I like Ken Clarke. He remains a Class A act in a government that could do with more heft and bottom. So there’s that. And his candid admission that the War on Drugs is a failure is welcome. Alas, even Ken can’t quite bring himself to acknowledge that the only thing madder than continuing a mad policy is continuing a mad policy even after you’ve admitted it’s mad. Still, here’s Ken:
However he added: ‘The Government has no intention whatever of changing the criminal law on drugs.’‘We have been engaged in a war against drugs for 30 years. We’re plainly losing it. We have not achieved very much progress. The same problems come round and round. I have frankly conceded that policy has not been working. We are all disappointed by the fact that far from making progress it could be argued we are going backwards at times.’
This is where we must make do with the knowledge that admitting a problem is the first step towards solving it.
So, progress. Of a sort.
Standard Drug Liberation Caveats: legalisation won’t solve all problems. It will do most good in those countries that suffer most from the Drug War, namely the producer countries. They suffer more from the Drug War than we do. Legalisation might well be good for us; it will certainly be good for them.
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