Part of the problem is people are encouraged to be dependent on quick fix chemicals to aid their problems - supplied by the pharmaceutical companies and legal. Then people are encouraged by pushers and drug sellers that their drugs are awesome, cool whatever. Either way we're surrounded by people who wanna sell us crap that we don't need. Some yuppies fall for it. Some people just get confused because too many people telling us that we need these chemicals. I don't think making more chemicals available to the public is the solution. I think a better solution would be to discourage dependence altogether. There's no profit in that though so that ain't gonna happen. At the end of the day it is up to the consumer to decide. Hopefully people cotton on that lifestyle and holistic changes (often more commitment, harder and sometimes expensive depending on the condition) are far better in the long run. We only have one brain which cannot be replaced yet. Do you want to take the risk of chemical imbalances when we depend on our brain for almost every bodily function?

Lack of morals cause people to use drugs. If you had that you would have self respect... and you would be too ashamed to use drugs. If parents put shame into their kids at a young age and advised them of what is and isnt good, then there would be less people doing drugs. Moral shame use to work wonders in the old days, and it kept many kids into line. Was passed on down the generations and people learnt self control. Nowdays everything goes and the stigma has largely abated. Parents don't have the wisdom and the patience and time anymore. We have a world with more temptations than ever before so thats why better raised kids are needed. You can't stop all kids from using drugs and some only experiment. Its the misfits who become the addicted.Edited 24-Sep-22 02:07am

Marijuana is a bad drug and its got side affects. You forget who pays for these lazy druggies? You expect everyone else to pay for their treatment? Im glad they closed those free clinic's down. Someone has to pay for it. If they can afford to buy drugs then they should pay for their treatment. Im sick of these people expecting others to help them.

Is there actual evidence that the 'war' approach has actually worked? I am unsure. I have heard that in countries where they legalise drugs, have the government issue standardized and 'safe' drugs and provide injecting rooms where users can get access to clean needles and proper medical care, the impact on people is far less. I wonder if we haven't gone too far down the punitive road to try exploring other options?

Drugs are a scourge, and if it isn't illicit drugs it's the misuse of prescription drugs. I don't like the way the use of drugs is being normalized by calling them "recreational", they aren't cricket or football. They are potential killers. I think there has to be more education because despite the horror stories we hear about people becoming addicted others still feel they can start using drugs and stop anytime they feel like it. It isn't that easy. Then there's the so called harmless Marijuana which you may not become addicted to but in some cases it triggers psychosis and paranoia and can lead to the use of harder drugs. While gaol isn't the answer something tough like boot camp might be. Whatever, there does need to be a zero tolerance to stop the spread and increased use.

I think that if people fall for illicit drugs then they need their backside kicked, there has been enough said about the harm they create,and prescription drugs are just as bad and its a real problem when doctors gives out a script before they study the person's meditation history and see what problems they cause, Doctors don't listen they only think of the cash they make by signing a script

Definitely, in Australia drugs especially ice are destroying homes, individuals, friends and individuals.

i think you need to throw in prescription drugs into this discussion they cause a lot of trouble and these guys make craploads of cash and are government-backed and supported, i know they do a lot of good and they have saved a lot of lives, but i know a lot of people addicted to painkillers through over prescibing

I dont believe drugs alone are the problrm, they are the consequence.. If we can intervene with regards to things like family violence, abuse,homelesness,mental health issues, then there will be far less want for ppl to look for ways to cover their pain, hide from reality, suppress hurt. Not every user is a recreational user as some may think. Drugs , like porn addiction, gambling addiction, alcohol addiction are primarily used to cover or mask a greater hurt, sadly many dont know of other ways to cope or arent able to find the help they need. Im aware of a few who use drugs in order to suppress years and years of sexual abuse,ive been told they use in order to stay alive, bcos without a reprieve from their suffering they would end it all, obviously its not the answer, but they claim its better than suicide, although its a slow suicide, to those victims who do do this, reach out, dont let the perpetrator take anymore of your life from you. Im pretty certain that no child has ever thought to themselves. "hey I want to throw my life away as I watch all my friends make something of themselvesEdited 23-Sep-22 20:31pm

i truly doubt that statement

Let them all kill them selves give it to them free Do we really need these people?

Some of the big drug crime syndicates put their drug money into legitimate businesses. Some are money laundering. Some are investing in real estate. Some in unregulated crypto currency. Better monitoring of where people get their money from might be needed. Banks, the taxation department, etc...all need to play their part. The rich biggies can find ways and means to hide their money.

