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A social enterprise that has been teaching people how to cook for more than a decade is now helping homeless people

By Sara Royle
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  • Dr Karenza Moore on Why don’t we just… regulate MDMA?
    22 Feb 2020 10:30
    Thanks for your comment. Yes it should have said "...and he was promptly sacked". However, Professor Nutt himself recounts the reaction from Jacqui Smith - https://beckleyfoundation.org/mdma-report/ - who initially rejected David Nutt and the ACMD's advice to downgrade MDMA from Class A to a Class B scheduled substance. I understand your position with regards to Professor Parrott but I disagree with your interpretation of his work in the context of the much larger body of research literature which disagrees with that interpretation. Thanks!
  • Derek Williams on Why don’t we just… regulate MDMA?
    12 Feb 2020 20:02
    Thing is the government's drug policy is essentially based on harm maximisation, The most basic information about drugs is deliberately denied to consumers - what the dose is. Worse, a highly variable and contaminated supply is regarded as a measure of success by the police, an indication that their efforts to disrupt the supply is having an effect. If the intention is to deter use by using fear of danger, it's a very misguided idea and it doesn't work. The drugs policy is called "drug control" and prohibited drugs are called "controlled drugs", yet there is absolutely no control over the supply industry, no control of strength or purity, indeed nothing to ensure that what is sold isn't an outright fake. There is no control over who sells the drugs or where from and no measures like age limits for sale. The one thing prohibition is not is "drug control" and prohibited drugs are not "controlled drugs". MD isn't totally safe, of course it isn't, nothing on earth is. But laws should always work to reduce harms, they should never seek to increase them as the prohibition policy does by design. Oh and it's worth mentioning the organised crime the drugs policy supports and fuels, along with the exploitation and violence that creates. The present drugs policy has nothing to recommend it, absolutely nothing.

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