The excellent Bad Science blog, written by Dr Ben Goldacre, says the unthinkable about recreational drug use. It's a cracking article from somebody at least somewhere near the mainstream (Goldacre has a Guardian column, where the article will also appear).
Amongst many truisms in the article are the following:
Amongst many truisms in the article are the following:
- Goldacre quotes a World Health Organisation study as saying that "Health problems from the use of legal substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, are greater than health problems from cocaine use".
- Goldacre notes that the report goes "on to challenge several of the key principles driving prohibition, and was extremely critical of most US policies. It suggested that supply reduction and law enforcement strategies have failed, and that alternative strategies such as decriminalisation might be explored, flagging up such programmes in Australia, Bolivia, Canada and Colombia".
Both of these points, to my mind, are irrefutably true. The most, or perhaps the least, surprising fact in Goldacre's article, though, is that that report was suppressed by the US Government. I find it incredible that on neither side of the Atlantic are we able to have a sensible discussion about recreational drug use.
I would go so far as to say that no policy has been found so profoundly wanting, with so many disastrous consequences, as the prohibition of recreational drugs. The subject is screaming out for reform, but our politicans' craven attitude towards the tabloids all but ensures that we can't even talk it over publically without facing outrage and ridicule. It really is enough to drive one to drink, at the very least.
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