I have been saying, they need to build several mental facilities to put people on drugs, aolchol, as well as those who want to commit suicide.

You can find this on Google and some websites. But its been mentioned that the USA, their CIA, flooded America with drugs back in the 1970s. The CIA are corrupt.

Better education might help some, but wont stop all kids falling through the cracks. Some drug users also sell drugs or are involved with the MR BIGS, importing drugs. Some kids come from good homes and yet get caught up in the drug scene. Not all who try drugs are addicted. Some use it from time to time . But its sick that greedy people make money out of others misery.

We have mafi criminals in Australia. They will kill for money. The police have a very difficult job with this.

Also if you are with Optus look out, as your details might have been stolen. Some idiot at Optus made a mistake.

Drugs we take them every day. Illegal drugs need as much control as we can do, to eradicate them completely. We have to be very careful with habit forming drugs even the legal ones

An 80 million drug bust today in NSW. Police also confiscated 1,7 million dollars in cold hard cash. 5 men have been arested. One imported the drugs in to Sydney. Good job, to the drug squad police!

drugs making bad people rich and everybody vulnerable

I have no idea what the answer is. No matter how hard they try, the authorities simply cannot stop the manufacture / importation and distribution of illicit drugs. The profits that can be made are enormous and as such, somebody will always find a way to participate in this evil business. De-criminalising the use of drugs would be a small start to getting on top of the situation, legalised controlled usage by addits is another. Removing the profit incentive would go a very long way to controlling the situation but the only real way to do that is to legalise these drugs and that's never going to happen.

drugs are drugs and have the potential to kill.

What about legalized drugs like opioids? These are produced by almost all of the great drug companies. They too are narcotics and the resultant harm is the same. Looks like humanity is well on the skids to hell.

I have not been affected nor has anyone in my family thank God.

Only IDIOTS take drugs.

All it has achieved is a mass of jailing of people who have virtually no connection and the increase of profits by the Drug Lords. Someone is making lots of money from this so called War on Drugs and everyone is loosing.

we need to stomp on the growers, those who import it in and the sellers to stop this scourge. How are all these huge amounts of drugs coming into our country?

Ive had a couple of relatives use hard drugs and i have no sympathy for people like this. They don't care about anyone but themselves. Serve them right!

A plane load of agent orange or similar flying over all the sites growing drugs would clear a lot out. But problem is too many big wigs have fingers in the pie and it’s the little guy who get hurt

They just caught some men in NSW with a big catage of ice. Throw away the key!

I guess it's trying to stop if from the start or try to cure it.

Addiction is a disease, not a crime and the soft penalties given the pushers is a disease and a crime

There is the shock factor and I think if you show people pictures of people on ice then they would never start using it in the first place. We although show horrible pictures on cigarette packages and people still smoke. Vaping is just as bad so they have just changed the way they screw them selves up and yet alcohol is legal and can do just as much damage. I guess I am saying there really isn't any answer and of course if you say don't do it there is always some willing to. It is a problem for most countries and it always will be.

Just as prohibition entrenched the power of the Mafia in the US the war on drugs has made the drug lords very rich and powerful. They will fight tooth and nail any attempt to legalise the drugs that they are selling illegally. Dammned if you do and dammned if you don't. We should have learned by now that we can't prevent people from using things that are bad for them by just telling them that they are not allowed to. This approach has never worked and is not going to either.

partly true

I believe that drugs will slow disappear when all the drugs become legal in the world

Here's a novel idea! When anyone - be they grower, dealer, distributor, drug-lord, president, prime minister, politician, police - who can be proven to have been part of the Illegal Drug distribution network - and let us stop using that nice, friendly, comforting word "Recreational" when referring to these Killer drugs and the Murderers involved - they should be given a bit, no, more than a bit of their own 'medicine'? Get them irrevocably and incurably addicted to their own products and then toss them out into the streets so that they get some idea as to what they have done to millions of others and done it all for the sake of the World's Two major gods: Greed and Money. In recent times the Australian Federal Police have shown us on TV and on-line pictures of literally tons of Methamphetamines, Heroin and other Killer Drugs which they and Customs have found in single shipments of such things as toilets, cisterns, toys etc. coming in from other countries. The quantities are so large there is no way on Earth that the authorities in the exporting countries did not know about it. The instant the country from which these drugs are exported is identified and proven an immediate and Total ban should be placed on the Import from and Export to any and all products.

