Drugs: Where Do We Draw the Line?

we will interrogate the rights and wrongs of the drugs debate over a drink

The UK Government wants to reclassify cannabis - yet again! - this time upgrading it from a Category C to B drug, in order to 'send a message' that drugs are bad. The reclassification is not to warn us off becoming degenerate hippies and dropouts though - it's for the sake of our mental health. Is this a reasonable argument for greater restrictions, or should we be free to choose our own poison, whatever its ill effects? At our next Club Night, we will interrogate the rights and wrongs of the drugs debate. Are drugs a means to expand our horizons and experiences, or a harmless recreational choice? Should politicians use the law to send a moral message?
Speakers include:
Swaran Singh, Professor of Social & Community Psychiatry and Consultant Psychiatrist, Health Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School
Marcus Roberts, Director of Policy at DrugScope, the UK’s leading independent centre of information and advice on drugs. He is the author of a number of reports and briefings for the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme, and Nacro’s report ‘Drugs and Crime – From Warfare to Welfare’, as well as the report of the Independent Inquiry on Drug Testing at Work (funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation).
Jamie Douglass, a contributing editor of Profile magazine, who previously conducted postgraduate research into drug cultures and has written for the Independent, Guardian and spiked.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund