I'm amazed that as many as 43% still support ID cards . I don't know anyone who does .....

.......and how much tax money would be spent both distributing free or massively subsidised drugs to the losers who use them - the only way that legalising drugs could possibly work without simply swapping one supplier from another ? And how much tax money would be spent in then providing hostels , hospitals , cures and treatment to try and get them off it !

Time to get real boys ; the tax payers are sick to death of paying out for wasters to sponge at their expense . Asking them to pay for governments to help druggies who they would be partly responsible for getting on the stuff in the first place is just plain daft .

Have any of you tried to reconcile your call to legalise drugs with the goverment's current hard line on smoking and obesity for example ? It's just plain nonsense .

Those two points I've raised before . I've yet to receive anything approaching a sensible counter argument .

It could be ........I'm still trying to recover from the trauma of reading Mark Twain's classics of the past .

God forbid I recommend Huckleberry Finn to the messageboard readers ; the mods will delete that post along with my other two innocuous contributions of the last 24 hours .

All with no explanation naturally .

Whatever happened to the rules ?

I bet you have , Bucky .

Because you never could take me on and beat me in open debate could you ? You and the likes of the FlopMod have reached your true level - incoherent and witless to the point that you are glad that differing views are no longer tolerated . I'll take it as the ultimate compliment .

My last comment on the subject . Hopefully , as that's the case , the censors will let it be .

Four Lane Blue - I've never read the Flashman books ; I suspect you've mistaken me for Sidders .

Dear God .......whisky contains alcohol !!

Thank you , Bucky .

I'll try and remember that one

Chinese baddies !! ?

Careful , FLB ....the thought police are in a particularly vigilant mood

King Rat by James Clavell is another good one.

But not half as good as Shogun by the same author .......all thousand pages of it !!

It would be if I knew how to quote multiple posts ......

But we've reached the point that

- "perhaps 10% of global GDP is controlled by narco gangs" ...............which you would like replaced by governments

- "the largest single commercial enterprise in Italy is drugs running" .........if you can't beat the mafia , join them .

- "our insurance premiums on everything are at least 15% higher than they should be because of drug crime" ................it still would be - unless , of course , you advocate , distribution of drugs at the taxpayers expense , which amounts to the same thing really .

- "criminalisation is completely screwing up getting help to those vulnerable individuals who need help" .............read the link in my last post , don't just ignore it . "Vulnerable" individuals aren't being helped in any significant numbers despite the massive cost to the taxpayers .

"In other words criminal prohibition of drugs is a completely failed and discredited way of tackling the issue" ................liberal policies pursued by successive governments in relation to drug users and pushers has patently failed . Time to take the gloves off - the law abiding , vulnerable people of this nation deserve it .

I like drugs (only the good ones though)

Do us all a favour , Bucky . Take a very large amount of them ......all at once . Plus some more just to be on the safe side .

....and wash it all down with a few bottles of whisky

Only 7/10 so far ; he has to win summat before he can be compared with the great Graeme Souness.

Only 2/10 with this post I'm afraid , jim .

You're getting just a bit too predictable these days , old chap

Allied to the fact that Gretna play their home games at Fir Park Motherwell.

Maybe they should merge with Motherwell - they'd be really big then

HERE is a link highlighting the cost of the so-called rehabilitation that certain naive posters feel should accompany the legalisation of all drugs .

So we would have the taxpayer (ie , those of us not living in tax exile ) paying for both the distribution of hard drugs by the government - and for the non existent "cures" for the effects of such drugs .

Better just to shove all dealers inside for a very lengthy stretch and stick the druggies in a closed cell next to them until they dry out .

There is a new book out on Cloughie called "Provided you don't kiss me " by Duncan Hamilton . Good reviews apparently .

As we seem to have a few Roman fans let me recommend "Ancient Rome , the rise and fall of an empire" by somebody called Simon Baker . I took this on holiday and was very surprised at its quality and readibility (if that's a word) .

It's apparently based on a BBC series which I must have overlooked . Anyway it's now available at B'burn library .

I also liked Three's Company but it's much slower to start off with. It tells the tale of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the least known and least able of the second triumvirate alongside Octavian (later Augustus) and Mark Antony. It's the classic tale of the incompetent buffoon promoted beyond all measure of ability and unable to learn from his mistakes. Laugh out loud funny but strangely moving.

He didn't do too bad , Sidders . He lived to an old age and died a natural death ......a remarkable achievement for a triumvirate

Soaring rates of A&E admissions because of alcohol

Terrible statistics .

