Legalization of marijuana is a hot topic at the moment, but what about heroin? Opium, from which heroin is created, has been illegal in the United States since 1909, in Australia since 1908, and in 1924, the league of nations got together and banned it for personal recreational use outright throughout much of the civilized world. But why?

Well, opium is a heavily addictive drug favored by laymen and poets alike for its ability to send the user into dream like other worlds in which day to day concerns and cares are washed away.

The poet Collins, a notable opium addict who eventually died from years of opiate abuse, wrote of opium based Laundnum “I have had six delicious hours of oblivion; I have woken up with my mind composed; I have written a perfect little letter… – and all through the modest little bottle of drops which I see on my bedroom chimneypiece at this moment. Drops, you are darling! If I love nothing else, I love you!”

Great American writer, William Burroughs, friend of Jack Kerouac and a man famous for his literary contributions such as 'Junky' and 'Queer' and infamous for accidentally shooting his wife dead, was an opium addict for much of his life. He had this to say on the subject, “Junk is the ultimate commodity, the merchandise is not sold to the consumer- the consumer is sold to the merchandise”

So should we legalize heroin? It does occasionally kill people, but so do cars, and kittens, if you try to swallow them whole.

Before you answer that, let me come clean. This has been something of a trick question, because in many places heroin and indeed, opium are legal. Many of our modern day painkillers are still derived from opium, and even heroin is used some countries as a pain reliever, though it is not supplied under the name heroin. In the UK, patients experiencing severe pain may be prescribed diamorphine, which is another name for heroin.

Now here is the interesting thing. Diamorphine, aka, heroin, is indeed regulated for legal medical use in many countries around the world. It is also, according to The Lancet medical journal, the most dangerous, addictive, and harmful drug out of the top twenty commonly used drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, street methadone, tobacco and ketamine. Yet it is still quite alright for a doctor to prescribe heroin in Hong Kong, the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands.



If we accept that heroin, the most dangerous drug in the world bar none has a place in the doctor's arsenal, then how can we continue to enforce a ban on marijuana, which by the assessment of The Lancet, causes less physical harm than tobacco and alcohol, two drugs which are legal throughout most of the world?

Personally, I think all drugs should be entirely legal. If adults want to spend their lives wallowing in their own filth as crack addicts, then I do not see why that should be a criminal offense. If they commit crimes whilst under the effect of drugs, then they should be charged with those crimes and the fact that they chose to become crack heads or junkies should not be a mitigating factor.

We baby people far too much in society, treating them like weak minded infants too stupid to make choices for themselves. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that poking a needle full of opoids between your toes is a bad idea. It's not a secret that drugs are addictive, make you sick and eventually destroy your mind and body. If people know this and chose to do them anyway, that is their choice.

Instead of parading the drug addicted as scum of the earth and locking them away for much of their natural lives, what if we used those resources, the countless millions of dollars spent prosecuting and incarcerating people who have done nothing wrong apart from consume a substance, to support, educate and perhaps elevate the lives of those so deeply mired in misery that the prospect of soberly facing real life each day is impossible?

Legalize the lot, tax the lot, and stop criminalizing large portions of the population for no reason whatsoever.