have fallen in Portugal by 80 percent.
photo credit: dog97209 Bayer Makes Heroin via photopin (license)
The Most Revolutionary Act 
The BMJ said this? I’m actually astounded.
LikeLike
Pingback: British Medical Journal Calls for the Legalization of ALL Drugs | canisgallicus
Yes indeedy. The article goes on to say that the Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health have also called for the personal use of drugs to be decriminalized. It’s their view that criminalizing users deters them from seeking medical help and leads to long-term harm, such as exposure to hard drugs in prison, the breakup of families, and loss of employment.
LikeLike
I have been saying this for years. The standard back comment is “what message is it sending”…the message is “closing the black market”, “changing the label from legal/money making to health issue”. Giving those already hooked on the harder drugs a chance to heal. A register of addicts. A contract to heal after a year of free drugs. Reduction of dosage to zero. With regards to cannabis, legalisation to use and grow you own. This is a herb and the evidence to its efficacy has been documented for centuries, not to mention the hardiness of the product for use in clothes, houses etc. It will happen eventually. Cheers https://amaezed.wordpress.com/marihuana/
LikeLike
Edward Snowden’s pal Glenn Greenwald first cut his teeth doing a study on drug legalization in Portugal for the Cato Institute. This was way back in 2009. It’s a great pity it didn’t get more attention back then: https://stuartjeannebramhall.com/2014/04/10/the-cato-institute-and-the-drug-war/
Good article by the way.
LikeLike
Pingback: Treating Depression with LSD Microdosing | The Most Revolutionary Act
I’ve always believed drug laws, beginning in 1791 with the Whiskey Tax, were government control-profit making ventures, designed to provide constant cash flow for government coffers.
Although the article doesn’t mention it, I believe all drugs, including prescription drugs, should be over-the-counter, because most of the gargantuan profits of pharmaceutical companies comes from their patents, advertising, and controlled access through doctors. In the US, doctors have become prescription-writing machines, without the time or space to practice “healing arts.” It’s all about patient-churning for the insurance-and-Wall-Street-funded “health care market” which profits from making people as dependent on the medical, government, pharmaceutical, insurance and other predatory industries as possible.
It’s high time individuals wake up, grow up and claim their rights and responsibilities to manage their own health care, including the drugs they ingest.
LikeLike
Another important reason to support decriminalization, Katherine, is that it frees up funding (currently used for law enforcement) for drug treatment. At present, it’s virtually impossible for low income people to get drug or alcohol treatment in New Zealand.
LikeLike