UK - Don’t replace the drug laws with therapy laws

[edgarshade]

Spiked

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Luke Samuel

Last week, the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson gave evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee on drug-law reform. The Virgin tycoon spoke as a representative of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and argued in favour of liberalising English drug laws. Branson said what most of us already know: the global war on drugs has failed. Drug supply and consumption have not varied significantly in the UK over recent years despite reams of new legislation. Branson argues that we should follow a model of decriminalisation established in other European countries, like Portugal, where it is no longer a criminal offence to possess or supply any type of drug.

...today’s campaigners tacitly argue for greater state interference in the guise of healthcare and regulation. Their argument is not driven by respect for freedom and autonomy, but by an impulse to micro-manage drug-users’ lives.

I think drugs are a waste of time. That is to say nothing for the many people for whom they are a genuinely destructive force. But if I were a drug user, I would want the state to have as little as possible to do with my decision to take them or not. For the sake of keeping drugs fun and comparatively state free for those who want to take them, we should reject the arguments for decriminalisation put forwards by Branson and Co and instead argue for a drug culture that respects peoples’ autonomy and judgement. That means no coppers interfering with our drug use but, more importantly, no ‘chilled out’ trainer-wearing judges either.

Luke Samuel is a paralegal working in criminal law and convenor of the London Legal Salon.

More...
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/12031/

 

[ro4eva]

The plot thickens.

 

[qwe]

great to see this attitude published.