If the government were to reclassify drugs ....

[Randi]

... should alcohol and tobacco be included?

Here are a few opinions on the subject:

Home Office advisers have warned that the current drug classifications bear little relationship to their health risks

Sunday August 6, 2006
The Observer

Karol Sikora
Society makes strange rules. Its inconsistencies occur when these rules are introduced over wide time scales. The logic would classify tobacco and alcohol in the same bracket as cannabis and some other recreational drugs but, realistically, it would be impossible to change things now. Imagine going to the doctor to get a prescription for a glass of wine. Instead, the current policy of education, restriction of availability and punitive taxation seems the best way forward. And maybe we should reconsider a more liberal attitude towards some recreational drugs.

· Karol Sikora is a cancer specialist

Noreena Hertz

Tobacco is more addictive than heroin. More people die from alcohol and tobacco-related causes than die from 'illegal' drug use. Yet a cocaine dealer can be prosecuted for causing a client's death, while tobacco and alcohol company directors cannot. Incorporating tobacco and alcohol in the drug classification scheme would help address such inconsistency. Drug classifications shouldn't just be about helping the consumer identify the dangers associated with whatever they take. They should also be about determining what kind of punishment those who peddle drugs should face.

· Noreena Hertz is an academic

Sarfaraz Manzoor

To reclassify alcohol and tobacco would be pointless. It is obvious that drinks and cigarettes kill far more people than cocaine and cannabis, but I do not believe that reclassification would prevent people from smoking and drinking. If we want to reduce the deaths from smoking, we need to focus more on ensuring children do not start smoking. Similarly, with drinking, we have a culture where drinking is considered social and binge drinking has become commonplace. What is required is for this culture to be challenged. We need to reclassify what is seen as normal.

· Sarfraz Manzoor is a writer and broadcaster

Sunder Katwala

The current system is illogical, but a debate is difficult when shifting cannabis's grade generates a hysterical reaction. Governments should have two ambitions - to minimise the social harms which arise from addictive drugs and to warn individuals about harming their health. As MP John Mann has suggested, these criteria should be at the heart of classification. Health campaigns, warnings and restrictions do and should apply to tobacco and alcohol too - and have done much to reduce the social acceptability of tobacco.

· Sunder Katwala is general secretary of the Fabian Society

[lizbud]

While I agree with the different observations mentioned, This would never
happen in the USA.Tobacco & alcohol producers are big businesses.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

In the US they would need to include foods or certain kinds.
Eating too much of the wrong foods probably kills more people than alchohol and tobacco combined.

[RICHARD]

There is an old saying that says,
There is a place for everything and everything in it's place.

Too many people are trying to put things in a nice little box and separate them from the world.

No one forces anyone to light up, ingest, drink or inhale anything.

Legal or illegal.

make people responsible for their actions and the battle is halfway won.

[Edwina's Secretary]

This thread has really made me think. What is the government's purpose in classifying drugs? Protect or punish? Or something else.....

interesting thought....

[beeniesmom]

There is an old saying that says,
There is a place for everything and everything in it's place.

Too many people are trying to put things in a nice little box and separate them from the world.

No one forces anyone to light up, ingest, drink or inhale anything.

Legal or illegal.

make people responsible for their actions and the battle is halfway won.

I couldn't have put it better myself.

[lbaker]

Ya'll are "jest" waiting for me to get into this aren't you. NOPE. I'm in too much trouble as it is