DRUGS - THE ANSWER
This idea seeks to greatly, limit the supply of illegal drugs.
Firstly, the government should finance research into alternative uses for the plants and materials, from which the drugs are originally produced.
The uses should not be restricted to medical drugs but anything that can be made from the opium poppy ,cannabis plant or other sources.
On jury service, we had £1.3million worth of cannabis on the floor of the court which had been confiscated at Dover Docks. The smell was lovely and we were sniffing it up and getting quite giggly.
Imagine a household or body spray which made people happy, relaxed, sexy or gave them a lift. It would be in every home, office, factory, restaurant, shop etc in the civilised world, so there is great potential for huge profits from alternative products. I was once given a cake containing cannabis which tasted good (we were told afterwards), when the narcotic contents were removed perhaps it could be used in cooking or animal feed. Far more people do not use drugs than do so the market would be huge and there would be millions to be made.
If there was a legitimate market for a huge amount of the narcotic producing plants, the growers would be able to continue making money growing the plants , the cartels could act as legitimate gatherers for the growers and sell the materials to the factories which produce the final product. The cartels would still make millions but would pay taxes.
Any attempt by the growers and cartels to trade illegally would result in cancellation of the contracts and prosecution, the growers would also have their crops destroyed. Any grower not signing up would also have their crops destroyed. This would result in the shippers, couriers, distributors and drug dealers being either being put out of business or going legitimate.
With a huge amount of illegal drugs being taken out of the market, those that did get through would be unaffordable.
Treatment and rehabilitation could be offered to addicts free of charge.
There would be a huge saving to the NHS, Police and Courts.
Ronald Bartlett/
