THOSE OF US who use recreational drugs may often have to deal with reactionary prejudices and misconceptions about what is termed "drugs". This can be particularly difficult when dealing with parents or relatives who have been convinced by media scare stories about drugs.
Imagine how much worse this would be if one of your parents was actually leading an anti-drugs crusade. Or to take this a stage further, how much worse this could be if your father was a right wing Home Secretary who continually lectured people on the evils of drugs, youth crime and on "bad parenting".
For William Straw, this Christmas and New year must have been an absolute nightmare, being hounded by the media over a minuscule piece of hash (less than 2 grams) in addition to having to cope with having Jack (hang'em and flog 'em) Straw as a father.
One's immediate reaction to all this might be to chill out with a couple of spliffs, but this would be pretty much ruled out for William Straw.
Whilst all the media hysteria over this might be quite amusing for many, it does highlight the bizarre way that drugs are debated, it also throws ridicule on Jack Straw's 'blame the parents' position.
All societies have used some or other form of recreational drugs. Some drugs may be more or less harmful than others. Many drugs can be used in a relatively harmless manner but could also create a physical or psychological dependence if used habitually. But the use of the all-encompassing term "drugs" cannot really encourage an The term "drugs" is used to mean almost exclusively those substances that are banned by the state. By far the most widespread drugs, and the two that cause the most number of deaths are tobacco and alcohol.
Capitalist investment Both the tobacco and alcohol industries are enormous capitalist concerns which bring in vast revenues to the companies and to the government. The legal drug companies and the government have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
The massive increase in the use of such drugs as cannabis and ecstasy over the last decade have already hit the profits of the drinks industry and they must be deeply concerned to stop this trend. With cannabis in particular there has been an enormous growth (excuse the pun) in the home-grown industry. It is now within the reach of many people to grow their own high quality plants at home. This would obviously be of concern to the gov. ernment and of legal drug companiethough many other illegal drugs may be more harmful than cannabis, one of the main dangers arise precisely because of their illegality. Since drugs are produced illegally there can be no quality control. Many chemicals are mixed in to create larger profits for black market companies, and people often themselves harm by taking substances believing it to be something else.
Alternatively drug users become so used to a drug being "cut" that they can overdose on an unusually pure sample.
A big danger with illegal drugs is the lack of accurate information explaining how to use drugs in the safest way. This problem is made much worse since nearly by government campaigns which are based on knowingly spreading misinformation about drugs.
Most people quickly see through the image that as soon as you take "drugs" you will become a mad junkie. It would be nearly impossible for any young person in Britain not to have experienced drugs themselves or to know friends who have used drugs.
Crass propaganda Such experience would convince anyone that the junkie stereotype is at best not entirely true. The crass anti-drug propaganda can only encourage people to ignore any information they receive about the harmful effects of drugs.
The CIA made cult classic film • Reefer Madness was produced over sixty years ago, but no governments have learned from the failings such propaganda, because they have no interest in learning.
The left as a whole has been rather confused on the issue of recreational drugs ranging from complete libertarian positions to the puritan view that drugs are "a diversion from the class struggle".
The state has often used drugs to pacify the population and disorganise resistance, such as the CIA's involvement in introducing crack and cocaine to US ghettos or the import of cheap alcohol into the townHome grown high: a cannabis crop is more fun than a cabbage patch ships of apartheid South Africa.
At certain points of heightened struggle socialists might argue for a ban on drug use of within the movement.
But at the moment we should argue for accurate information on the dangers and benefits of any particular drug to be widely available, for education programmes to deal with specific problems of drug dependency, and for strict quality control of • all arugs This could only be achieved through the decriminalisation of all drugs which in turn would mean a fight with the tobacco and alcohol companies.