A legal drug: but why?Well, it had to happen sometime, the only surprise it wasn't weeks ago. No, not the arrest of George Bush Jr for war crimes - yet - but rather an article about illegal drugs appearing on this website.

Whilst reading the Guardian last week, imagine the shock suffered by the Poorhouse upon discovering that the UK drug laws are apparently "riddled with anomalies". Yes, not only are the prohibitionist sides of the laws counter-productive and harmful, but even within the illogical and dangerous framework they exist in they make no sense.

Drugs in the UK are supposedly classified into 3 classes, A, B and C according to how dangerous they are supposed to be, with A being the most dangerous. If this was honestly the aim, someone (or some Government) needs a good sacking from their job. Two factors mentioned in the Guardian article highlight the complete fiction that that claim turns out to be.

Firstly, and most obviously, let's take the example of those "special" drugs, alcohol and tobacco. They're allowed. Alcohol in particular is even allowed to be heavily promoted, with advertisers brainwashing the public into thinking that unless they are drunk, they're not cool, they're not fun, they're not sexy and they are not having a good time. Presumably these are pretty harmless drugs then?

Well no, even looking at the worst possible result of drug use - namely death - it is clear that the greatest amount of drug related deaths in our society come from those two drugs. Indeed either one of them has a hugely higher number of fatalities associated with them than the combined total of all illegal drugs. Perhaps - even if banning substances did work to prevent anyone using them - we are looking in the wrong place if we wish to reduce the dreadful harm done to individuals and society through irresponsible drug usage.

So, they forgot to include some drugs in the laws. Oops. Never mind eh, are a few hundred thousand people's lives and a few millions' inconvenience, harm and upset worth rewriting laws for anyway? And as for all the side-effects of dangerous and harmful use, well, we'll just save up the stories and laugh at them at the next office party instead.

But looking at the drugs that are classified as dangerous doesn't inspire any sort of confidence in the designers of these laws either.

Mushrooms: Evil incarnate?There are plenty of inconsistencies wherever you look, but surely the most hilarious-if-it-wasn't-true example has to be that of magic mushrooms. Magic mushrooms have psychedelic effects on humans, most often due to containing the chemicals psilocybin and psilocin. Last year, under the Drugs Act 2005 it was "clarified" that all forms of mushrooms of that type are now to be classified as class A, meaning they are one of the most dangerously deadly to the user and society at large drug available. This puts them alongside heroin and crack; two drugs which, whilst are eternally demonised, do without doubts have chemical properties that make them very dangerous to the health of many users - a danger which it must be said is exacerbated by the black market in which these commodities are forced by our laws to be traded in. Magic mushrooms on the other hand, are not associated with any sort of external crime, are not addictive, are not damaging to the organs of the body and in the eight year period even the Government statistics claim they have probably directly killed a whole one person (c.f. heroin at 5737, alcohol and tobacco deaths likely at at least 6 figure levels). Even the generally ultra-dry-and-inoffensive RAND Europe report on the use of scientific evidence in UK drug laws - almost an oxymoron - said "The positioning of them in Class A does not seem to reflect any scientific evidence that they are of equivalent harm to other Class A drugs.".

In other words, this decision - a decision that can end up locking someone up in prison for 7 years for merely having a bit of a certain type of mushroom lying around the house or a life sentence if one happens to be growing in their garden - was entirely unjustified, not evidence based, and at best done on a political-popularity based whim. Fine if it's a couple of 5 year olds role-playing being a grown up at nursery school, less fine if it's life and death decisions being made by the rulers of our nation.

Heaven forbid that these misclassifications are corrected even if there was the will do to so. The Guardian article claims that one probably-well-meaning expert thinks that reclassifying magic mushrooms downwards to be slightly less ultra dangerous than street heroin might be unwise, not because it would be wrong as such, but rather "it might encourage use". On the other hand, the same expert's committee suggested that another drug wasn't reclassified upwards into a more dangerous category - again not because it would be wrong, but rather it might make it "a more desirable product for users and so stimulate demand". Ahem.

EcstasyA recent editorial in the Journal of Psychopharmacology which compared the laws and risks surrounding alcohol and ecstasy covered the issues extremely well. The Poorhouse demands you read the full thing (yes, it was from a scientific journal, but it is easy to read and only 2 pages long) because it will do your knowledge and personal safety only good and has attached it below. In case you're especially lazy, here's one key quote to back up this article:

"Why is ecstasy illegal when alcohol, a considerably more harmful drug, is not? For alcohol it appears to be because it has always been so, at least in western society with the exception of the Prohibition era in the USA. Interestingly ecstasy was only made illegal in the 1980s purportedly in an attempt to deter use by young people. This policy clearly didn't work very well as at the height of the rave scene up to one million young people were using each week. In view of this high level of use it may be that campaigns to reduce ecstasy use might paradoxically increase harm if they lead to increased use of alcohol."

(The pictures illustrating this story are taken from the BBC and the wonderful Erowid).