There will always be drugs on the street but the police are trying its a slow process

It is sad what it does to people who end up hooked on the drugs. Some are so vulnerable in life they try it and end up hooked. Those that supply the drugs only care for the money they make and the luxury item they can buy. Material things do not make you happy. Why make it and then blow it at the Casino. You feel a certain achievement when you work for something yourself and know you earned it and can buy things that you worked hard for. More school teachings need to happen to prevent the young ever trying drugs. I remember a youth dance I attended and people injecting others. It was sickening to see.

Political corruption is the cause.

IF USA 3 lettered agencies didnt make so many millions, .... you cant buy what is not on the market. and sorry USA dont care a fighootin, as long as they are making money , the dont care how many die. not USA or Ukraine or Libya etc. USA are demonised entities, they are not human as proven by their actions.... Look at the specimens at the white house

In this very misnomered 'war' on drugs, it's a case of damned if you do and a damned if you don't. And hence, is here for eternity....

Drugs are a huge problem and it needs to be ended.

I agree the war on drugs did not work. Rehab does not work either, we need to deal with the reasons each person chooses to do drugs. Each person has a different reason so a one size fits all fix does not work. I know many who have not survived their encounter with drugs so I’m all in to do what I can to help.

people know more about drugs then ever before but they still take them, let them die

its sad to say the drugs are a big problems everywhere

If peoples don't take this will have in the world. Drugs are from day in history no ways drugs will stop in the world. You can't wait government stop its. Start teaching each others to not go on drug.

I think that it's very easy to say that you want to declare a "war on drugs" but essentially you're waging a war on people! I think that the MSM focuses too much on the little people including the small time dealers and those who deal and use at the same time, but the REAL "kingpins", those making fortunes off the mass import of drugs like Fentanyl and cocaine are often either legitimate governments, including China that legally imports large amounts of narcotic medications including Fentanyl into Europe, the US and Australia. In the US in the 1990's, during the height of the cracks epidemic, the Clinton's bought in MASSIVE quantities of illicit drugs from Nicaragua and other South American countries through a fleet of small commuter planes which landed in Arkansas, which of course is Bill Clinton's home state, all under the eyes of the FBI. But the palms of those "in the know" were so well greased by the vast amount of money this drug trading made for the disgusting human beings involved in this sordid affair, that nothing happened, apart from Bill becoming the President of the United States! I understand that people formulate an opinion on a topic by what they see and hear on MSM but the media is bought and captured by these very large institutions and rich families of which the Clinton's AND their lucrative Foundation are just one player in. Foundations are devoid of any tax liability and if you look you'll find that almost every wealthy family, rock band or billionaire has one. Those people we look up to in government are, with few exceptions, scum of the earth and like the Clinton's are involved in WORSE activities Including human trafficking. Drugs are shipped globally to destabilise countries because if you get the youth addicted to substances you get rid of the "riff raff" and included in this definition might just be YOUR sons and daughters! Violence and death increase as does crime and THAT'S the POINT! Don't be too harsh on those addicted to drugs because I spent years working with individuals in many Detox Units and 2 Methadone Clinics. A lot of these people have had HORRENDOUS childhoods and got started on drugs, including legal drugs like nicotine and alcohol, to escape even for a short time from the Hell they live in. If you live in poverty and especially generational poverty where you have few educational prospects and all you've ever seen aren't working pro social individuals but family which relies solely on welfare payments and food stamps its easy to believe that there's no point in tryingto rise up and out of that situation. It's easy to judge unless you've walked a mile in someone else's shoes and although it IS a scurge on society it's a well planned one and we ARE the INTENDED victims. The criminals run the show and they get away with it and until we are on equal footing with them, which we will NEVER be, they will continue to provide the drugs which will end up destroying our society! Thanks for reading.

Probably the War on Drugs is conducted in those countries in a way to ensure those countries stay poor and just supply cheap raw materials and guarantee they will never become an industrial competition.

Educate your children not to use drugs, Once they start will never get out of it.

Is this victim blaming? Surely attempting to address the issues isn't the cause? Asking for a friend

Drug dealers should get the death penalty the biggest mistake the justice system makes is thinking if they provide information they get shorter sentencing and will reform after they are released.They never do because the money they make off selling drugs gives them a comfy lifestyle while destroying other peoples lives who are on receiving end of it.Anything that makes money is a business even if its killing people!!!

It is EVIL and the only REAL defence against them is not to get involved in using them in the first place and only heaven knows how that can happen!!!

