Banning

A really good column by Nick Smith in The Independent Financial Review yesterday.Not online but here is the beginning:

The first instinct of any decent government should be to legalise, liberalise and, where necessary, regulate.

Conversely, the universal characteristic of a lousy government is its tendency to ban things.

On that score, the present lot is a lousy government.

Absolutely – bans should be very much a last resort.

He then looks at the party pill ban:

The same cannot be said for the party pill ban, which will increase public demand for amphetamine and its more dangerous refined product, P.

People love intoxicants; always have, always will. The history of cannabis and psilocybin goes back at least 3000 years – testimony to humanity’s abiding desire to alter its consciousness. Don’t mistake this column as advocacy for drug use; these substances are dangerous if misused, particularly in comparison to party pills.

The relatively safe party pill industry serviced a huge market, and not just the dance scene, as evidenced by the drug’s ubiquitous presence on the shelves of corner dairies and booze shops. That demand will now be met, make no mistake, by the black market. Vendors won’t be selling party pills but amphetamine, which offers a higher yield to justify the seller’s risk of arrest and imprisonment.

Amphetamine abuse – already at high levels – will soar.

The fundamental economic law of denied demand underpins my certainty the prohibition will create more illegal drug use and criminal behaviour.

At some stage it would be good to compile a list of all the things the Government has tried to ban in the last nine years.