Want To Curb Alcohol Use & Save Money? Open Cannabis Coffee Shops
A lot of Government rhetoric has been flying around recently about
how to scale back Britain’s binge drinking. It would be naive to think
this is because politicians care about our wellbeing; (is it even the
Government’s job to care?) The main proposals are as always to increase
alcohol taxation and therefore prices. This implies it’s really about
pulling in more revenue to help with the national debt problem.
In March David Cameron stated [1]: “We’re
consulting on the actual price, but if it is 40p [minimum price per
unit] that could mean 50,000 fewer crimes each year and 900 fewer
alcohol related deaths per year by the end of the decade.”
Other than Government keeping their nose out of our business there
may be another answer. Former drugs advisory committee chief David Nutt
suggested to the Commons home affairs committee today, that permitting
Amsterdam style “coffee shops” that allow the consumption of
cannabis, could reduce alcohol consumption by as much as 25% and
therefore saving the kind of money the Government want.
Due to its illegality smokers tend to fall in to the weekend binge
drinking culture, when many would likely prefer social gatherings based
around smoking pot.
“A regulated market for illicit drugs would be the best way and
we could reduce alcohol consumption by as much as 25% if we had the
Dutch model of cannabis cafes,” claimed Nutt.
He also suggested that police would probably prefer to deal with laid
back stoned citizens (if they had to at all) rather than those under
the influence of alcohol. He previously argued in the Lancet that
drinking alcohol is linked to domestic violence, child abuse and road
traffic accidents. Anybody who’s spent a cursory amount of time in the
weekend clubbing scene will be well aware of the vomit covered violence
and danger caused by alcohol. Statistically speaking alcohol is also a
massive killer due to its negative health effects, while cannabis
doesn’t even register on national death rankings. Professor John
Beddington, the Government’s chief scientist agrees with Nutt that
alcohol is more dangerous than pot, saying the evidence to support the
claim was “absolutely clear cut” [2]. Cannabis simply doesn’t cause death.
According to Nutt the cost of targeting cannabis use, mainly
possession, is only £500m a year, while it costs taxpayers £6bn a year
for policing the use of alcohol, mainly dealing with people who are
drunk and disorderly. If Britain’s 3 million cannabis smokers were given
a social environment to pursue their past-time, it could significantly
dent the weekend party ritual, and claw some of that £6bn back.
Nutt also reiterated his famous example of illogical drug policy to MPs, stating “Horse-riding
is considerably more dangerous than taking ecstasy….It is a popular
activity, dangerous but addictive. I am told that many riders find it
difficult to give up.” A similar statement partly lead to his
dismissal as the Government’s drug adviser. He backed up this claim
saying costs to the NHS from injured riders who had fallen from their
horses were not being acknowledged. Riders who lose control of their
horses on the roads are the cause of “more than 100 serious accidents every year”.
As noted by the Guardian:
Nutt was using the example to illustrate his argument that the
classification of different illegal drugs was often completely unrelated
to the relative harm that their use caused society. He said politics
rather than science had dominated drug policy in Britain over the 40
years since the Misuse of Drugs Act was passed in 1971. Only one drug –
cannabis – had ever been downgraded and that was quickly reversed
against the advice of the ACMD.
Nutt said the decision by the home secretary to classify magic
mushrooms as a class A drug alongside heroin and crack cocaine was “the
final nail in the rationality of the 1971 Drugs Act”.
Nutt Was Sacked By Then-Home Secretary Alan Johnson In 2009 For His Views On Cannabis.