The War on Drugs and Political Cowardice

The phrase “no shit Sherlock” springs to mind.

Rather like the War on Terror (which is a war on a tactic rather than an actual enemy), the War on Drugs was always a nonsense. The drugs trade is a vast, complicated network that it is almost impossible to fight – particularly when one of the main tools in the Western world to control drugs is to lock up addicts and dealers together in institutions rife with drugs. Put simply, you can’t fight the heroin or cocaine trade. It is like trying to fight international logistics; it isn’t going to happen. For every victory - for every dealer locked up - there are thousands of others out there. And for every poppy field burned, there are thousands of other farmers who depend on the revenue from the drugs trade in order to feed their families.

However defeat in the war on drugs is not the only reason for legalising them – there are more positive reasons for legalisation as well. Put simply, adults should be treated as adults. They should be allowed to choose whether they use narcotics or not – just as they should be able to choose whether they drink alcohol and eat rich, fatty foods. Sure, some people will become drug addicts – just as people become drunks and obese. But that’s the point of being an adult; that’s the point of having choice and therefore how adults can have personal responsibility.

But that is one of the reasons why the governments of the Western World won’t legalise – it involves treating adults like adults, and our governments increasingly believe that we are wayward children who need constant control. Of course the White House has rejected this report; accepting it would involve relinquishing some of its control over its people.

It will also be a courageous politician who advocates drug legalisation, if only because of the hysterical anti-drug rhetoric that has accompanied the ridiculous war on drugs. And, let’s be honest, courage is not something that can be associated with the modern politician…

So drug legalisation is the right and common sense thing to do; ending this pointless failure of a war on inanimate narcotics is the logical thing to do. Unfortunately, the one thing that will guarantee that it won’t happen is the political class.