Let's look at why the government would offer substitutes for heroin free to addicts - at first glance it seems a bit counter intuitive and well, stupid...but is it just a rather cunning plan?
Drugs is a complicated issue, and always will be, with concerns to disrupting its supply. On one hand, you can try to stop the addicts themselves, but that involves dealing with hundreds of thousands of individuals - very expensive. On the other hand, you can try to deal with the drug lords and the producers, means less individuals but a whole lot more effort as it can require military action (such as what is happening in South America regarding the fighting of drug cartels).
Prescription drugs, though, kind of deals with both at the same time - and some would say at the fraction of the cost. With that, let's look at some numbers!
Prescription drugs would cost the government (and the taxpayer) £15,000 a year each. However, think about it, this money would stay in the country and not get shipped off to someplace like Afghanistan (where 80-90% of opium is grown) and thus there would be less money fueling the insurgency. Result! So this idea does have a double benefit, one being that it boosts our own economy as the money is kept within the country, the other being that it severely weakens the drug lords and terrorists financially - they simply cannot compete with free drugs.
Also, there is of course the 66% reduction in crime committed by the addicts themselves.
In short, this project would reduce drug addict crime by 66%, boost the UK economy by a tidy margin, and weaken terrorists/gangs/drug lords. Yay!
But you know, as its government run, it's just gonna go shit wrong somewhere along the line...
Thanks to Mr D and Mr H (you know who you are) for helping me explore the other side of this subject. Cheers.
Prescription drugs, though, kind of deals with both at the same time - and some would say at the fraction of the cost. With that, let's look at some numbers!
Prescription drugs would cost the government (and the taxpayer) £15,000 a year each. However, think about it, this money would stay in the country and not get shipped off to someplace like Afghanistan (where 80-90% of opium is grown) and thus there would be less money fueling the insurgency. Result! So this idea does have a double benefit, one being that it boosts our own economy as the money is kept within the country, the other being that it severely weakens the drug lords and terrorists financially - they simply cannot compete with free drugs.
Also, there is of course the 66% reduction in crime committed by the addicts themselves.
In short, this project would reduce drug addict crime by 66%, boost the UK economy by a tidy margin, and weaken terrorists/gangs/drug lords. Yay!
But you know, as its government run, it's just gonna go shit wrong somewhere along the line...
Thanks to Mr D and Mr H (you know who you are) for helping me explore the other side of this subject. Cheers.
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