1st Rave

Attended my first rave last night well a Techno party in a pub in Dereham and it was quite an eye opener.

Since 1993 I have been going to nightclubbing off and one thing that struck me last night was how friendly people were without the large amount of booze being drunk that you get in nightclubs with the aggro and aggression that goes with it.

A drug called MDMA which I guess the new version of ecstasy seems to be the drug of choice and very popular.

Maybe I am weird but I no not get the point of going out and getting wreaked when partying any drug be MDMA or booze true I did have a pint of larger shandy during my nightout but that was enough to ensure I had a good night.

Drug use should be a personal choice the state's policy of prohibition of certain drugs has spectacular failure the system of licencing we have in UK works OK for Alcohol users.

Of course where some individuals get into health related problems through excessive drug use then the state has a duty of care to help those people.

For example when people go into a pub and buy a pint of beer they know what they are getting and that a pint is a pint and not an 8th of a pint and of a certain quality.

Given the vast amounts money that are wasted on enforcement of prohibition of drugs and the potential for Government to gain tax revenues the current UK drugs policy is quite simply a no brainier.

Methadrone

On monday the Advisory Council on Drugs Misuse reports to Jack Straw the Minsiter for Justice on whether Methadrone should be included within the current Misuse of Drugs Act as either a class A, B or C drug.

I have never used Methadrone nor do I have any particular desire to do so however I express my concern over a possible panic ban on the back of a few stories in the press.

In 2008 9,031 people died as a result of a legal drug called Alcohol and another legal drug Tobacco accounts for 80,000 deaths a year.

Banning Methadrone would not stop its use in fact it would just push it under ground leading to more danger for users as dealers cut it with other substances.

The other issue is that even if a ban does dry up supply it is only a matter of months before the chemists come up with a new legal high which may have even more harmful side effects.

Regulation to control the quality and doses of Methadrone would have a far less damaging effect on users.