NO DRUG SUCCESS

You have to wonder just what the drug tsar, Keith Hellawell, has been
smoking when he claims that the government's anti-drug effort is working
(Jan 4th). I would hardly call an increase, albeit small, in the number of
schoolchildren trying cannabis to be evidence of a successful drug policy.

According to last years annual report from the European Monitoring Centre
for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Britain has more cannabis users than any
other country in Europe and more problem drug users per capita of any major
European country bar Italy. Some success.

Britain also arrests more people for possessing cannabis than anywhere else
in Europe, an ongoing witch-hunt that costs us, the taxpayers, tens of
millions of pounds each year. Truly a waste of scarce police resources. The
Millenium Dome was money well spent in comparison.

Still, what can we expect from a government that seeks to emulate the
failed zero tolerance policies of the U.S. while ignoring the success of
the cannabis policies on our own doorstep in Holland, where 25 years of
regulated decriminalisation has resulted in lowered drug use and death
rates that puts the punitive Blair/Hellawell policy to shame.

Go Dutch