There's far to many crazy people out there .My life has never been easy ,not once have I once wanted to take drugs to make me happy ,there is a helper out there who is better then any drug ,His name is Jesus ,call me crazy if you want but he has helped me through a lot of tough times

Make all drugs legal for personal use. If you are found to be dealing you are off to jail. This will cut down on the illegal drug trade and likely people will still die. Those people have made a choice to use drugs if the consequences of that is death its their death. The money used to fight drugs would or could be used to educate people or treat them later when hospitalized. A number of overseas countries do allow person drug use its time we here in the west get with the times. I am not nor have I ever been a drug user but if you want to use drugs in my opinion that's your choice.

Yes, I think drugs does cause more violence, deaths and crime altogether is because drugs are illegal in the US. and many people uses drugs to escape everyday problems that they are experienced in their lives.

Useless people who can't get through life without using drugs. Animals dont use drugs. Im ashamed of the human so called race. Full of idiots.

Great discussion

If there was no war on drugs we would still have deaths and the drug sellers would find something else to sell , so legalised drugs aren't the solution. There are long term health issues potentially by using drugs, just like cigarettes and alcohol. Anyone who says its good to legalise drugs is a criminal. Probably taking or selling drugs themselves.Edited 23-Sep-22 01:50am

It has been allerged that the American-- CIA, was behind a large drug import into America in the 1970s, around Vietnam time or so.

I dobbed in someone for growing marijuana in a backyard years ago. I would do it again and esp hard stuff. There are drugs comming into Australia from asia, north America, south America, Europe. I don't think AUS exports illegally many drugs to other nations, and if they do its usually only in smaller quantities, like in a suitcase. Aus is a land of druggies and thats why foreigners like selling them here. Anyone seeing drug selling or disposal should report it immediately to police . You are doing a favour to others as it keeps the country cleaner. By ignoring the problem it wont go away. Any criminals importing drugs into aus need tougher sentences. Drug use is one of the major reasons behind in the increase in mental illness in western countries. Its also a major cause of violence. Put the drug sellers behind bars where they belong.

TRUMP CASUES MORE VIOLENCE THAN THE WAR ON DRUGS NOW ADAYS

With a fair amount of bias on my behalf and not being American, prohibition did not work, war on drugs is a joke and gun control is non existent. With tongue in cheek I say “some of my best friends are American”.

Thats America! This is Australia! Its 2022 now and not 1970s. You sound like a bloody fool. So are you saying it caused violence around the world due to drugs? Tough luck! Its a crime and therefore should be punishable by jail time, depending on the severity. I bet during covid lockdowns there was little of it going on, but now it seems they are finding more drugs imported from overseas. And yes, America has a lot to answer for causing alot of this. Some of your comments are a disgrace and how many people have died due to drugs since the 1970s, i bet you cant answer that? Dont be an apologist for criminals who sell drugs you dam idiot Shame, shame, shame.Edited 23-Sep-22 01:23am

One, the history of drug use (abuse) goes back to colonial times (in the USA) - with the first major cash crop (in what is now called the State of Virginia) - started growing tobacco (nicotine). Two, we all have (including me) have mental health issues - mental health issues are not the deciding factor whether you become a street drug user - it is lack of job opportunities available to you because of the neighborhood you reside/or was born in (aka racism). Three, street drugs are more available now - than ever before - you can GET your prefer street drug in prison - if you are prepared to pay an exorbitant price while in prison. Four, tobacco (nicotine) kills more Americans every year, than street drugs do every year! Four, the USA is not winning the war on drugs. However, it has led to the rise of numerous dangerous street gangs with monetary assets in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and in some cases - monetary assets in billions of dollars - known as drug cartels! Last, the USA fought a war on alcohol - called prohibition - lost - and legalize alcohol. The USA is fighting a war on street drugs and losing - might as well legalize street drugs (furthermore, alcohol (and alcohol is a drug) kills more Americans every year than street drugs do every year)!Edited 23-Sep-22 08:16am

selling drugs is big business. As of April 2017, Australia has the highest methamphetamine addiction rate in the world. I was shocked to read this. How did our country get here??? We seem to have deaths in the gangs weekly either by shooting or knife violence. People caught bringing drugs into our country are jailed for long lengths of time but there are always others to take their place. It is made in houses, units, back yards etc. by people not chemists and some are imported in all sorts of ways. The police sometimes make a huge haul but it does not seem to put a dent in the supply.

Always been drug absuers, always will be. Mental health often plays into it. Crime goes along with drugs. You will never totally stop it

very true title