A phoney war ends defeat

EVERY few weeks, some outfit publishes a ‘report’ saying that the ‘war on drugs’ has ‘failed’ and we should therefore let drugs go on open sale at Tesco, and be advertised on TV (or move in that general direction). It doesn’t matter whether it is the British Tiddlywinks Federation, the National League of Limpet Farmers or the Scottish ‘Government’. The suggestion always gets maximum publicity, and I am usually asked to go on to TV or radio to oppose it.

I explain yet again that there is no war on drugs, and that this country has, in fact, been running a 50-year experiment in allowing mass drug-taking by stealth.

This is going badly, especially in terms of the amount of mental illness about. I explain that civilised countries such as Japan and South Korea have not surrendered in this way and have less misery as a result.

And I might as well save my breath. Bit by bit the legalisers (often pretending that their poisonous product is a medicine) advance among MPs, civil servants and media executives, many claiming to be conservative. All I am doing is providing cover for the broadcasters to plug the drug message. If I refused to go on, they would not have their ‘balance’. Should I stop going on, or is there any point left in telling the truth?