Positive drug use the 'great unmentionable'

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A British academic says the positives of drug use need to be spoken of freely.

Stuart Taylor, a senior lecturer in criminal justice at Liverpool Moores University in England, made the comment at a public talk at Victoria University of Wellington today about about the "great unmentionable" - the positives of illegal drug use; a topic he said was "taboo".

He hypothesised that someone who took ecstasy on the weekend might find it easier to socialise in their day-to-day life after learning how to break down social boundaries while on drugs in the weekend.

But he acknowledged he did not have any research to back this up.

"We ignore that drugs can be pleasurable or even beneficial.

"There are two sides to this debate, but only one is ever publicly touted."

He grew up in an area where drug and alcohol use was prevalent, and said he saw the positives of drugs and alcohol use, including breaking down social conventions.

In Britain there were 321,229 people aged between 15 and 64 who were "problematic drug users" but about three million people had used drugs in the past year.

"We ignore reasons why people use, we focus on addiction but that's not really what attracts people to drugs in the first place."

Government policy was failing because it did not factor in the positives of drug use and only focused on problematic drug use, he said.

"If people derive pleasure from drug use then possibly it can have a positive impact on their lives," he said.

- APNZ