GETTING HIGH: THE PHILOSOPHER'S TAKE ON THE CRIMINALISATION OF DRUGS

If Moralisers Were Logicians, Coffee and Chocolate Would Be Outlawed Too

There are two rarely noticed facts about drugs. First, almost all
human beings use them - alcohol and nicotine included. Secondly,
drugs became illegal less than a century ago, first for soldiers in
the First World War, who used them to combat the horrors of the
trenches, and then as part of the "prohibition" lunacy, in which both
drugs and alcohol were banned in the United States. As Prohibition
proved, outlawing things is a godsend to criminals, who are energetic
entrepreneurs and who will provide what people want at great profit
to themselves and great cost to society.

Cannabis became more dangerous this week, not because of anything
intrinsic to its chemistry but because the Home Secretary said so. It
has been moved from Class C to B. At the same time moves are afoot to
downgrade Ecstasy from A to B.

Since the dawn of history people have wanted to ingest substances
that alter their states of consciousness, whether for relief,
recreation, spiritual experience or bliss. Coffee and chocolate are
also mood and mind changers. If moralisers were logicians these would
be outlawed too. At the very least alcohol, as dangerous as some of
the other commonly used drugs, would be banned. Or, more sensibly,
every other drug would be controlled, as alcohol is, thus at a stroke
liberating the police, the public purse and the populace, who would
not become any more drug-crazed than they were before 1914.