Documentary Description
Evidence from Switzerland suggests that prescribing heroin can reduce
crime and increase levels of employment among addicts. While still
illegal in the UK, cannabis was downgraded to a category C drug in
January 2004. Would drug legalisation really reduce crime overall, and
would it make drug use any safer?
Based on rigorous research and interviews with experts, the programme
hears the arguments for leaving the most dangerous drug of all – crack
cocaine – illegal, and examines how a legal and regulated system of
drugs would work.
It is 2015. In the film, an ex-drugs policeman investigates two
girls’ deaths. The government, persuaded by the vast economic cost of
prohibition, has decided to legalise drugs. The UK, along with a
coalition of progressive countries from Europe, Canada and Australia,
has opted out of the UN treaties which control drugs. Much of the trade
from possession to use, and production to supply, has been legalised.
The drama opens with the collapse and subsequent deaths of two girls
in a club which is licensed to sell drugs. In the scenario, most drugs
are readily available, with government health warnings and lists of
ingredients, from various outlets. Drugs of addiction, like heroin, are
free but only available on prescription from Swiss-styled heroin
clinics.
Cocaine is still illegal. The whole trade is regulated by a new
agency, called Ofdrug. The film follows the investigation into the two
girls’ deaths by an Ofdrug agent who works closely with an ex-drugs
policeman. Experts such as former chief constable Francis Wilkinson
argued the case for pro-legalisation, while David Raynes of the National
Drug Prevention Alliance was one of the voices arguing against.
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