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      01-27-2012, 01:21 AM   #23
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Originally Posted by sheps View Post
I know quite a few people who use drugs; every single one of them are employed, respectable people, some of them are owners of verysuccessful businesses. Some of them sit in positions of great power/responsibility (not Spiderman). Drugs are not the poverty/crime related pastime many people assume they are.

Not one of them is one of the unemployed, granny mugging, house-burgling scumbags that anti-drug users use to prop up their argument for anti-legalisation status (as if I would associate with such people!)

Legalisation (and the subsequent strict control of sale) will reduce the numbers of current dealers and pushers (I'm not naive enough to think they will entirely disappear) and help eradicate deaths related to drugs being cut with more dangerous substances.

Furthermore it will create an income revenue for the exchequer that it doesn't currently have - at the moment the government only spends money on dealing with the problems of drugs - legalisation would give a government (that was capable of organising itself and proper, controlled channels to market) a shot at a new revenue stream greater than its current expenditure. The manufacture, administration and sales would also create employment.

A freer policy on drugs would also make it easier for employers to introduce random drug testing (to match the ease of accessibility) which would assist in controlling just how many people ran straight out and purchased them.

I don't believe that the legalisation of drugs will turn us into a nation of car-battery-stealing-junkies but I'm happy to listen to arguments that would persuade me otherwise.
I was going to reply till I read this - I couldn't put it any better.
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      01-27-2012, 05:31 AM   #24
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Could not agree more!

Although you could argue benefit claimants also shouldn't indulge in alcohol, cigarettes, any thing considered a 'luxury' item? I would apply the rule to anyone who's living in a property which is paid for by the tax payer. They would be regularly tested for drugs. If you fail you loose all your benefits, and banned from submitting a claim for benefits for ten years.
I've always had the same objection here; why should my taxes be spent to allow someone to enjoy what should be considered as luxuries? Drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco are choices and are not a necessity.

There are many (non-benefit claiming) hardworking families that forego these items because they cannot afford them. Therefore if a family strictly on benefits has them, they're being paid too much.

Of course, there is a way to stop this dead; issue food vouchers as benefits, not money. The vouchers would only redeemable against certain lines of foods from certain supermarkets. They would also only be redeemable when used in conjunction with photo id (which stops them from being traded for cash).

Of course, like so many other solutions that would get the great unwashed off their arses, into work and turn this country around, it'll never be put forward, because it'd be political suicide (with every benefit claimant voting for the opposition).

Of course, there is a way around that, by denying anyone on benefits the right to vote (on the basis that if they don't 'pay in' to the system then they aren't entitled to a say about how the system is administrated) but that's a whole other argument....
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      01-27-2012, 05:49 AM   #25
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Now we are onto something.
If you do not contribute to society you do not get a say in how it is run.
I like this very much.

We need to be careful, using the term 'claiming benifits'.
Disabled people and the others who through no fault of their own, and those who we should be supporting are obviously exempt from these discussions.
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      01-27-2012, 06:09 AM   #26
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We need to be careful, using the term 'claiming benifits'.
Disabled people and the others who through no fault of their own, and those who we should be supporting are obviously exempt from these discussions.
Absolutely, 100% agree.
I have no issue with assistance going to people who genuinely need/deserve assistance - I recognise there will always be a need for social assistance.

My bugbear is with people who choose to sit on their arse; people who make a career of sponging. That would not be an option in Simon's Britain.

You want to work, and you're doing a low-paid (but essential) job? Fine, great, we'll make sure you have a low-income benefit to ensure you can achieve and maintain a reasonable standard of living.

You want to sit about watching sky sports and drinking cheap lager all day? Do it on your own dime, pal.

My biggest issue is not with the current cost (albeit that is a massive burden this country cannot afford) but with future generations growing up in the surroundings, being poisoned into thinking it's an acceptable 'career' choice.

Scum breeds scum, and whilst there are heart warming stories of people breaking the cycle and getting out and getting on, these are unfortunately the exceptions to the rule.

Until a government has the balls to make real changes to the benefits system (and I'm not talking about the £26k cap that any one family can claim, which doesn't go anywhere near far enough as far as I am concerned) we will be a nation financially challenged by the sponging element and it is these people who typically generate the anti-social behaviour our country also suffers from - the sponging of un-earned money is only half the problem.
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