John Lydon, speaking in response to a question about the decriminalisation of drugs. I do not own this, this is (an amusing clip) from the BBC, which I have uploaded for the purpose of entertainment.
What needs to happen is at home. You said this, and you're more right than you know! If people do not feel loved, accepted, or needed (and this starts at home), then they will search out that which fulfills these needs, even for a little while. These very human feelings are the real "gateway drug." We can not escape being who we are, and that is the real problem.
Love the guy - you'd be a fool to underestimate the true intellect of John Lydon - you get what you see - no pretentions - just Johnny Rotten common sense.
Absolute hypocrisy, if the government cared about health as opposed to tax, cigarettes would have been made illegal years ago. In the Uk you still get fines for eating in apple whilst driving (recent case) but not for smoking.
Rotten sounds about right. Imagine what the marketing and PR departments would do with heroin and cocaine when you look at what all has evolved around sugar, fat and carbs and how addicted the world is just to processed foods.
@@hyena131 not sure what you're driving at. He said it himself, he's a punk and the point of being a punk is to upset the establishment, it's got nothing to do with Anarchism.
@@islandsedition "Punk" was no more than a giggle/wear some ripped up clothes, put a safety pin through your nose and have a good old jump around at some new sounding, loud raucous music. Nothing wrong with that and it was all good fun and exciting at the time. But let's not kid ourselves it was anything other than this.
Johnny doesn’t realise the fact they’re illegal they come with a higher price. If they were legal we could expect to bring the cost of importing etc down Any use of puns in this comment are unintentional and I would like to distance myself from such remarks
The problem with drugs, and I have seen this first hand, is that it makes people unpredictable and lose a lot of their common sense while under their influence. I don't care what people get up to in their private time, but it so often ends up affecting others, and I have a problem with this. If you look at the number of drug users who commit crimes, there seems to be an irrefutable correlation.
It's not drugs, but an addictive personality style. People don't feel whole and want to patch that hole with something. It never works. We need to realize we are fine as we are, and just need to work on getting better step by step. We are whole.
There are "reasonable arguments" against smoking pot, that should be made, then responded to with counter-arguments, and individuals should make up their own minds based on the data available. Unfortunately, governments take that choice away. There is no reasonable argument backed by any data that illustrates prohibition to be effective. Furthermore, I think the most important (and overlooked) argument is the moral position, that my body is mine, I alone have the right to decide what goes in it.
From 'Today' a Thames TV show in the 70's to 'Question Time' on the BBC. He got famous via mainstream TV so the only surprise is that he didn't say 'fuck', which was a bit disappointing.
To exacerbate this, we lie to each other, and tell each other that there is a easy way out of our problems...but there isn't. There never was. But it seems like so few of us have grown any kind of foundation to allow us to learn this, learn how to bend with the wind, without breaking at the trunk.
People have been taking drugs as long as we have had history. And we have yet to come up with an answer. Obviously, banning drugs is not working. What will? Getting to the core of the problem. But when that problem is the human heart....a fickle beast, at best, with no inital guidance, in a lot of cases. No one to put in the care and time that it takes, and the few that do are overwhelmed with the need.
The Decriminalisation of drugs and rehabilitation has worked in Portugal for the last 20 years, reoffending rates are down, addiction is down and yet we still waste billions fighting a drugs war that can't be won. The blue print has been a success and yet we still plod on wasting billions....what a ridiculous path to keep following, when all that money could go on real policing and rehabilitation.
@@hyena131 You don't get it do you, I'll explain it, hopefully a bit better... America lobbied the EU in 1999 to not allow Portugal to go down that new chosen route to fight the blight on our society, which is Drugs, because the old way wasn't working. It was that fresh idea that had to be tried and if it didn't work, then it would of been known, that wasn't the option to follow but it has worked! and yet the rest of us in Europe are still plodding on wasting money, 21 years later on the anti drugs war, that isn't being won. Now this probably wont work on every country but say if it worked in 30% of the Western world, then crime would fall and peoples lives would be saved, is that not something worth trying?. So my question to you would be, would you rather plod on wasting billions on a failed anti drugs war or try something that may give millions of people a bit of hope?
0:55 (1st guy) "the real emphasis should be on rehabilitation...really helping people, and their families, when they suffer from a drug addiction..." and otherwise leaving them alone.
Prohibition has never worked, anywhere, at any time, for anything and drugs is no different. The best we can do is regulate and control drugs. Take heroins for an example. If the government decriminalised possession of heroin for personal use, and allowed heroin to he prescribed to addicts, to use in a safe environment, for free, who would the dealers sell to? Fight the war like a businessman would fight a rival businessman. Offer a better product at a cheaper price, and you win.
