For less crime and more order — legalise drugs

A TRAGIC 21st drugs party in Waterford. Solution? Decriminalise drugs totally.

Yes, there will be a Darwinian casualty spike from the initial rush of freedom.

But first we must somehow overcome the nauseating parish pump politics of Dáil Éireann where the response currently might be along the lines of “I’m in favour of cancer centres of excellence, but not in my backyard, and drugs will be the death of us all”.

No. Ignorance and stupidity are far more dangerous .

A legalised hard drugs scene is a win-win situation that needs to be done at a global level.

But locally, at the stroke of a ministerial pen, it reduces monopoly of supply from the increasingly lethal criminal gangs. Then, if legal, it can be regulated through pharmacology and therefore taxed.

This new tax revenue stream can then lead to a reduction in the tax on stout, which is in decline.

Alco-pops, like cigarettes, need high taxation to discourage abuse.

Of course, I have a vested interest as a South Channel Lee water drinker of Beamish and, as such, a de facto shareholder.

After all, as they say, it’s consistency in a world gone mad. Never a truer and more apt phrase spoken.

Daithí Ó Conghaille

Earlwood Estate

The Lough

Cork