LDS Bandz Web Logging

Drug policies lack creativity

February 27th, 2009

America is a country that takes a hard-line approach to drugs. In many states, drug possession and consumption is a highly illegal activity with police adopting a zero tolerance attitude. But this aggressive approach has rarely proved to be a successful strategy in educating and helping people beat addiction. Both in Britain and America, the government is often incapable of thinking creatively when it comes to drugs. Banning a drug is possibly the first step in a complex riddle but it is not an answer in itself.The ban-it-and-hope-for-the-best policy has recently been adopted in the state of Minnesota in relation to a little-known drug. The drug is a herb is a herb that has been consumed for many centuries in Southern Mexico where it is worshipped for its medicinal and spiritual qualities. It has recently found favour among scientists who believe that one day it could be used to treat schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.Banning the drug will not only hinder research into its medicinal potential but will also elevate it to the cult status reserved for illegal drugs. At present, it is not a popular drug. It is consumed mainly as an entheogen and many of the young people who experiment with it quickly lose interest. The intense, but brief, hallucinogenic effects of the drug are neither euphoric nor calming. In short, it does not appear to hold any of the addictive properties of class A substances such as heroin, or some prescribed drugs such as benzodiazepine. It is hardly likely that a time will ever exist when drug rehab centres are overrun with addicts.Banning the drug is typical of an attitude to drugs that is clueless and devoid of ideas. Government funding should be directed towards helping those suffering from life-threatening heroin or cocaine addictions, rather than wasted on outlawing ancient herbs that have shown promise amongst scientific researchers. As it is, such legislation only encourages young people to try a drug they might otherwise have never even heard of.Although this example comes from America, similar policies often pervade in Britain. They are nothing more than PR stunts for governments that have run out of ideas. Why expand the book of illegal substances to include a substance that is largely unknown and that, ironically, could one day be used as a treatment for drug addiction?

Entry Filed under: Health