**TL;DR Criminalising drug does not stop people from using them and puts money into the hands of criminals** The primary legislative piece to prevent the use of drugs in the UK is the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Its aim is to control the use and distribution of these dangerous and harmful drugs, with the aim of preventing drug misuse. [Drug use is currently at an all time high] (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49766047). It is the Class A drugs which can cause the most harm that are being used the most, even by people younger than 18. Current legislation does not work. If drugs were legal then they could be produced and taken in controlled environments reducing the risks associated with taking them. They could also be controlled in a way that alcohol is preventing children from buying and taking them. If the government controlled drugs it could be a source of revenue and a withdrawal of money for organised crime. People who were caught using drugs would also not be treated as a criminal. They could receive specialist help to help them stop using drugs if they so wished.

**TL;DR: Legalizing drugs downplays the seriousness of substance use** As [The Pharmacy Times] (https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/why-not-legalize-all-drugs) states, we are in the midst of one of the most serious drug abuse eras. Whilst drug legislation is evidently not sufficient, with drug use rising each year, I don't think the solution is to legalize all drugs. Whilst some drugs are believed to be less dangerous than others, it only takes one use for people to become addicted to the feeling that it gives them, therefore leading to a more serious, and often fatal, addiction. If we were to legalize all drugs, this means that opioids, benzodiazepines, stimulant drugs and countless other substances would become readily available and accessible to everyone over the age of 18. Having a drug so readily available, able to purchase whenever desired, would have destructive impacts on the population. Legalizing drugs would give them the appearance of being less dangerous - the downsides to drug use would be seen as less severe and therefore increases the chances of abuse and addiction. Our rehabilitation centres would be overrun and would add extra strain to the already exerted NHS system. Whilst I agree that the drug legislation that we have in place is not perfect, and needs to be improved, it is there to protect people from the potentially catastrophic effects of these substances.

**TL;DR - This trivialises the harmful nature of drug use** There are many TV shows that glamorise drug use and the impact of harmful drugs on people and society e.g Breaking Bad and Narcos to name two. The legalisation of more harmful ‘Class B and A’ drugs seems like an awful idea. 1 - Alcohol A lot of arguments point towards how alcohol kills more people than harder drugs. Alcohol for sure has awful side effects when abused. It also linked to about [60] (https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20101101/alcohol-more-harmful-than-crack-or-heroin#1) diseases when consumed regularly. HOWEVER - I don’t subscribe to the idea that just because something that is sometimes bad for society is legal that we should legalise all that could be bad. One wrong doesn’t make a right. Alcohol has bad side effects but it is also a way in which people can relax and socialise, unlike harder drugs. Legalising all drugs would mean that people would not behave in a way they normally would. It would not benefit society nor the people who live in it. 2 - Weed Weed is a controversial subject and as more research is done into the impact of [CBD] (https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/marijuana-legalisation?CMP=ILC-refresh) in medicine and therapies it look as though any stigma is overshadowed by its benefits. However the overdoses or harm done by weed is very minimal in comparison to harder drugs. Legalising Weed is something I can see in our future and is something that can benefit medicine and possibly mental health, unlike other more extreme drugs. 3 - People and Society Finally, I think the big thing is why would we legalise something that can harm and negatively impact people’s lives? It trivialises drugs like they are not harmful when this is not the case!! I totally agree with Lydia’s point that actually, the strain on health/drug rehabilitation services is already high, why would we exacerbate this pressure?

Legalizing all drugs will inevitably lead to more sales, whether or not commercialization is limited. This will increase addiction and drug-related crimes. When drugs are legalized, black markets do not go away. In fact, they thrive just as much or even more than before. This has been clearly observed recently, especially after marijuana has been either legalized or decriminalized in over 30 states. DuPont writes that “The illegal marijuana market thrives in competition with the legal market by offering products at considerably lower prices because it neither complies with regulations on growth and sale nor pays taxes on sales or their profits.” Because black market sales stay the same or even increase, while a whole new legal market is introduced, there is an obvious increase in sales. Whether or not through a legal or black market, an increase in sales will be detrimental to health and addiction rates. As the Recovery Research Institute observes, “... because psychoactive drugs, including marijuana, do cause acute psychological impairments when people use the drug, as well as addiction (about 9% of marijuana users), the increased accessibility, de-stigmatization, and decreased price that comes with legalization, would result in more users and therefore more potential hazards and harms in the population (e.g., drugged driving) as well as addiction cases.” This is quantified by the Institute for Behavior and Health, which observes that “Although overall the national rate of marijuana use for Americans age 12 and older has declined since 1979, a greater segment of marijuana users are heavy users. As shown below, from 1992 to 2014, the number of daily or near-daily marijuana uses increased 772%!” Most importantly, the legalization of these types of drugs will lead to an increase in the production of even more dangerous drugs. DuPont also writes that “Unsurprisingly, much of the illegal marijuana in the states with legalized marijuana is diverted from the local legal marijuana supply. It is troubling that in response to the decline in demand for Mexican marijuana, Mexican cartels are increasing the production of heroin, a more lucrative drug.” Evans ‘19 agrees with this, writing “There is evidence of a persistent black market for marijuana which may increase the presence of Mexican drug cartels that are bringing in other drugs like heroin.” Thus, not only does legalizing drugs increase domestic sales, but it also increases cartel production of even more dangerous drugs. If the United States legalizes all illicit drugs, all of the above will happen but on a much larger scale. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, observes that “The greatest mortality from drugs comes from legal drugs. The moment you make a drug legal, you’re going to increase the number of people who get exposed to it, and therefore you increase the negative consequences from its use. When you legalize, you create an industry whose purpose is to make money selling those drugs.” The only way for the industry to compete with the black market is to have extremely low prices with high-quality drugs. This evidently leads to more people being exposed to the drug and thus more people getting hooked.

TL;DR Agree, but with caveats (and an exception for... marijuana) I only agree to the extent that drug **use** should be decriminalised - taking drugs should not be a criminal offense. Drug addiction (and all other addictions) should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal matter. People should have safe and legal ways to obtain most drugs that can be consumed recreationally with relatively little risk to their health, but this must come with widely available, accessible and accurate information about drugs and their risks. And society should retain the right to consider certain substances too risky/harmful to be legally available. The contraband/trafficking of drugs and aspects of its sale should remain illegal (for example, selling to minors) as is currently the case, even for legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco. I have a special issue with Marijuana. In principle its use should also be decriminalised as well. However, in many Western societies there is a lot of inaccurate information about it, and this is being used in the arguments to decriminalised it and I fear that the immediate effect of decriminalising marijuana would be to vindicate these arguments and promote its (inappropriate) use. Marijuana can be taken recreationally safely, and smoking it does provide relief for some medical conditions. But it is not the universal panacea it is claimed to be. And it can be addictive and otherwise harmful to ones health, particularly if consumed from a young age, consumed regularly or in large quantities. It is probably true that it is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, which are legal. The difference is that the dangers of alcohol and tobacco are widely understood and acknowledged. Not so with marijuana. I would also like marijuana to be decriminalised. I am just not sure whether most Western societies are ready for that yet.