Ireland's drug policy is pure hipocracy

For the last couple of years the so called head shops have been supplying Irish people with all sorts of "legal highs". The recession might have hit many businesses but these little nests of controversy kept flourishing. That was until a couple of weeks back when the government panic-banned pretty much all the products they were selling.

I'm not a great supporter of any substance that hasn't gone through a series of clinical trials to determine what exactly it does to people. Some of the legal highs were probably pretty harmless and didn't (for a mentally well-balanced) have any negative effects when used in moderation. Yet I didn't like the fact that you really didn't know what was in all that stuff.

Another legal "high" our society has grown to accept is of course alcohol. There has been numerous studies on short and long-term effects, studies which have seldom come out with anything positive. A mentally and physically healthy adult can "enjoy" the effects of alcohol without it resulting in any serious damage when used in moderation.

Yet we have many people out there who constantly misuse alcohol and who probably shouldn't be touching it at all. Some of these people probably have to take advantage of tax money in treating their addiction but the government won't do anything about the problem of alcohol because a) there would be an uproar if they banned it and b) they get a HUGE amount of tax revenue from alcohol sales.

These head shops were actually making a difference in the Irish drug culture. People who might have given their money to the drug lords instead opted for the legal and safer way. They paid VAT while doing this. Since the ban, there is absolutely zero VAT money coming from the sale of highs and the real drug gangsters must be loving the government.

As I said before, I'm not really on for this synthetic crap that head shops sold. If the government was wise, they would legalise drugs like cannabis and collect a huge amount of tax revenue from all the sales. They would significantly reduce the power of criminals in the drug business and probably attract some much needed tourism. It goes without saying that new government-controlled growing farms would create more jobs and that by growing the stuff themselves, the government could do some proper quality control.

Yes, some people would not be able to control themselves and know their limits but there are all sorts of ways to monitor and hand our "doses" rather than unlimited amounts of drugs. Plus with all that revenue coming in, they can afford to treat these few who couldn't handle it.

An adult who knows their limits and know how much or little (or none at all) drugs they can safely consume should not be penalised because some others might not be capable of the same thing. In these recession times, the government should be taking some calculated risks to lift this country from the mess they created.