Colin Blakemore:
We must face the fact that the drugs war
is lost Once cannabis is reclassified, we must have a proper debate
on all intoxicants
17 March 2002, Independent UK
Just to get this out of the way: I am not
one of those people who is soft on drugs. I believe that the rise
of illegal drug use is one of the most corrosive changes in our
society during my lifetime. In many developing countries, ruthless
drug cartels control agriculture, the economy and politics. Drug
supply is a major criminal activity in the developed world, while
the demand for drugs fuels much of our lower-level crime. The
full cost of drug use in Britain, in terms of policing, crime,
health care, and social impact, is incalculable. We all grieve
for the young lives that have been ruined or lost because of illegal
drugs.
Nevertheless, as one of the first signatories
of the Independent on Sunday decriminalise cannabis campaign,
I applaud the courage of David Blunkett for moving towards reclassification
of the drug, and for lifting the taboo on debate about the drug
problem. I hope that this debate will now become broader, and
will consider the possibility of a radically different approach
to the use of mind-altering substances of all kinds.
Over the past 40 years or so, national governments
and international agencies have poured enormous resources into
efforts to stem the production of drugs, their distribution and
supply. That battle has not been successful. Judging by the availability,
the quality and the price of street drugs, as well as by the large
fraction of the population using them, draconian policing has
failed.
Opposed to this gloomy picture of a world
overwhelmed by drug use is the fact that virtually all human societies
live with (and always have lived with) their own socially accepted
drugs. There is no convincing rationale, and certainly no consistent
scientific basis, for the choice of drugs that are considered
mere social lubricants and those that are outlawed.
snip-
Colin Blakemore is director of the Centre
for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford
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