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    Green leader Zack Polanski backs legalisation of all drugs
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    Green leader Zack Polanski backs legalisation of all drugs

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    1. F0urLeafCl0ver on

      The leader of the Green Party says he wants to legalise all drugs, calling for an approach “led by public health experts, not politicians”.

      Speaking to BBC South East ahead of his party conference, Zack Polanski said he agreed with a Kent Green councillor, who earlier this year called for the legalisation of all drugs, including class A drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.

      Polanski said “the war on drugs has absolutely failed, and ultimately we need to be having a public health approach”.

    2. corbynista2029 on

      Legalise them, then tax them. Will go some way at filling the fiscal black hole Reeves keeps talking about.

    4. curedheronthesabbath on

      Drug prohibition is clearly failing and addiction should definitely be treated as a public health, rather than criminal issue.

      People are going to pretend that he’s advocating heroin use, but the aim should be to reduce the damage that drugs are able to do to society with things like rehabilitation and safe injection sites rather than just throwing people in prison where addictions can fester.

    7. Gardener5050 on

      Pointless discussion when you’ll get nowhere near power. I’m starting my own political party and we plan to give everybody 10 million quid so who cares about this

    8. DDTTIDF on

      hard to think of a single negative with that.

      taxation, check.

      awareness, check.

      quality, check.

      decimation of criminal funds. big check.

      would global criminal enterprises like the cartel even exist if they lost drug income?

    9. Collusus1945 on

      Would this include reversing the Labour phased criminalisation of tobacco?

      Edit: I don’t know why I’m getting down voted. Banning tobacco getting sold to progressively more and more people will push them onto the black market,(people under 18 smoke now, these people will never be able to legally buy tobacco) which public health types think is bad for all drugs except seemingly tobacco 

    10. TheZoltan on

      As a Brit in Canada I’m 100% on board with legalized and taxed cannabis and very open to the idea of legalizing/decriminalizing other drugs in future. It does seem like a terrible politics to even say the words “all drugs” out loud though.

    11. RecentTwo544 on

      *Legalise* or *decriminalise for possession* – that’s a VERY key difference.

      Many European countries he and indeed other people are citing, have done the latter.

      Total legalisation means you could set up shop selling heroin or crack, which I’m sure most people would think is a step too far.

      I’m sure that’s not what he’s suggesting, but it’s important to choose your wording carefully on such massive policy changes.

      Personally I’m all for it, but I think the far far more worrying thing is his ambition to remove the UK from NATO. Even Corbyn’s manifestos, contrary to popular belief, didn’t include that, and again despite popular belief they did include the renewal of Trident.

      Given his reasoning for wanting to leave is he doesn’t want the UK to be “hock to Donald Trump” this is doubly stupid because a) that’s not what NATO is, at all, and b) Trump will be gone before the next GE anyway.

    12. JewelerPowerful2993 on

      This might work in places like Portugal. But British do things to excess. Look at booze. So much harm related to it.

      Cannabis is a good argument for legalisation or something similar.

      Heroin, Coke, Crack, Spice etc though….they steal the soul of its users. Go to ANY prison and you’ll see what people are willing to do for their next hit. Trading food away, clothes and their own bodies. They should never be legalised here.

    13. Rimbo90 on

      I see the enlightened centrists of Reddit, who are disappointed in their man Keir, are wanting the Greens to be … More centrist?

      Wonderful.

    14. DaVirus on

      Fuck me. The greens really want to play in the major League this time around. Great, more actually viable voices is good.

    15. tommyredbeard on

      Good.

      Legalise all drugs, ban all religion. Let’s take a science based progressive approach and try to be a better society.

    17. New-Doctor9300 on

      Objectively this is the best option. It will be impossible to get rid of all drug trade so you might as well make it legal and subject to legislation and trading laws. As long as money is also being put into creating safe areas for drug use too.

    18. Codzy on

      The article is terrible and doesn’t actually quote him. Does he want to legalise or decriminalise, very different approaches. Decriminalisation is incredibly important, legalisation probably needs targeting.

      It’s a sensible policy, which means it’ll never happen in the UK

    19. bacon_cake on

      Well looks like the Greens will be reddit’s go-to for the next 4 years then.

      “Yah I’m fiscally conservative but socially liberal yah” normally just means “Keep taxes low but legalise drugs and also don’t be racist.”

      Sounds good to me.

    20. Cheap-Rate-8996 on

      He really should clarify what he means here. Legalise cannabis and allow a retail market for adults, sure. Maybe we could do the same for psychedelics and MDMA. But surely doing this for *all* drugs is going to cause issues?

      In the US, certain drugs (like Kratom and Tianeptine) aren’t regulated as drugs, but as “herbal supplements” due to a legal loophole. This means they can legally be sold by anyone, to anyone. They’re also opioids. They’re literally nicknamed “Gas station heroin” and that’s barely an exaggeration.

      The result is [products like “Feel Free”](https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/article/2024/aug/30/feel-free-sober-drinking-dependency-kratom) are allowed to be sold and marketed as “herbal tonics”, promoted on social media, and without disclosing the product’s addictive nature and side effects. Tianeptine product “Neptune’s Fix” is clearly marketing towards kids and teens and allowed to make spurious claims about its health benefits. Another Tianeptine product, “Za Za”, is piggybacking off an American nickname for cannabis, the strategy there is obvious – someone (likely on the younger side) hears their friends talk about Za Za, doesn’t know what they’re talking about, sees this product thinking it’s what their friend was referring to, and buys it on that basis.

