From the BBC:
A former minister with responsibility for drugs policy has called for the decriminalisation of all drugs. Bob Ainsworth, who oversaw the issue at the Home Office in Tony Blair's government, said the approach of successive administrations had failed.
The Labour MP for Coventry North East, also a former defence secretary, said the current policy left the drugs trade in the hands of criminal gangs. Ministers have insisted they remain opposed to decriminalisation.
Mr Ainsworth is the most senior politician so far to publicly call for all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, to be decriminalised. He said he realised while he was a minister in the Home Office in charge of drugs policy that the so-called war on drugs could not be won. Mr Ainsworth has called for a strict system of legal regulation under which different drugs would either be prescribed by doctors or sold under licence.
It's a bit late now, but it's all good, I suppose.
Thursday 16 December 2010
"Ex-minister in call to decriminalise all drugs"
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8 comments:
Prohibition never ever works.
Tima and time again this lesson from history is not learned.
How thick is that ?
Unfortunately, like all careerist scumbag politicians, he didn't choose to mention this when he was actually in a position to change it.
Anon, exactly.
JT, indeed, but there are a couple of 'public figures' still in office who are onside. Click 'legalisation' label for a list, together with other countries which have taken steps towards legalisation with no overall negative effects.
"We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists.”
Let's move it from organized crime to disorganized crime?
WOAR, that is the genius of it all.
Can you imagine how tediously dull it will be standing in line at the chemists to collect your maximum permitted amount of two ecstasy tablets on a Friday? Or asking for a half ounce of Red Leb at the corner shop and showing your proof-of-age card? Or going to the doctor's every month for your heroin prescription? Hanging around a cannabis café with a load of middle aged stoners giggling away at nothing in particular?
All the thrill of the chase will be gone forever and drug use will halve within a year.
The strangest thing is the counter arguments offered by the prohibitionists (this is a comment I read earlier today):
"We can't legalise drugs, have you seen what drugs do to people?"
What's that? The drugs that are impossible to get because they are illegal? How did imaginary drugs do anything to anybody? They're not imaginary. Oh dear, well perhaps we should start this conversation again.
OP, another one of my favourites is "If we legalise drugs, then criminals will just go and commit other crimes".
a) Is there any evidence to show that 'other crimes' fell when drugs were made illegal?
b) If it were true (which it isn't), then it would be a good idea to make e.g. golf and home-baking illegal, so that criminals stop breaking and entering and start selling golf clubs and home made cakes instead.
America would do bad things to us if we legalised cocaine.
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