Idea for CSR: legalise it

There's an untapped taxable industry: drugs. Lots of people do illegal
drugs. Many will turn to illegal drugs over the next decade because
people will want to escape the misery the poverty of the next few years
will bring.

In the sense of challenge to opportunity I think there's a lot of drug
dealers who would be rubbing their hands in glee if they knew anything
about how people have historically dealt with their pain. Especially as
alcohol prices go up.

Legalisation reduces harm. This is the fundamental reason about
everything else and it's only the immoral that continue to keep drugs
illegal. Now there's a taxation argument as well. The country needs
money. There's also less for the police to do. They can get on with
important things or large parts fo the police force cut be cut too.

The harm reduction argument is based on quality and purity of product
which comes through a legalised system. If alcohol was illegal people
would brew it themselves and many more would die or be blind through
methanol poisoning. REgulated suppliers can provide information, for
example don't take strong hallucinogens near a cliff or in a tall
building. Don't drink gallons of water when taking Ecstacy, just enough
to make sure you don't dehydrate. This sort of information would have
saved many lives already but the immoral facists continue to keep the
drugs industry illegal based on their idea of a moral judgement and
irrespective of any evidece. Anyone who speaks on the evidence is fired
(Prof David Nutt is a perfect example).

Cocaine is more expensive than gold and people snort it up their nose.
Imagine how many people could be fed from the tax revenue from the legal
sale of this drug. Taxation pays for a regulatory system, it pays for
the healthcare, mental healthcare and rehabilitation services.

Legalisation takes a lot of money out the criminal world. It is the only
way to win the war on drugs. People want drugs. It's as simple as that.
People will want to escape their reality more and more as the poverty
increases. Per pound drugs are much more effective than the legal option
of alcohol. Big Society includes drug users. Many politicians will have
used drugs at some point in tbeir lives.

This isn't a great soltuion but it's an engineer's one: a poor solution
that just meets the need. But it's a time when poor solutions seem to be
in fashion. The CSR cuts will kill more people than drugs ever have.