User blog:VonGlusenburg/Highly liberalized drug war in UK

Basically this timeline is to help me illustrate a point for one of my university classes, it’s about if the war on drugs was to end. Thus I understand this could be either an alternative history or an alternative future depending on the P.O.D. But since I can account for other technological and social changes, it is better as an alternative history for me to do as I have greater control over the control variables of this experiment. This timeline is based mainly in the UK but the effects would be felt globally.

Basically it involves New Labour’s drug policy being much more radical and liberal. Drug legalization happens basically thanks to a more liberal-drug policy in New Labour following their 1997 campaign win. However I am struggling to decide how it would be best done.

My current plan is based on a plan of “recreational prescription” drugs as many legal drugs are used/abused for recreational purposes (examples include Lil Wayne and Michael Jackson). It is based on the increasing normalization of recreational drug use, largely linked to cultural acceptability stemming from areas including (but not limited to) the western nightclub scene, university lifestyle and music. They have all normalized illegal drug use in some way, examples include the “Madchester club scene”, university/college stoners and the musical themes of many musicians including Dr Dre, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Aerosmith and basically every musician who has ever sang about their rock & roll lifestyle, gangster routes or going on tour.

Demand is there for these drugs and other substances; they fund organised criminal activity and can destroy people’s lives by unnecessarily turning people into criminals. New Labour leads people to accept that the free market wants drugs like cannabis for recreational purposes. Drug abuse already costs the UK government and NHS millions (if not billions) every year as it fights an unwinnable battle against people supplying the free market with what it wants. It is decided that if the UK government ever wants to really win the war on drugs, then it must take away the profit from the suppliers. This is done to stop organised crime being funded which would hinder a lot of criminal activity. Recreational users who use illicit drugs would be decriminalized so that their lives aren’t ruined by near-harmless drug use. The decriminalization campaign is supported by many celebrities, politicians and other successful people admitting their drug use, and how the impact of having a criminal record for using drugs would have stopped their careers.

The solution is to have the NHS supply drugs to the market as a “recreational prescription.” These recreational prescriptions are to be sold at market price, rather than normal medical prescription price (around £8). Plus high taxes are placed on the items to keep almost all of the profit in the government’s hands.

People would visit a GP or a specialist recreational drug seller who would assess a person’s well-being as they used the drug. This was to prevent possible misuse by making sure the substance wasn’t being abused heavily by users. This usage monitoring spawned from current GP practice of making sure that a prescription medicine is working well for a patient and that a patient isn’t being harmed by the treatment. If the person is acting negatively to the drug then the supplying GP would cut their supply, help the person control their usage and send them into rehab if the GP is unable to stop them hurting themselves. This would be an expansion of current NHS drug support services and give the NHS checks from the start of the patient using the substance, so that the NHS can support them to make sure they are using it responsibly and not becoming a wreck drug-addict. This was seen as a welcome change from the current system of criminalizing the user, making them go cold turkey and picking up the pieces after their train-wreck of heavy drug abuse. This was to protect vulnerable people while still allowing responsible users to use drugs. Arguments for this system point to the failure of alcohol prohibition in the past and similar systems of support already existing for alcohol and tobacco usage (and to a lesser extent illegal drug use). This support system is then extended on the advice of health officials to include alcohol and tobacco into the system to better regulate these two huge legal drugs and their usage. This is to stop the established alcohol and tobacco lobbyists from protesting against further regulation and to keep sale of these items firmly within the private sector on very open public markets (yay supermarkets!).

Further additions are made to the system to include a recommended diet plan from the NHS. Thus a nationalized system of drug pushing doctor nutritionists who keep track of people’s individual health via regular check-ups supplemented with medical advice on lifestyle choices, responsible use and to try preventing more serious medical problems. This larger system of GPs and specialist recreational drug sellers would be financed via the profits and taxes on drug sales, money saved from not fighting a market demand and a more healthy, responsible & free society. Opposition to the NHS keeping such a watchful eye on patient’s lifestyles is made, with calls for a system identical to how alcohol and tobacco are sold and regulated to be implemented instead. Larger opposition is centred on old drug policy of non-tolerance and criminalization. Other arguments are made on negative health effects and that the government is knowingly making people ill. However this is rebuttled with being better for users than drug-lords, criminal gangs, profit-driven suppliers, private sector sellers not being responsible towards consumers, big government being a nanny state over people’s freedom of consumption, social exclusion of drug users, social norm, market demand, unnecessary criminalization and money saved & gained from fighting crime as a business competitor rather than a police/military operation.