My take is legalese all drugs, put dealers out of business, empty jails an save the country a fortune. Its a bit like what they did with alcohol. Who made money out of that when it was illegal, hmmm?
The reason the UK and Ireland are behind civilised nations in regard to drug legalisations is the kickbacks from the illegal trade. Politicians, cops, judges etc are all paid off and there is massive, state-sanctioned, organised crime. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the north of Ireland where loyalist narco-terrorists, the modern equivalent of the loyalist yeomenry, have carte blanche to deal, kill and continue to recruit despite an apparent peace process.
Upon joining the UDA or UVF you have to pay weekly / monthly dues for your license to commit crime. The well-known members of the loyalist 'executives' collect the dues that fund their work-free lives of luxury as long as they kick the necessary percentage up the chain. The percentages go all the way to the top and I'd be very surprised if loyalist narco-terror proceeds didn't constitute a significant portion of the 'undisclosed sum' paid to Andrew Windsor's accuser.
I was recently in the US where I could legally buy 100mg of THC gummies (20 X 5mg pieces) for less than £20. This is a proper product manufactured in accordance with quality control and assurance as opposed to potential poison being peddled to kids over here.
Govts make considerable tax revenue from legalised drugs but it's much tougher to skim audited accounts than to pocket the offshore envelope.
I was 18 the first time I ever even saw hash in 92 or 3 and that was in Dublin. You simply wouldn't have got it in my community up at home and people were shot dead for selling hash as late as the mid 90s. I'll never forget the meagre display of 10 deals (16th / ounce) put on display to justify the murder of a small-time Belfast dealer called Frankie Rice in 1995 or 6.
Intelligence agencies are up to their necks in dealing. MI5 supplied loyalists with ecstasy, originally from South Africa where they also sourced the AKM rifles used to carry out the Orange Terror campaign. This is all documented. Douglas Hurd signed off on the plan to supply the arms. The CIA has been proven to have been involved in cocaine and heroin trafficking for decades and heroin mysteriously appeared on north of Ireland streets for the first time once Britain was in Afghanistan. The KGB pivot to Russian Mafia was a natural and organic progression.
We live in an obscenely-corrupt society where those with the right connections can behave with impunity. Saville in Britain being an obvious example but consider Irish drug baron George 'The Penguin' Mitchell. He escaped to Morocco just before an arrest warrant was served on him and he's reportedly been hours ahead of European authorities investigating cartel activity on several occasions since. It's entirely coincidental and unrelated that his first cousin Gay Mitchell is a former Fine Gael minister of state who was in power when The Penguin fled.
Britain as a nation was institutionally involved in the drug trade during the various Opium Wars where vast profits were made by the crown and it's appointees whilst opium was weaponised to destroy Chinese society. I read somewhere that the Bush family in America made their money during the Opium Wars also but an internet article isn't always the most reliable source.
The people preventing enlightened drug legislation in the UK are the same who would still be oxters deep in the slave trade if they could get away with it and nothing will change for as long as they feel emboldened and unperturbed.
