Maybe the optimum solution is to ban nothing but to have new regulations regarding age, licensing, distribution channels, etc, by making a new licence available to citizens who wish to “turn on, tune in and drop out”.
This “Junkie’s Licence” would be issued to people who attend training and education courses aimed at informing them of the effects and possible consequences of using a particular substance or group of substances.
The citizen, having attended the training and education has a decision to make, either to:
- Stop using the substance(s)
- Sign an application for the free “Junkie’s Licence” in order to continue using
- Source their junk in an unregulated market-place
The consequences of being found in possession or under the influence of a controlled substance without an appropriate licence is summary execution by the new Substance Training, Licencing, Supervision and Enforcement Quango [note to Biffo : that’s probably four quangos, each with its own expensive PS CEO, management team, unique leased premises, IT and other infrastructure requirements, board of directors and maybe even its own new junior minister].
The application form for a “Junkie’s Licence” could be worded as follows :
“I, the under-signed, hereby acknowledge that I have attended the training and education courses in relation to the the health, legal and other effects and consequences of using (please delete as apropriate) [alcohol, tobacco, spamspamspam, tranquilisers, slimming tablets, opiates, cocaine, volatile inhalants, etc. Etc.]
I acknowledge that I fully understand the above course and its content and am now in a position to make a fully informed decision to continue using the above named substance(s) and I hereby apply for my official user’s licence.
I understand this licence allows me to purchase these substances for personal use from duly authorised retailers and to have them in my possession. I understand that the licence also allows me to be under the influence of these substances, but not in a public place and that my behaviour while under the influence of the substance(s) must never impact on other citizens.
Upon the grant of my licence, I absolve the State and my health insurer from any responsibility to treat me or intervene on my behalf for any conditions, either psychological, physiological or legal, that may arise consequential to my use of the substances(s).
Signed ………………………”
Mammy and Daddy can apply for Tommy and Suzy’s licence if Tommy and Suzy are under 18.
The Duly Authorised Retailers could be the current legal drug-dealing outlets (bars, supermarkets, corner shops, filling stations, chemists, hardware and DIY shops, etc.) who can only sell to people producing a valid “Junkie’s Licence”. Outlets licenced for “on-site consumption” can only release clients if they are no longer intoxicated (objectively tested by breath / blood / urine sample); thus they must provide in-house medical and other emergency services from their own resources, with these costs recoverable either directly from their clientele or through product pricing.
At a stroke the “War on Drugs” ends, everything is available through a simple licencing process, the sellers have to deal with the consequences of their sales directly, the general public has protection from drunks and other junkies, the licence-holders are free to legally kill themselves, each other or the product vendors and are never allowed out "high" in public on pain of death.
The savings for the Health Service and the State generally are potentially huge.