19/04/2024
A story now of relevance to the gay and bi men's chemsex scene, in which private parties cater for men taking drugs to enhance sexual experience. An article in the left wing weekly newspaper Socialist Worker slams the government's policies on drugs. It says "Manufactured in laboratories and relatively cheap to make, synthetic opioids can range from ten to many hundred times more potent than morphine.... Anyone now caught in illegal possession of 15 drugs listed could face up to seven years in jail. The opioid crisis began in the 1990s with the US’s failed healthcare system. Drug firms incentivised doctors to hand out opioids to anyone suffering physical pain and health insurance firms backed them because pills were cheaper than physiotherapy.... the Joe Biden administration has effectively revived the failed Republican strategy of a “War on Drugs”. This targets the Mexico-based gangs that both produce and distribute synthetic opioids, while at the same time criminalising those that use them. The result? A wave of addiction has turned into an inferno of death, disease and personal destruction. The state has used all its agencies to try to cut off the supply of drugs and stop people from using them. But it has failed. .... Drug usage must be dealt with as health issue rather than a criminal one which requires much greater funding for initiatives to address addiction problems. Portugal decriminalised personal drug possession in 2001. Since then drug-related deaths in the state have remained below the European average. Also the proportion of prisoners sentenced for drugs has fallen from 40 to 15 percent. Mexico, Germany and Italy decriminalised drug possession too. Drug policy is laced through with myths and bigotry. Alcohol, which harms many people’s health, fills aisles at every supermarket. We want an end to the stigma that the law attaches to people dependent on drugs because only then can there be effective treatment. "
https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/tory-addiction-to-outlawing-drugs-won...
