Fireworks

Fireworks: pretty boring unless you're on drugs Since last week’s bout with Samuel Gordon-Stewart, I have been feeling bad. I think I was a little harsh. I stand by what I said, but I think it was the use of the word ‘fuckneck’ that tipped young Sam over the edge. As an act of contrition, I decided to give the young bloke a proper chance and do some serious reading of his website, to, you know, really understand the little fucker a bit better. And you know what – I’m really glad I did.

The first article I read was an interesting, erudite and very even-handed opinion piece on the debate over the banning of fireworks in our great nation’s capital. I enjoyed it and happen to agree with his argument. The original article can be found here.

His solution is so reasonable and well thought out that it could easily be applied to cure many of society’s ills. To prove just how watertight Samuel’s logic really is, I performed a simple experiment: using the Find and Replace function in Word, I substituted the word ‘fireworks’ for ‘drugs’. I left the sentence structure intact and no other words were changed. I think you’ll find that the lad is really onto something here and just wish that the lawmakers and policy wizards would take the youth of today more seriously. So, here it is:

Drugs

It’s that time of the year again when the debate over whether or not we should allow private use of drugs in Canberra during the Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend manages to rears its ugly head. It’s a debate with extremes, and regardless of the outcome, a large number of people would not be happy.

I’m personally not a fan of drugs, they don’t interest me and I don’t feel any need to play with them. The mass public displays (such as those seen on New Years Eve) also don’t particularly interest me. That being said, I don’t think banning drugs is the right decision, many people like drugs and use them responsibly, it’s the minority of people who don’t that are the problem.

As it happens, most of the concern over drugs revolve around drugs which are already illegal. It has been suggested that these drugs which are illegal here, may be being imported from the Northern Territory where the restrictions aren’t as tight. A black market clearly exists for drugs, and in my view banning private drugs outright will only strengthen the black market. The problem may be reduced, but the problem, rather than being mostly confined to a few weeks each year would become a year-round problem.

Of course there is also the issue of people who are using drugs relatively sensibly, but manage to set fire to nearby grass or bushland. This stretched the fire brigade to the limit on the weekend. A solution has been suggested for that as well, and that is that the government should designate various places (such as public ovals) as drug zones, and ban them everywhere else. You could then have the fire brigade and ambulance on standby at these venues.

The idea has some merit, it would certainly reduce the strain on the emergency services and may even turn the drugs into a more interesting community event than the current situation where everyone lets off their own drugs in isolation. The issue with this plan is insurance. The government, by sanctioning places as drugs zones, would invent an insurance issue, and naturally the cost of insuring such an event would be quite considerable due to the risk involved. Sadly all it would take is one idiot burning their arm or injuring a child and the whole idea would come crashing down.

If you can’t limit the drugs like that, you could have a public display and ban private drugs. It solves a lot of problems, much like an outright ban would, but it brings with it the same black market issues. I wouldn’t rule out a public display as an option, but it would be a bit superfluous seeing as banning private drugs isn’t overly practical.

The option that I like is a better regulated option. Rather than having the drugs on sale in every business that can be bothered getting a permit, for the entire week before the long weekend, you restrict it to a handful of specialist drugs importers, and only allow them to sell the drugs on the day that drugs will be allowed. Then you restrict the drugs to one night between 6pm-10pm, and only allow people who have applied for (and received) a permit purchase the drugs, and then only in regulated quantities. The restrictions may seem onerous, but in my view, it would be the best way to stop the overly abundant abuse of drugs. You could still have a public display on another night under these circumstances.

The fact of the matter is that for the next few weeks people will continue to let off drugs, either because they innocently have some left over, or deliberately purchased too many drugs so they would have plenty left over. Catching these people is nearly impossible due to the fact that once they let off the drugs they scamper, and the police have no way of finding them.

The current system isn’t ideal, and I don’t think an outright ban is either, but I think the compromise solution I have suggested here would be a reasonable compromise for both extremes of the annual argument.

Vincent