Sunday, August 01, 2010

Our Drugs War : Channel 4 documentary series

On Monday 2 August at 8:00pm the first of a three-part series on Channel 4 'Our Drugs War' will be broadcast.

updated:

Unashamedly anti-prohibitionist in tone, the excellent first part (1 hour) can now be viewed online here.

Here's a link to the article by Angus MacQueen, the series producer in the Observer - 'Why do we so wilfully cover up the failure of the war on drugs?'

This is coverage from the Scottish SUN: 'We will NEVER win the war on drugs'

20 comments:

Ewan Hoyle said...

"Congratulations to Channel 4 for screening the most sensible film about drugs I’ve ever seen." The Mirror

Anonymous said...

The Telegraph: "To tackle the problem, he concludes, we need to stop our obsession with bans and classification, and talk about drugs honestly. After watching this grimly fascinating film, I feel it’s hard to disagree."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/5602956/TV-highlights.html

Andy:P said...

yes bang on programme seen the first one and this needs to be brought to light rarther den brushed under carpet BANNING THEM IS MAKING THE PROBLEM WORSE PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS GET THEM WE NEED TO LOOK AT THIS PROPERLY CUZ METHEDRONE THE SAME CLASS AS CANNABIS JUST SHOW'S IT'S CONTROLED BY CLULESS IDIOTS!

danburt said...

An excellent documentary that should be required viewing for every member of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and should open up a debate that is essential for the betterment of our society. I am looking forward to seeing the remaining two parts of the series.

I applaud the willingness of the people who made this film, those who took part in it and were prepared to speak, and Channel 4 for broadcasting it.

My sincere condolences to all of those who have suffered, directly or indirectly, as a result of our country's, and the world as a whole's, misguided and failed war on drugs - their numbers will only continue to grow as long as we bury our heads in the sand on this issue.

Mafficker said...

Wow! That was nearly orgasmic for this drug law junkie!

Maybe I am an optimist but i feel the end to this 'War on certain mindstates prefered by some people who use some Drugs' is nigh.

Sweet dreams are made of these moments of clarity! Mx

Anonymous said...

The most sensible programme i have seen in years! I am a grandmother and have always advocated that banning drugs does not work - no one wants their kids to become drug addicts, but education is the way forward. My brother hung himself last year through depression brought on by his drug use - friends, family everyone tried to help in various ways - funnily enough no one even pointed out to him that it was illegal - it just doesnt come in to it! I cried watching the show but got a great amount of help from it too - thank you.

John Moore said...

Really excellent evidence that Transform works ... the drip drip of reason is slowly but certainly wearing away the foundations of the war on drugs.

As I watched the programme I imagined the Transform carpet getting even more worn as Danny paced up and down with his phone briefing the programme makers.

Great work.

Anonymous said...

Rubbish !! I can just see it now Tesco selling, crack, grass, E's and some bizzare range of dangerous chemicals beside the CD's, what a brilliant idea!! No one would ever get hurt or addicted or turn into an individual with depleated mental capacity due to drug abuse. Mmm and obvioulsy Tesco or similar would have to make the "good stuff" or some underground manufacturing would occur to satisfy greater needs. Yes making it legal would "de criminalise" the current criminals and get rid of the Drug lords but the end result would be the same. People addicted to drugs and in a complete mess..but alot more of them for the NHS (and everyone lese) to deal with. While were at it why not legalise guns, explosives and speeding, and simply educate everyone, then no one would ever kill anyone either! Really the harm reduction policies are utter nonsense!! It takes years for a pharmacist to build up a knowledge of drugs yet some failed social worker is apparently qualified to provide advice on a range of drugs and chemicals just due to their own confused experience. Total illogical biased fundementaly flawed nonsense!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous - if the social workers who deal with these issues daily aren't allowed to comment, what exactly are your qualifications, scientifically backed evidence or direct experience that allow you to? You even say yourself "the end result would be the same" just without the "criminals" and "drug lords"... how is that not a good thing? Could you explain in a bit more depth just why harm reduction is nonsense?

Your argument with guns, explosives and speeding are completely flawed - if someone were to stay at home and smoke a joint.. or go to a rave and take some MDMA, who would they be hurting? Whos lives would they impact on other than themselves? Gun, explosives and speeding DIRECTLY affect those around them, just look at the USA where they are unable to consitutionally get rid of them.. they have one of the highest rates of gun related murders.. Taking drugs is majoritively harmful only to the user, unless you're talking about alcohol.. maybe we should ban that? Educating people on how to take drugs sensibly and safely would only reduce the problems that can arise from using them!

Remember, the drugs themselves dont create adicts - poverty, mental illness, circumstance and criminalisation only provide the conditions into which a troubled person can spiral into addiction. Plenty of people use drugs (including alcohol, tobacco and caffeine) sensibly, more than you know, probably even people close to you. We have to stop blaming 'drugs' for OUR problems!

