UK - Drugs inquiry to hear evidence from Richard Branson

[edgarshade]

Here's the first of the cold water pouring articles....

Daily Telegraph

Sketch: Sir Richard Branson's war on drug laws

By Michael Deacon, Parliamentary Sketchwriter12:01AM GMT 25 Jan 2012

With reader comments

Today’s leaders must find the courage to speak out. The current approach does not work. Since time immemorial, human beings have murdered each other. Trillions have been spent by governments to prevent people committing murder, and to imprison those who do, but to no avail. All we have to show for it is overflowing jails, tax-payers’ money wasted, and thriving criminal gangs.
We need to face facts: there will always be people attracted to killing. The threat of arrest and punishment has had no significant deterrent effect. Prohibition is no good. We must seriously consider decriminalisation, and start treating murder not as a criminal issue, but as a health issue.
It’s time to end the failed “War on Murder”.
The above is not, as far as I know, Sir Richard Branson’s position on killing. But it is more or less identical to his position on illegal drug use. Sir Richard’s logic is that, because governments have failed to prevent people committing a particular crime, it should no longer be classified as a crime at all. He feels so strongly about it that he has become the face of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Yesterday he was invited before a Home Affairs Select Committee to explain his views.

More...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9036404/Sketch-Sir-Richard-Bransons-war-on-drug-laws.html