Question Time - Plymouth - Drug Users and Prison - Melanie Phillips

I used some stills from the video in a Storify story:

http://storify.com/cjjmccray/mark-and-mel
----------------------------------------
Clip (c) BBC. Taken from Question Time from Plymouth, first broadcast on BBC1 in the UK at 2245h, 26th January 2012.

The question was: Is Richard Branson right in saying drug users should not go to jail?
http://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/162675672488230912

The questioner was referring to Richard Branson's recent blog:
http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/time-to-end-the-war-on-drugs
http://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/162675994401054721

Scientific American's report on the situation in Portugal is here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization

And the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction's report is here:
http://www.idt.pt/PT/IDT/Documents/Ponto_Focal/2009_NationalReport.pdf
(it looks like it's using Comic Sans in places: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11582548)

Both links provided by the BBC's Question Time Twitter account (@bbcquestiontime) during the original broadcast:
http://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/162679268122439680

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• BBC
• Question
• Time
• Question Time
• Melanie
• Phillips
• Melanie Phillips
• Richard
• Branson
• Richard Branson

[BraDRoBBo]

1:53 I think that pretty much sums up everyone's reactiron to this video.

Does anyone else get the feeling that not one other person in that room agrees with her?

This video is hilarious, it made me laugh a lot, especially his response to her at 2:32

[cjjmccray]

@BraDRoBBo I can't embed a link in a reply, but have put in the top of the description a link to a Storify story with some still images from the video - especially around 1m53s when Mark Steel's face is a picture of incredulity.

And you're right, the trap she lays for herself at 2m32s is hilarious!

[whereisfriend]

This woman is a liar.

[venuism]

Lol daily mail

[leej2000]

A great example of excess crack

[ItsOnlyAPrank]

She's ugly too.

[Straylight100]

Melanie Phillips is a disgusting liar. 80% of people in prison are there for drug-related crime, usually property crime to fund a drug habit.

Everything she says about Portugal is a lie. She ignores Holland, where their drugs policies have brought about the lowest cannabis use in Europe, & an aging population of hard drug addicts, while in Britain, where we follow the American prohibitionist model we have the highest rates of drug use in Europe.

Drug prohibition is a subsidy for organised crime.

[minispecs123]

instead of being a stuck up old bitch she needs to have a joint and relax

[pallz2]

@rubysson57 Because she is a liar. She is making up statistics to win a argument.

[RockBackingTrack]

The Daily Fail.....  says it all really

[rubysson57]

More dislikes than likes. So what does that tell you about your video. And just look at the ' INTELLECTUAL OUTPUT' from your fans and contributors: 'she's mad', 'she's a liar', 'she's

a cunt'. Well, you are all on drugs aren't you. So that would suggest a bit of a vested interest, no?

[Lolp821]

Portugal benefited from legalisation, drug related death rates shot down because hard drugs weren't being used anywhere near as much. It wasn't all drugs, it was soft drugs, the drugs that you cannot overdose on. Yes drug users went up, but would you rather people be pissed off at the Governemnt, getting drunk causing fights and vandalism, which is exactly what happens all over the UK to which the proposed solution was a curfew on alcohol consumption, genius. Stop listening to the UK Government!

[webley566]

Would have been good to have Richard Branson on this show to relay to her that she has completely false figures. This woman is a liar and she is not the only one who is blinded by the reefer madness idea. People who are against decriminalization will say ANYTHING to have their own way.

[martynjhorne]

twitter her and yes,,,let her know her lies dug herself deep.