Khat astrophe

Nemesis

At last the Tories have lost it. Boris confounds that dwindling group of people who think he is sane. They promulgate their own evidence free drugs policy plus another whopper of a Tory expenses scandal.

Chichester, Hamilton, Trend and Conway, all the major political financial scandals have involved Tories yet the public blame Labour.

The press reports that Tory MEP Chichester had paid the family firm £445,000. It’s money intended to employ staff to assist him in his work.

His case was not helped by his facetious schoolboy clowning when accused. “Whoops-a-daisy I am shown up to have made a mistake. OK hands up, mea culpa and I am putting it right,” he said on television.

'Putting it right' started with his resignation as Leader of the Euro Tories. It should be followed by full repayment of the money, his resignation as an MEP and prosecution.

Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui*

Boris is living down to the most fanciful expectations of his eccentricity. He has reneged on his promise to honour a hero in Trafalgar Square, trying to solve the on-problem of drinking on the Tube he provoked a riot and he cannot get rid of the Bendy buses in the foreseeable future.

 Yesterday he said 'Teaching youngsters ancient Greek and Latin could steer them away from knife and gun crime."  Boris, the nation awaits your explanation.

Great isn’t it? And he's been there for only a few weeks. What other delights are in store?

* Beware what you say, when, and to whom"

Tory drug mania

‘Druggies Dave's’ first pronouncement on drugs is idiotic. He wants to prohibit Khat the mild drug of Somalis and Yemeni. Even our prohibition-crazed present government refuse to do that.

Khat is Ethiopia’s second largest cash export and is enjoyed by males. After prolonged chewing it produces mild euphoria and a headache the morning after.

The advantage of prohibition is

* Ephemeral fawning headlines from the tabloids.

The disadvantages are: -

* It will drive a wedge between the police and the Somali/Yemeni communities.

* Hundreds of immigrant entrepreneurs will go underground into the illegal markets and turf wars.

* Khat users will be criminalised or will move into killer addictive drugs of alcohol, tobacco or worse.

* Extra burdens and costs imposed on our police, courts and prisons.

* Prohibition in Sweden and Canada has created organised Somali crime networks and diversification into hard drugs. Use has not declined.

* Third world countries would be deprived of an important trade where women supporting their families carry out the retailing.

It is comforting to see that the Labour Party does not have a monopoly of bad luck. The gods are outraged. They have  redirected their wrath at Cameron.

It’s punishment for his new hair style.

Comments

[Jolly Roger.....Ghat free, but I do like a nice cup of tea.]

I wish sometimes Paul that you'd do some research,
Before this Tory idea you besmirch.
You story of Ghat is a little too thin
And leads us to think that it just makes you grin.
A peep on the Wiki would open your eyes
To the harmful effects that you seek to disguise.
Its dreadful effects are too many to post,
Just look for yourself if you think that I boast.

A trip down to Pill or The Docks in the Bay,
Will open your eyes to the rush every day.
Of crowds of men with East African features.
Who bear down on the dealer, like so many creatures.
The chewing begins and the street spitting starts,
Just ask the locals, it's breaking their hearts.
These men should be in work, not 'stoning'.
Is it any wonder that I'm posting here, moaning?

Ghat's further effect in the the country of Yemen.
Is the 40% of their water that is stemming.
To irrigate this harmful crop.
Food cultivation's lucky to get a drop.
Their people thirst as a result of this trade.
And share not the fortunes that the exporters have made.
Ghat isn't the benign drug that you say.
It's a curse on its addicts. That's my thought for the day.

[Paul Flynn]

You make the same mistake that led to the UK having the worst drug problems in Europe.

Will prohibition reduce the problems? The answer is 'No'. It multiplies them.

Do you believe that prohibition will cut use? It hasn't anywhere else.

The UK got really tough on drugs in 1971. Then we had fewer that 1,000 addicts. Now we have 280,000, and we are still spending £billions on futile criminal justice measures.

Prohibition kills. Khat is not as dangerous as hundreds of other drugs - including many medicinal ones. if the Somalis turn to alcohol as a replacement their problems will increase.

[Will S]

Paul, that's a logical fallacy and you know it. You're confusing association with causation.

The fact that drug use has increased cannot be simply put down to prohibition, it's necessary to look at a variety of different possible reasons for the greater amount of drug use.

Possible alternative reasons might include a loss of authority and care in the home, disillusionment on the part of a generation or even the increased facility with which drugs were able to be smuggled.

I dare you to seriously suggest legalising all drugs. But I'm sure that that's not what you mean....

[Will S]

Actually, since you like Latin so much, perhaps I should refer to it ass the "Post-hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy. ;)

[Paul Flynn]

There is no suggestion that the 1971 Mis-use of Drugs Act was the only reason for the increase in drugs use. There were other factors. The principal one is the American inspired UN policy of 1960s which sought to eliminate all illegal drugs use by criminal justices system.
re-
Our policies have been always been'tough' and always counter productive. Yet in Portugal five years after drugs depenalisation there drugs deaths fell by 50%. Post that hoc was definitely propter hoc.

Almost all illegal drugs were once legal in the UK. Some were used in vast quantities as medicines. They did far less harm then they do now. It's the drugs laws that are killing people.

Why not argue the case of Khat prohibition? Do you disagree with what I suggest will happen?

Banning Khat would be as foolish as classifying magic mushrooms in the same category as heroin. Yet that's what happened in 2005 - with the agreement of all British Political parties.

[Will S]

I acknowledge your Portuguese example, I had not previously been aware of it. However do you believe in the reallocation of these funds towards primary prevention as was the case in Portugal, and do you think that the British government would be prepared to invest massively in drugs prevention as the Portuguese did? 160 Million Euro for 10 Million people there would mean about a billion pounds of investment here. Quite frankly, such an investment is not likely to be possible in the next few years.

I do on the face of it agree that tough penal laws cannot be the only way forward in preventing drug abuse, however the cost of prevention would probably far exceed the percieved benefits, and without wanting to appear to cynical, would probably not be viewed as being good value for money for the current or any future government. This means that an emphasis must be placed upon the current, cheaper methods until as time arises when massive reinvestment becomes possible.

However I do believe that the drugs problem will sort itself out. The sheer costs of bringing drugs in due to fuel prices will most likely deter future drug users, so with rising oil prices we might be able to expect a reduction in the rate of new users in the future.

I would also like to briefly comment on your argument that drugs were once all legal in the UK. It seems to me that the past legalisation of drugs would have been feasible due to the lack of globalisation at that point. However as it became more easy to move resources around the world it opened up more serious and formerly more expensive drugs for the use of anyone with (relatively) small amounts of money to spare. Although I cannot speak with experience on the subject, it does appear to me, that this would be an effective rationalisation of why it was necessary to move towards criminilisation.

[paulflynn]

Thanks Will S. the present policies are costing he UK several billion pounds a year. There are vastly expensive. The Government is about to change the classification of cannbis. It will increase the maximum prison sentence from two to five years. We do not have one prison that is free of drug use.

Drugs policy from all parties is about empty posturing from cowardly politicians.