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Monday 21 May 2012

To hell with Alan Johnson, the Tories are just as moronically authoritarian as Labour

Sunday, 1st November 2009

I don't think that government ministers should necessarily listen to the advice they're given by independent, expert authorities. That is, the government is and should be free to decide that, whatever the merits of any given piece of independent analysis the larger, more general, interest is best served by rejecting that advice.

So there's nothing wrong with Alan Johnson sacking Professor David Nutt. That's his prerogative. But we have our own views and interests too. And we may fairly say that Johnson is a fool and that Nutt's recommendation, shared by his colleagues at Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, that Cannabis should be reclassified at a Class C, not Class B, drug is eminently sensible. For that matter, his observation that horse-riding is more dangerous than taking ecstasy was a dangerously provocative statement that doubtless also helped seal his fate: provocative because, of course, it was dangerously, irresponsibly true.

It's a little bit depressing to think that if one were to use the Drug War as a vote-determinig issue one would have little choice but to endorse the Liberal Democrats. In other words, the Tories are no better than Labour. The increasinginly buffoonish Chris Grayling seems to have decided that his mission in politics is to prove that he can be every bit as moronically doctrinaire and authoritarian as his Labour counterparts. This despite the fact that his own party leader was a cannabis enthusiast for many years.

But the Tories' attitude towards drugs is telling, not least because it undermines all their talk of personal freedoms and the importance of individual responsibility. If they can't get something as simple as the Drug War right what can they be trusted on?

Standard Drugs-Related Disclaimer: Cannabis bores me and I doubt I've had more than a couple of joints since leaving university. But my views would be no different if I were a regular user and I see nothing wrong with the consumption of cannabis or, for that matter, any of the other drugs that are, for reasons illogical and unpersuasive, currently illegal.

Filed under: Drugs (86 more articles) , Labour (2135 more articles) , Liberal Democrats (1149 more articles) , Tories (273 more articles)

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Kevyn Bodman

November 1st, 2009 3:39pm Report this comment

The LibDems might be right about drugs but they are wrong on so much else.
Not least they are EUrophiles.
It is interesting that in all the talk about whether or not Blair should be president none of the national leaders or opinion formers has thought it important to attach any weight at all to what the people of Europe might want.
There are many other reasons too to be opposed to the EU.

Being enlightened on drugs doesn't excuse the LibDems other shortcomings.

If I had a vote in the UK I would vote for the Libertarian Party.Definitely not authoritarian.

Robert Wandsworth

November 1st, 2009 4:11pm Report this comment

An excellent read. The Tories show that they will carry on with this foolish, wasteful 'war on drugs' in just the same vein - how depressing.

The erosion of civil liberties will continue apace, it seems.

Olaf Rye

November 1st, 2009 4:52pm Report this comment

The political class in this nation, and all their sycophants in the media and the judiciary, are all committed to the erosion of civil liberties and the transformation of the United Kingdom into a soft-totalitarian state. This is done out of their conceit for their own gnostic wisdom--the public can obviously not be trusted to make the right decisions and must be guided by their divinely (Marxist) revealed knowledge. I am amazed at all the resistance to restoring responsibility to the lives of the citizens from all parties and the media hacks. Obviously, none of the parties can be trusted to even balance the books, so how can we expect them to do anything competently ?

freedomscaresme

November 1st, 2009 5:00pm Report this comment

The prohibitionists always gather at Westminster to impose their values on other people because being there gives them the advantage of the power of the State. A bigger problem than the ignorance of the ruling elite is that they are permitted to form groups.

alan

November 1st, 2009 5:25pm Report this comment

if we walk a straight line, never stepping off or slipping, we have nothing to worry about, our rulers will think for us, and they will punish us if we fall short of perfection, on the other hand they seem to get away with anything and everything.

Fergus Pickering

November 1st, 2009 7:47pm Report this comment

Balls to the lot of you. Being enlightened on drugs means being a pothead and probably sniffing cocaine from time to time, does it? Do you think ANY of these substances should be illegal or do you just want to make up your own list? Fags are more dangerous, I suppose? Well, I'll tell you sommething. I don't see why MY money should be used to keep a load of drg addicys in bloody idleness. If they are free to take the stuff then they are free to die in a ditch as far as I am concerned. AND I feel muc h the same about drunks. Nobody poured the stuff down their throats. Fags might kill you but you can smoke and be a productive member of society. And don't witter on about the odd joint. I'm talking about people sitting around all day doing bugger all except smoke or inject or sniff or whatever. Parasites, the lot of them.

daniel maris

November 1st, 2009 9:11pm Report this comment

Well I think I can endorse just about everything in your post - except to say that you fail to distinguish between a drug being legalised and a drug being decriminalised.

It would be problematic - not impossible but very difficult - to legalise recreational drugs. You would have to look v. carefully at the issues. Would you be legalising all drugs that people take recreationally - even those produced by some mad chemist in Amsterdam that have never been tested on anyone - animals or humans? Similarly we might think we know what cannabis is but in these days of GM and all the rest, it might actually be quite difficult to define what it is.

It is certainly easier to simply decriminalise all personal drug use - so that people take drugs either from authorised sources e.g. doctors and pharmacists in which case they can expect various controls and so on, or they take them from unauthorised sources and do so at their own peril.

The public's concern about drugs and young people would be better addressed with regular mandatory testing if that's what people want.

Cuffleyburgers

November 2nd, 2009 8:15am Report this comment

Alex

You are correct the only thing I would say is that avocating legalization would be political suicide in the current climate.

Cameron's priority must be to win the election uless the country is to sink into the sea, and all positions must perforce be made subject to that over-riding consideration

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