From Peter Webster
It is encouraging to see New Scientist take the calm and rational
position concerning illicit drugs. Yet asking our governments to do the same is
a request they simply cannot honour. The root of the problem lies with the
prohibition of some drugs deemed “harmful”: it has as a supporting axiom the
idea that society can or should be made “free” of these products by force, even
when their dangers are quite possibly inconsequential compared with our
permitted drugs, alcohol and tobacco. As long as prohibition reigns,
irrationality must accompany it.
The prohibition of illicit drugs, which accomplishes no “control” of drugs
whatever but surrenders control to criminal enterprise, must be replaced by a
policy of carefully regulated availability before hysteria will be quelled and
meaningful research can be accomplished. Until then we may be sure that
governments will continue to refuse to see or search for truth on this
issue.
