Added: 01/13/2006 |
Soft Drugs May Appear to be Less Addictive but Are Still Just as DangerousThese days there are many different kinds of drugs. And usually they are divided into two big categories: soft drugs and hard drugs. The difference between these two kinds is usually understood as soft drugs being less harmful for your body than other hard drugs.
Soft drugs in most cases cause only psychological addiction (if any addiction at all) while more dangerous hard drugs cause physical addiction and may seriously harm your general health.
So, what are these soft drugs - the range, in fact, is pretty wide and includes such things as cannabis or hallucinogens (like psilocybin mushrooms or Mexican peyote, for example). Usually alcohol and nicotine are also considered as drugs but even though they are legal they do not belong to soft drugs. They cannot be treated as "soft" because they cause strong physical addiction. On the contrary, hard drugs are defined as non-metabolizing drugs. In most cases metabolites of hard drugs are toxic oxidation compounds.
Clear understanding of difference between hard and soft drugs is especially important in such countries as Netherlands where soft drugs are legal. You can easily try some of the "lighter" drugs in so-called "coffee-shops" which are numerous there. These drugs are used with therapeutic purpose to treat different symptoms. And so the definition of soft drugs is following: 'soft are those drugs that undergo predictable metabolism after the therapeutic effect took place'.
But at the same time that definition excludes synthetic and semi synthetic drugs (like LSD and MDMA) from "soft" category. These drugs show higher risk of addiction so the policy forbids the use of these drugs. That is because of their origin and that they are usually mixed with hard drugs like heroin or methamphetamine. Of course, it is not allowed to use soft drugs at work, while driving or operating machines. Governments of these countries consider the risk of the soft drugs use as "acceptable".
All over the world there are unstoppable discussions whether soft drugs should or should not be legal. Different medical studies and tests are performed to prove different points of view of this problem. There are many arguments for and against soft drugs legalization.
Supporters of soft drugs legalization claim that if soft drugs were legal there would have been smaller use of hard drugs. And it would have probably lessened organized and disorganized crime connected with illegal drug dealing. Special regulation can also help to organize soft drugs dealing - drug dealer these days sell to anyone (and that includes CHILDREN). And with legalization of soft drugs they would have been sold at special shops like tobacco or alcohol these days.
Of course, the opposite point of view also has pretty strong arguments. There are many facts showing that soft drugs legalization will only increase the use of hard drugs and make criminal wars on drugs even harder.
Any situation with soft drugs is pretty complex and it needs lateral thinking and detailed analysis of all the possible consequences before legalization becomes a reality.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