A great documentary, if only people could open their minds to actually look at both sides of the story before making judgements.

Jake

Anonymous said...

Other contributor said "Rubbish !! I can just see it now Tesco selling, crack, grass, E's and some bizzare range of dangerous chemicals beside the CD's..."

It's not so much about de-criminilising the current criminals, but establishing which of those persons ought fairly to be charged with a criminal offence. Right now a business can sell alcohol to an underage user and ultimately expect mere fines, same with tobacco. Legal age to let kids drink is 5 in your own home. Tobacco is legal to use at 16. These drugs are already 'legal', yet we know we cannot justify their different legal status.

HMDrugPusher says: Actaully the Government is viewing the revenue potential of wider availability. It would not be by the CD's, and highly refined coca-leaf products would doubtless have further restrictions placed upon them as would all dependence-inducing drugs. Controls equivalent to 'souped-up' alcohol licensing would apply and misuse offences such as supplying a minor with a 'controlled drug' would remain.

The problems you refer to with people messing up on drugs and becomming a drain on society; this if it occurred would be a trigger for the government to utilise it's powers to make further restrictions on such drug suppliers, restrictions on it's use or to take other measures such as education to ameliorate such harms.

This is not just about pharaceutical knowledge in respect of regulating drug users, those calling for reform see the harm caused by the misuse of drugs at first hand. The health and social problems experienced by drug misusers are usually worsenned by the intervention of the law; but would benefit from educational and welfare interventions much earlier. The law should target other forms of drug misuser entirely.

This is not happening right now as the Government is pushing just alcohol and tobacco as recreational drugs. This is a big step to diversify this market, we don't want to lose control!

sie p said...

When ws the idea of a "drug licence" last put forward? An arbitary age of 21, you must buy the licence and be of good character, and we include alcohol and nicotine on the licence, while we're rationalising this. Then pubs can stay open, coffee shops can flourish, tobacconists and pharmacists sell their specilised stuff over the counter. Why would this be so impossible to do?bacconists their cigars, bars their beer, all to those who have a valid drug licence.

All coppers are bent said...

The police are just not doing their job.
all they do is protect the so called british monarchy who have adopted the name of Windsor for their own so they could hide their German name.
Drugs come over here or are made here in such large amounts that the police must be corrupt ( but I have known this for sometime and what else are they hiding) and that makes them criminal.
Cannabis should be taken out of the hands of the criminals and sold legally in coffee shops like in Amsterdam that would solve it. So not bad ch4 and I wait to see how far you go with it.

When I say coppers I mean uniform ,undercover and code 9s (these are small policemen that pass themselves off as youngsters) the amount of money they are paid to do their job and they have done nothing.
All coppers are freemasons and bent

Anonymous said...

Fatimmigrant-on-benefits says: That's not a drug license sonny, this is a Dog licence with the word drug written over in crayon.

D. Addiction said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Andy T said...

the programme on channel 4 mentioned drug smuggling and then mentioned 'legal highs'. cant they figure out the same people smuggling are selling the legal highs. they use the money they make illegally to set up a legitimate business and carry on selling drugs. you only deal in illegal drugs for so long to minimize the risk of being caught then you put the money you make into something legal so your capital cannot be teken off you. you set up a company in someone else's name or use a contact you have found to do this.

blue84 said...

a fantastic documentry to those of you who claim that he wants tescos to sell the drugs instead of drug dealers you have completly missed the point its about regulating the drugs for addicts lets face it drugs are so easy to come by these days all anybody has to do is make one phone call and its there in front of you it myt aswell be tescos selling the drugs, come on people like what was said in the 1st part of this series what would be said if only 1% of murders or thefts were sold

Synchronium said...

Just watched the first one of these on 4OD. Great program, but did anyone else cringe when the bloke mentioned "methedrone"?

Anonymous said...

been sayin the same shit to me mates an freinds for years make it all legal easy to controll keep tbs on peaple and offer help to those that want it stop makin crims out of peaple...works all the way down the line man... share the wealth

jane.waycott said...

Jane W
Having just seen the 3rd programme from Afganistan perhaps Angus should try and get the mostly young people who want to go to war in a foreign country to watch this as he has shown a slice of real life. It is very upsetting seeing the coffins returning from Afganistan.

IAIN DONALD said...

My name is Iain i`ve just been reading the comments of some people about what a rubbish suggestion i would be to de-criminalise the drugs,my commonsense tell me they are right, what i would like to ask them is what their suggedtions on how to deal with this ever increasing problem because up to now nothing anyone is doing will ever defeat this problem it`s easy to criticise when you don`t have a solution to the problem, i would suggest an open mind to any possible solutions how ever crazy they may seem, i myself have been battling my addiction for more years than i care to think about and have only seen the problem move from young adult getting involved to primary school children, i don`t think it could get any worse,but then again recent history has proved that it can always get worse. Because what has been done and is being done isn`t working.