Like anyone who prefers government to leave us alone where possible, I find myself in a dilemma over last week's report by the UK Drug Policy Commission. It recommends scrapping criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs, arguing that the £3 billion a year Britain spends fighting the drug trade could be better spent on treatment.
Sensible enough, surely. After all, the liberal inside me says that letting people make up their own minds about drugs is generally a good thing, while the free marketeer knows that interfering in supply and demand is never easy. The Economist, a magazine I greatly admire, has argued for drug legalisation for decades, as too now are growing numbers of developing world leaders, who want to stop drug wars tearing their countries apart. Anyone who's followed the carnage that cocaine trafficking is currently wreaking in Mexico, or seen, as I have, how it's corrupting entire West African governments, may find it hard to disagree.
And yet somehow, I do. Because for all Commission's careful analysis – their report is the result of six years' research – their conclusions remain somewhat theoretical. The fact remains that legalising or decriminalising drugs would still be a giant leap into the unknown.