      Does this not strike anyone else as… unethical? A bit scummy? The exact same thing we hate the tobacco industry for doing? This is the kind of thing you would expect hyper-libertarians to support, not an ostensibly progressive party. I mean, the company that sells that Feel Free product I mentioned is literally a former oil baron.

    21. CountyJazzlike3628 on

      So most on here seem to think Govt will get tax revenue from this. If you decriminalise it, consider cocaine will be available at what price? The Govt will have to set it at a price which drives the illegal product out of the market. That surely implies it should undercut the criminal supply which implies that tax revenues will be lower.
      From whom does the Govt buy the cocaine? The producers in South America? So how does that put them out of business?
      Or will people buy from the Govt shop because its higher quality? Higher quality means greater chance of overdose?
      If you limit a person to a certain quantity what will stop them ‘topping up’ in black (ie illegal) market?
      Lastly dont many people

    22. Tasty_Importance_216 on

      This is crazy as an ex-police officer is crazy. People think about this in one way like legalising drugs will stop the drug trafficking. I’m sure drug dealers will find a new drug anyway. Also drugs has an impact on human behaviour which in return drives crime. Take Alcohol for example the amount of times we had to deal with drunkards who committed serious crimes like GBH or Sexual Crimes was insane. On top of that you have to account the impact on the NHS. I used to be for legalising drugs but when you work in frontline you realised introducing vices in society is not a great idea.

    23. frankiewalsh44 on

      Nice to see a left wing party. Because the choice between two to right wing parties and a far right party was grim.

    24. M1llion24 on

      Non news. Won’t ever happen. Constantly gets thrown around. Lib dems this, green leader that. Been saying the same for the past 15 years and we’re all still waiting

    25. Strike_Fancy on

      I’ve done my fair share of drugs in my time 😂

      I used to think yeah legalise them all and tax them all.

      Now I’m less of that view point. Maybe legalise weed.

      Maaaybe ecstasy too but still unsure.

      I defo think most should be decriminalised based on possession amounts etc.

      I’m just often conflicted as we have a national health service but we can buy so many things that destroy our health through free market capitalism. I know we think unhealthy products are taxed but I think they should be taxed much higher. I mean across the board, from sugar, processed foods, sun beds as well as alcohol and drugs. We also have very low taxation relative to our European counterparts.

      I dunno I’m not great at getting things into words

    26. jvlomax on

      I’m not sure on legalizing **all** drugs.

      I’d day legalize some, decriminalize for personal consumption the rest. 

    27. OliLombi on

      Legalise them, tax them, use the tax money to fund actual treatment for people with addiction issues.

    28. JayR_97 on

      The war on drugs has been an abject failure. Better to just legalise and regulate them if people are just going to use them anyway

    29. BoneThroner on

      There really isn’t a problem that this guy doesn’t have a one line reddit pleasing answer for.

      I dont know why all these other nerds keep saying stuff like “trade-offs” and “moral hazard”.

    30. Puzzleheaded-Car3562 on

      Bloody ridiculous. Let’s allow the sale of, say, fentanyl, to young kids. Legalize heroin for 13 year olds. Let’s sell cocaine to pensioners, get all the opioids on the supermarket shelves, two for the price of one, special offer! What’s Zack on ?

    31. Human-Egg2793 on

      We shouldn’t be penalising people for using.

      But buying, selling, manufacturing should be treated as seriously as murder.

    32. Underscore_Blues on

      Yeah cause coke heads at football matches are a barrel of fun. Imagine sitting down at a steakhouse for your kids 16th birthday and seeing 12 lads snorting coke at the next table lmfao

    33. ash_ninetyone on

      I’m in favour of decriminalisation in favour of treatment and rehab. Treating addicts less as criminals and more as a health issue (though a minority I think have said prison has meant rock bottom and been that catalyst to get people to help, it doesn’t help others). But people getting clean needs them to accept it’s a problem, take steps to get help and want to get clean. It also sometimes needs a change of environment and getting rid of toxic people from their lives.

      I’m a bit more apprehensive about legalisation. I’m in favour of legalising weed, shrooms and acid (typically they have a lower harm and lower addiction factor than other drugs), I’m not sure about harder things like coke, crack, heroin, ecstasy or fentanyl. They have a much much more harmful and addictive nature to them. They can destroy a person. But then so can alcohol and that is harder for a person to get off and is legal too.

      But then I guess that is also not entirely different than other addictive vices (like gambling).

    34. dizzguzztn on

      Wholeheartedly agree. Prohibition has never worked on anything. It just pushes revenue underground and enriches criminals. Just wish this view was held by someone with power rather than the leader of the Greens who can basically say whatever he wants because he’ll be in a position to have to implement anything unfortunately

    35. Ok_Ant7752 on

      I dunno how this would work, but if you could pop in a shop and legally get good quality, good price cocaine; I wouldn’t have made it out my 20’s. Also, as an ex weed smoker of 10 years, I think the narrative about weed being a slam dunk to legalise is very questionable.

    37. nacnud_uk on

      Gets my vote. But please, if you want to smoke it, keep your fucking house windows closed, no one that doesn’t share your hobby wants to smell that crap.

    38. Several_Show937 on

      Legalisation, regulation. Take away the hidden dangers of “homemade” drugs, take the money out of criminal hands, and allow the adults to make their own decisions.

    39. ingenuous64 on

      Ah Greens, just as they look promising they say something stupid. Sure let’s import Crystal meth while we’re at it.

    40. TheDanjinSpear on

      Certain drugs. Yes. All drugs no. Look at the fucking state of American cities where they decriminalised drugs. It’s fucking mental.