But what exactly is your agenda here , Philip ?

Do you really think that everything is going to improve by legalising drugs , of which many are vastly more dangerous and addictive than alcohol ? Why do you emphasise the problems of alcohol whilst silmultaneously bombarding us with links advocating the easier access of hard drugs ?

Your argument seems to rest on the premise that because alcohol is legal and can be abused by the feeble minded then all dangerous substances should be given the green light .

A more moral and common sense approach would be to try and minimise the alcohol problems in society and by stepping up the war on drugs .

HERE is a link that is more relevant than the ramblings of a copper who hasn't the stomach to do his job and uphold the law . I wonder if cannabis helped or hindered this loonie in his mission on earth .

Blue Phil has just posted this on the Smoking thread:

"That's what is being denied people - freedom of choice . When some ignorant bugger used to smoke near me in the pub ....I'd simply move away . Relying on Nanny State to intervene is a bit pathetic IMO."

Glad you're keeping up with my scribblings

The difference between smoking and "drugs" is that one is legal and the other illegal .

Another difference is the extent of the damage done to society and to the families of hard drug addicts . If we're simply talking about "soft" drugs then I suppose you may have a point .....but then you believe in decriminalising ALL drugs don't you ?

I just believe it the gov't should lay its cards on the table - if smoking is that bad then outlaw it completely . Until they do then persecution of smokers whilst taking their taxes is hypocritical to say the least .

.....and then get someone else to pay it back

Well I'd give McCarthy a start and see how he acts . If he's not up to scratch then Derbs or Roberts must be given a decent run out early in the match .

This debacle was typical of Rovers - on the back of a run of good results they floated about like fairies , humped the long ball up and generally didn't pass and run enough . They were all guilty and maybe if Hughes had his time again he wouldn't have played the front two he did . Tugay should start in the Euro games for sure ; I wonder how he'd play with Dunn in the middle ....

Still , if nothing else , it'll make for a cracking game in the second leg . This is the time for the public to respond and get behind the boys .

THIS LINK is vaguely relevant to the discussion in that it illustrates the damage that addiction does to people - addictions that our own unworldly Philipl would like to add to for the sole reasons that there are other harmful substances out there already legal (though not in the same soul destroying league) and it could prove to be a nice cash cow for the government . Maybe , using that logic , they should make tobacco and alcohol more readily available to the vulnerable in society . Think of the treasury coffers !

As per usual there is no explanation from the self proclaimed intellectual as to how and where the drug crazies are going to raise the funds to buy the drugs from their new suppliers , HMG ? Plus there's the extra VAT I assume

Oh all right then I admit it .....I've only posted the link because of the wonderful comment from the bloke at the bottom of the piece . Obviously not an intellectual but equally obviously he inhabits the real world ....

I still rate Strachan and Dowie I have to say .... :ph34r:

I wasn't trying to pick an arguement, but I don't think that anyone saying that racial stereotypes are somewhat correct and a natural justified human condition doesn't deserve much of a response in my opinion.

So if someone says that Japanese or Chinese are more inclined to be successful in business and to be more hard working than , for example , the Aboriginal people in Australia , or that white sprinters are less likely to succeed than their American/African counterparts , then that is unacceptable ? Even if it's self evidently true ?

The sooner some people realised that races and cultures ARE different and have different weaknesses and strengths the sooner we can get away from this paranoia and obsession with race .

The thing that makes me laugh is that the same people who are always telling us that all races are equal in the next breath tell us to celebrate the diversity of those very same people . What can be more diverse than people who come from places as far apart as Norway and South Africa to play footy in Blackburn ? It's bleedin' obvious they are going to be different !

If someone is perceived to be lazy then we (should) have a right to say so regardless of their race . Not to be able to describe a black person as lazy is insulting to the right of free speech - as well as putting out the message that certain individuals because of their race are beyond criticism . Now that IS racism.......

The shed does look particularly dreadful in that clip though......

I really do think it's time to build a new similar capacity stand . The Riverside doesn't reflect our current status as a premiership force . It's going to have to be done sooner or later and could help in the drive to recruit more punters .

On the Hughes subject I was an undecided at the time ; Strachan and Dowie were in front of him . Now there's not a manager in the world I have more respect for . With Wenger staying at Arsenal , Ferguson seemingly at UTD for at least the next 5 years at least I suspect , Liverpool seemingly on the up , and the Welsh job already done , there aren't many teams I reckon he'd abandon us for - at least in the premiership .

If it was only kids that could hear them I'd be more tolerant of their existence . (The horns that is ...... :ph34r: )