Legal High’s Face The Chop

First we had BZP and now we have legal high’s which for those not in the loop, are a synthetic cannabis type substance that people roll up to smoke.  BZP based party pills were banned several years back and the government announced this week that they wanted to put limitations on legal high products.  We all know this is the first step to them banning the product all together.  These days I don't really drink all that much, nor do I use drugs,  not because I can’t, but because I choose not to; so my opinion on this matter is in no way biased.  However, I do believe that the government is wasting time and energy focusing on a product that is the least of our worries in the society we live in. 

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne is the main catalyst in this movement stating that “changes will be covered when amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act are passed in the next few weeks. The law change will make Kronic a restricted substance, putting in place rules on where it can be sold, the way it's advertised, and who it can be sold to.”  Auckland Hospital has also spoken out against the legal high’s saying they deal with at least two cases a day that are related to the product, although they have not put any concrete evidence forward of this fact.  Our government seems to be following in the footsteps of Western Australia who already passed a law banning the sale of it on the 17th of last month.

It is all well and good that the government are putting our best interests at heart, or so it would seem.  However, I find it ironic and a double standard that they are focusing so much time and energy on this when there is another drug that rates higher than all the rest in the world.  This drug in question is consumed in large quantities on a daily basis the world round, and yet it is allowed to continue to ruin the lives of many without any real concern from any governments world wide.  What is this drug that they constantly turn a blind eye to?  Alcohol.

Last year Professor David Nutt, head of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs published his findings regarding the seriousness of alcohol and where it rated in the list of drugs that are regularly abused.  The study weighed the danger of a drug based on a 16-point checklist.  The checklist produced scores out of a total of 100, obviously the higher the score, the greater the danger posed by the particular drug.  Interestingly drugs that we believe to be some of the worst scored in the middle of the overall list, with heroin at 55 and crack at 54.  Shockingly based on the scoring system, alcohol rated at an alarming 72.  In accordance with Professor Nuts other role as Chair of the government’s Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs he was obliged to pass on his findings to the government, who promptly fired him despite his expertise as a neuropyschopharmacologist and expert in drugs and alcohol.  Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs who was also a co author on the study has called for a “redistribution of resources away from illegal drugs to fight the problem of alcoholism,” a suggestion that was promptly ignored by government officials.

If we take a look at our own statistics regarding alcohol in this country, courtesy of ALAC (the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand), we see the following:

• One in six (17.7%) adults (aged 15+) have a potentially hazardous drinking pattern
• In New Zealand, estimates indicate between 600 and 1,000 people die each year from alcohol-related causes
• Between 18 and 35 per cent of injury-based emergency department presentations are estimated to be alcohol-related, rising to between 60 and 70 per cent during the weekend
• At least 33 per cent of all police-recorded offences in 2008/09 were committed where the offender had consumed alcohol prior to committing the offence
• On an average day 52 individuals or groups of people are either driven home or detained in Police custody due to their state of intoxication
• In 2008, driver alcohol was a contributing factor in 103 fatal crashes, 441 serious injury crashes and 1156 minor crashes
• Worldwide, alcohol is responsible for approximately 20 per cent of deaths due to motor vehicle accidents; 30 per cent of deaths due to oesophageal cancer, liver cancer, epilepsy and homicide; and 50 per cent of deaths due to liver cirrhosis

Its time that governments start sitting up and paying attention to the real problem in our society, the drug that far out weighs any other in the destruction stakes.  If I had my way I would legalise cannabis and ban alcohol.  A controversial opinion I am well aware of and will probably shock some.  But I have had dealings with both cannabis and alcohol in the past through friends and family, I have never seen anyone commit a violent act while smoking marijuana, injure themselves or others; however, I have seen the destruction and pain that alcohol causes time and time again.  When will the government get their priorities straight and make decisions based on the scientific facts, rather than biased opinion due to their own selfish desires, or their fear of angering the alcohol manufacturers.  We can no longer have these double standards, the government either want to look out for their constituents or they don't.  We can no longer have one rule for one thing and not for the other.  Its time for change, with more time and effort being given towards combating and managing the problems presented by our greatest drug, alcohol.