“"but it fails to take in to account the possible health benefits a small amount of drink can have."

That wasn't a ranking i came up with it was the ACMD and Medical Research Council, along with lawyers and senior police.

I am fully aware of the j-shaped curve. If you read the chart properly or what i wrote about it you'd realise that taking into account on balance the relative, health, social and addictiveness is *EXACTLY* what it does!

Mr. Sensible the government that you're so craven to keeps on interfering with *independent* scientific research on drugs and then has the audacity to complain when their *independent* advisers stand down or kick up a fuss!

"The benefits of¿ [legalisation/regulation] ¿ such as taxation, quality control and a reduction in the pressures on the criminal justice system ¿ are far outweighed by the costs and for this reason, it is one that this Government will not pursue either domestically or internationally.¿ from a Home Office breifing in 2008

But... no such Cost-benefit analysis has been conducted, in fact the government refuse to even do an Impact Assessment!

To begin to understand how government policy creates what the UN describes as a 'raft of unintended cnsequences' start with the link below:

transform-drugs dot blogspot dot com/2009/04/transform-publishes-comparative-cost dot html”

“This situation has been created by successive Governments, people choose to smoke, so make their own personal choices. Heavy taxation on cigarettes, alcohol, and fuel have led to a black market in such commodities, whether it is black market cigarettes or alcohol, or the ever increasing fuel thefts from vehicles.

Just to comment on sensible's post: the Government rakes in considerably more tax from cigarettes than it costs to care for smokers, so they would lose a hell of a lot of money.”

“"I wonder how that makes relatives of Leah Betts feel. "

Leah Betts did not die from ecstasy. She died from drinking too much water in too short time, coupled with an inability to expel the water. It wasn't the first time she'd taken it and she wasn't dancing excessively, which perhaps explains why the normal advice given didn't work.

The most harmful drug in our society is alcohol but the government never thinks of banning it. Instead they pursue silly vote catching policies that criminalise ordinary people for following their own lifestyle choices, and perpetuate crime, filling our prisons to the point where real criminals walk free.

It's important to keep these things in context. There's a lot of money to be made in keeping our attention off the real issue.”

“"Gordon Brown has just announced that smoking and drinking is good for you."

That's a new one on me.

And no I can tell you catagorically I have never done any of those things.”

“i always thought a fag house was a gay brothel ?”