The problem with discussions about drug legalization is that people invariably accept the premise that anti-drug laws prevent drug use. This premise is patently false. Drugs are used by the people who wish to use them regardless of whether they are illegal or not. So what does the outlawing of drugs accomplish? Only the enrichment of those willing to violate the drug laws and engage in the drug trade. If all drugs were legalized, the only impact would be to put those people out of business.
We live and cope with a drug freely available legally because it's familiar though it possibly does more damage than any illegal drugs. It's also controlled and licensed. Your round John.
David dimbleby, among the first to concede that popular, uninformed views should receive the same air time as the popular "we're all sick of exports" view? Am I right in thinking Dan Snow is related? or is he an Earth shattering histiorian in his own right?
Dear, dear Johnny! I totally agree with you that drugs should be legalized...I am American, and we've already seen what banning what everyone wants, and, frankly, can get anyway does (I'm thinking here of the era of American Prohibition on alcohol. Honestly, the only thing we did there was foster the Mafia and NASCAR. Ick.) But your argument that all we need is education is untrue. We have been drilling the effects of drugs into our young people for a long time!
Rotten is wrong on this. The dutch tax weed and use that taxation to fund rehabilitation programmes for hard drug users rather than having the tax payer fund these initiatives. This has resulted in Holland having some of the lowest house burglary rates in Europe. the only issue with taxation is that the criminal und3rworld could undercut prices by supplying without tax - but that comes back to legislation to ensure that the drugs cannot be undercut in the first place. But still, this would vastly reduce the market for the criminal underworld as i would say it is much easier to obtain weed than it is to find dodgy cigarettes in the UK currently. Harder drugs should never be legalised but instead dealt with via the aforementioned rehabilitation programmes.
Decriminalize the use of drugs and offer rehabilitation to those users being caught in possession. Do not decriminalize the possession for sale and distribution, though. Portugal is the template for this. Research it for yourself.
I think, and this belongs partly to what Lydon said, all of us should realise that these statistics are not necessarily significant to what is really happening. Of course, ecstasy is less lethal than alcohol or caffeine, simply because it is not as accessible. Please don't take offense personally, I was just trying to make a point of not only withholding information (as Lydon pointed out) but also manipulating information, as a lot of these statistics are the cornerstone of popular belief.
drug legaliseation or decriminaliseation has been a sucess in countries such as holland and portugal it has impacted on drugs related crime rehabilitation and saves money convicting those who are already addicted to drugs lets face it nobody sees alchoholism as an offence so why should circumstances differ from a heroin addict , that person too needs help not convicted, i can get my hands on many deadly substances such as arsnic, and cyanide doesnt mean i wanna start consuming them.
John Lydon on Question Time? Okie Dokie, how about we have Bez sitting there in a sombreo, shaking his maracas, giving his tuppence on the EU's common fisheries policy? "I think, right, it's bang outta order like, innit. Know wha'am sayin'? Eight-E's man, come on!".
I thought this, everyone, whether they are musicians or florists have the right to have an opinion on politics. I find Lydon's thoughts refreshing in light of the same boring old drivel from politicians who generally spout the same old party line.
tax drugs yes, but not addictive ones, heroin, cocaine, crack. and also not the harmful ghb, pcp.... John is right, information is what is required to be resonsible with drugs. so why not a "drugs licence"? you take a test like a driving licence, proove that you understand the dangers.
So Just to twist what you obviously mean as opposed to what you wrote, You don't want heroine, cocaine etc to be taxed so you want it to be tax free DUH. And for your information MOST users are fully aware of the dangers of drug taking, as are drinkers being aware of the dangers of alcohol. And most of us know our limits, its only people with addictive personalities that ignore those limits and become Alcoholics and Junkies. Although it doesn't appear so, the number of addicts is a very low percentage compared to the number of users, its just that the Alcoholics and Junkies are more visible and appear to be a higher percentage than they actually are.
Of course there is, since that crime is to fund the habit; I wonder how a world with cheap drugs would function, being as most addicts would be laid out on their floors whilst the rest of us carried on normally.
@@dazboot2966 yeah, she’s still Louise Mensch. Just like Piers Morgan, just because you can agree with some of what they say it doesn’t change their unspeakable awfulness.
I love how out of place he looks, everyone else is all dressed to the nines and he looks so casual. God hes cool, he doesn't even care what people think of him, it would be GREAT to have that kind of personality.
