Alcohol as bad as illegal drugs

At an international gathering to shore up New Zealand's drug classification laws some jokers decided to throw a monkey-wrench into the debate: What about re-classifying tobacco and alcohol as scheduled drugs?

"In this research we found that alcohol...that's ethanol has around about the same dangerousness to public health as fantasy," says Dr Doug Sellman, a drugs researcher.
The forum says its irrational for the government to toughen up drug laws without considering New Zealand's biggest killers, which are cigarettes and liquor.
"If someone was to invent alcohol today and we didn't have it, we would be very concerned about its dangers and would probably classify it as a class B drug," says Professor David Nutt, an international drug expert.
Ex heroin junkie and now head of the Drugs Foundation says the booze peddlers have big bucks and power.

You mean to say that if the cocaine and pot lobbies were as chummy with the politicos as the big-booze lobby we'd start seeing some more lax drug regulations around here? Or am I missing the point?

» more at: tvnz.co.nz

Posted By jamesk at 2008-02-25 11:56:40 permalink | comments

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Phil E. Drifter. : 2008-03-07 21:42:35

1. because the Federal government created a new market for itself by outlawing them, and 2. they were racist. Check out these links: tinyurl.com/4mjrk and tinyurl.com/1mn . This board is claiming i'm a spammer and wont let me post, so i'm removing the http:// part, please add it to the beginning of both those above links.

Dannel. : 2008-03-05 17:04:16

You are not missing the point, drugs (at least in the United States) are illegal to give the high-end drug companies the edge, keep bureaucratic agencies in power, and give politicians something to scare the masses with. If we were to criminalize drugs on their health properties alcohol and tobacco would certainly be illegal. But no drugs should be illegal thats what prohibition of Alcohol showed us.
Alcohol and tobacco are giant corporations and have the lobbyists to maintain their power. If cannabis wasn't made illegal in the 30's it would be just as popular and socially acceptable (if not more so) than alcohol or tobacco.

konrad. : 2008-02-29 13:13:34

I'm form Colombia, the most infamous country for dope traffic. There's easy to find any drug in the street with low prices. The people in colombia is very hard-mindend and rigth-winged to the drug's theme, but this is a ver, VERY drunk country. The majority of people drinks a lot of alcohol, and become very violent from that, but if someone see you smoking some pot, YOU are the criminal and the drug-addict.
Is quite ironic.

jamesk : 2008-02-25 21:36:10

Oops, a quick google says its GHB, but I've also heard fentanyl referred to as fantasy.

omgoleus : 2008-02-25 16:47:30

That is exactly what I was wondering. How come these other countries always have these weird drugs we've never heard of in the US??

DadeMurphy. : 2008-02-25 15:49:01

What the $h17 is "fantasy"?

Jimmy Joe Johannassen. : 2008-02-25 13:39:23

You are indeed missing the point. The cocaine cartels are very chummy with politicos. The CIA anyway. The government's always been the biggest drug dealers in all of history.

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Alcohol as bad as illegal drugs

Posted By jamesk at 2008-02-25 11:56:40 permalink | comments

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