Legalising Drugs.

The intervention by Bob Ainsworth is timely. The current legal framework is a complete failure and has created exactly the kind of criminal economy which existed in the U.S. during the years of Prohibition, worth £billions annually.  Moreover drug use is more or less out of control and illegal substances can be obtained in every town and neighbourhood and most secondary schools including the private sector and all prisons. If you add all the other criminal activities of which drugs are the capital source, there are many more £billions in play.

The harm to the innocent who become addicted is alarming. The time has come, after no less then fifty years of failure of the current approach, to do something radically different. Bob Ainsworth proposes regulation and control, making the substances legal if sold by licenced authorities. The activity of the drug dealers would continue to be illegal, but they would be priced off the streets anyway. It is time for politicians and the government to show courage, follow Mr Ainsworth’s lead and come up with a plan. If the tabloids shriek, let them. On this they need to grow up.