One Giant Leap

Outstanding article from Simon Jenkins in Thursday's Guardian. To wit:

"The greatest social menace of the new century is not terrorism but drugs, and it is the poor who will have to lead the revolution. The global trade in illicit narcotics ranks with that in oil and arms. Its prohibition wrecks the lives of wealthy and wretched, east and west alike. It fills jails, corrupts politicians and plagues nations. It finances wars from Afghanistan to Colombia. It is utterly mad.

From the the deaths of British troops in Helmand to the narco-terrorism of Mexico and the mules cramming London's jails, the war on drugs can be seen only as a total failure, a vast self-imposed cost on western society. It is the greatest sweeping-under-the-carpet of our age."

This comes in response to the news that Argentina and Mexico are, at long last, standing up to the US and ending the War on Drugs. Of course, our own politicans aren't so brave. Jenkins has the last word on them, too:

"I sometimes realise that, if Britain still had the death penalty, no current political leader would have the guts to abolish it."

I really recommend the full article.