We’re talking hard drugs here. Funny how the pro-legalization campaigners always talk about Amsterdam and never about Platzpitz Park in Zurich.

The cigarette example is entirely valid. Cigarettes are extremely addictive and dangerous. But because they are legal, the market for them is enormous and they are among the biggest killers of adults.

If you want an example of how legality (even if supposedly strictly controlled) can ramp up the market for dangerous and highly addictive drugs, take a look at what is happening with Valium and anti-anxiety pills generally in Malta (and elsewhere).

Malta is thick with Valium addicts, and the sooner some MP asks a question about Valium (and similar) consumption here, so that something can be done about it, the better.

Valium addicts don’t show up on the statistics because the doctors who keep handing out repeat prescriptions can’t deal with the withdrawal process themselves and feel they can’t refer their patients to drug rehab to do it “because that’s for people on illegal drugs”.

I am not interested in having this debate yet again.

The bottom line is that if something is legal, then it is marketed properly. And if it is marketed properly, more people will use it.

More people will use it, too, because legality by its nature makes something legitimate and more easily accessible.

More people smoke cigarettes than would if they were illegal.

1- Making a drug legal doesn’t mean more people will use it. In the long run its usually the opposite which occurs.
2- A good percentage of the population will always make use of some form of “drug”. The increase in cocaine is probably a result of the decrease in heroin use, the increase of blue collar people and the simple fact that cocaine is the drug of the rich and powerful. So even if a small dealer is caught, the larger dealers are in cahoots with the politicans and the police and so the supply does not change that much.
3- Cocaine is seens as the drug for the rich, a party drug, a good buzz, a good rush. the price of cocaine has also gone down in the past decade, as low as 2/3 the price it actually was.
4- In a way its like how people spoke English at one point in malta to look “cooler”. Cocaine is “cool” at the moment. There will be a shift to another drug when they start cracking down on cocaine, if they will…. but youd see a couple of PN/MLP MEP graciously resigning when that happens.

Please let’s not start this hoary old debate again.

All drugs should be available in a controlled environment. That way you remove the criminal aspect of it. It’s easier to control and help out once its not illegal.