"The hour has come to make narcotics and prostitution legal. Do that and
you eliminate the major sources of profit for organised crime in Britain,
the rest of Europe and the United States. Sell drugs through pharmacies at
the real cost of about 2 per cent of their illegal street price, and you
will do more to put the Medellin and Cali cartels out of business than US
spy satellites, HM Customs contraband seizures and the imprisonment of
millions of drug users.
[...]
"The Michael HowardJack Straw policies of the past three years have
accelerated drug use as they have increased drug profits. The drugs war is
lost, but the assault on civil liberty is a triumph. Crime lords grow rich
courtesy of the cosmetic attempts to put them out of business. Only one
thing will bankrupt them: licencing and taxing their trade. In 1993 [I
think that should be 1933] the United States legalised alcohol sales and
deprived the criminal oranisations created by Prohibition of their major
source of income. They then monopolised the remaining illegal products:
drugs and prostitution. It's time to take those away as well."