Quote of the week
Such traditions that are culturally embedded in the white, male, Afrikaans culture and history, which are the basis of the Nagligte traditions, do not foster inclusion of other groups that must now form the new majority of the SU student body. Wilgenhoffers do not seem to appreciate the negative impact of their culture and rituals on the personal rights of certain individuals. This is because they elevate belonging to the Wilgenhof group above the rights of the individual.
Pharmaceutical Calvinism or rational drugs policy?
There has been some lively discussion below following my post suggesting that alcohol is far more harmful than dagga or ecstasy and that the
The study I quoted from was published in the respected British medical Journal, Lancet (not that that should be conclusive), and used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug’s potential for addiction, and the impact on society of the drug’s use before calculating the drugs’ overall rankings. It is therefore clear that the researchers did not only rely on whether the drug would kill you or not.
I don’t want to sound like President Mbeki with his Aids denialism… but the report on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news website continued:
Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth-most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful. Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was ecstasy.
Tobacco causes 40 per cent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms. The substances also harm society in other ways, damaging families and occupying police services.
While experts agreed that criminalizing alcohol and tobacco would be challenging, they said that governments should review the penalties imposed for drug abuse and try to make them more reflective of the actual risks and damages involved.
I suppose those who warn that dagga causes Schizophrenia will argue that if it was freely available it would become just as dangerous and harm just as many people as alcohol or cigarettes. Which begs the question of why alcohol and cigarettes are legal and part of a multi-billion dollar industry, while dagga is produced by poor black people in Transkei…. Well, make up your own mind.
