UK - Richard Branson calls for rethink on 'repressive' UK drug laws

[edgarshade]

Daily Express

Published: Tue, July 22, 2014

With reader comments

DRUG users should be treated with compassion rather than criminalised with a rethink needed on "repressive" policies, Sir Richard Branson has said.

The billionaire Virgin chief said the "war on drugs" had poured resources into jailing people and policing at the expense of education, vocational training and the treatment and rehabilitation of drug users.

"There has been now four decades of the so-called 'war on drugs' and this has done, I think, terrible things to societies everywhere. It has done damage to drug users, it has done damage to their families, it has done damage to their communities," he told the International Aids Conference in Melbourne, Australia. "I believe it is time to support an alternative approach to the prohibitionist framework that has been in effect and has been so ineffective for decades now. People who use drugs or have a drug problem should be treated with compassion rather than being criminalised."

Sir Richard, a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said between £1.5 billion and £2.5 billion a year in the UK is spent on the enforcement of both drug supply and possession offences.

More...
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/490547/Richard-Branson-talks-war-on-drugs


Reader comment

malcolmkyle

If you support prohibition, then you are guilty of demagoguery, sadomoralism, greed, deception, self-deception, despotism, racism, willful ignorance, fraud, murder, oppression, torture, espionage, corruption, theft, money laundering, illegal arms transfers, militarising domestic police forces, political intrigue, bigotry, class warfare, hate crimes, human rights crimes, erosion of constitutional rights, invasion of privacy, extortion, environmental pollution, obstruction of justice, corruption of the scientific method, infanticide, genocide, trespassing, bribery, illegal restraint of trade, illegal surveillance, religious intolerance, thuggery…this list may actually be endless.

 

[dopemegently]

Great, richard branson has some perspective on the subject, but i really cant see any major changes in the pipeline. I dont doubt theyll make a nod towards treating addicts with compassion but imo i cant see that going further than forcing them into treatment programs they may not be ready for rather than throwing them into prison.

 

[Libertin]

Thanks for this. I respect Branson massively for doing this; so few celebrities/notable people have contributed to this cause. The comments section is outrageous, I'm actually surprised to see so many prohibitionists spewing such inane vitriol.

 

[neversickanymore]

I agree this is great.. also with the huge wave of famous peoples children getting busted there should be many more taking up this fight. Or they can just sit back and watch thier children demonized and thrown in prison.

 

[CLICKHEREx]

My opinion of him has further changed for the better, after Virgin removed a mobile phone antenna from the top of a residential building in London, where 4 people in 6 of the flats on the top floor had cancer, and his annual April fool's jokes, my favourite of which was the UFO landing in a foggy park near London, scaring spitless the local bobby sent to investigate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YJwK7o3hlg
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...pI4T38QXY2YCICQ&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1877&bih=939
https://www.google.com.au/search?cl...&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest&gws_rd=ssl

We can only hope that his support of drug reform in the UK and worldwide helps to bring about changes to the repressive and punitive legal situation.

 

[ro4eva]

I admire him for speaking out about this very serious issue.