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| Britain |
| Ainsworth asks UK govt. to legalize drugs |
| 2010-12-18 |
| [Iran Press TV] A former British minister has called on the government to legalize drugs alleging that campaigns against trafficking and using drugs have proved to be a total failure. Former defense secretary Bob Ainsworth urged the government to consider legalizing drugs, saying prohibition has failed to protest the public, the daily Guardian reported. The war on drugs had been "nothing short of a disaster" and it was time to explore other options, Ainsworth said, adding that those options could be to decriminalize possession of drugs and to regulate their production and supply legally. He referred to the legalization of alcohol in the United States after 13 years of prohibition as an example. "After 50 years of global drug prohibition it is time for governments throughout the world to repeat this shift with currently illegal drugs", former British defense secretary said. The Labour backbencher, who was previously a Home Office drugs minister, went on: "Politicians and the media need to engage in a genuine and grown up debate about alternatives to prohibition, so that we can build a consensus based on delivering the best outcomes for our children and communities. Prohibition has failed to protect us. "Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harms to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit", he added. "We spend billions of pounds without preventing the wide availability of drugs. It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children", said Bob Ainsworth. "We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists", he said. Ainsworth called on those on all sides of the debate to support "an independent, evidence-based review, exploring all policy options, including further resourcing the war on drugs, decriminalizing the possession of drugs, and legally regulating their production and supply". "As drugs minister in the Home Office I saw how prohibition fails to reduce the harm that drugs cause in the UK, fuelling burglaries, gifting the trade to gangsters and increasing HIV infections. "My experience as defence secretary, with specific responsibilities in Afghanistan, showed to me that the war on drugs creates the very conditions that perpetuate the illegal trade, while undermining international development and security", he said. "My departure from the front benches gives me the freedom to express my long-held view that whilst it was put in place with the best of intentions, the war on drugs has been nothing short of a disaster", Ainsworth stipulated. Crime prevention minister James Brokenshire dismissed Ainsworth's proposal as unhelpful. "Drugs are harmful and ruin lives - legalization is not the answer", he said. "Decriminalization is a simplistic solution that fails to recognize the complexity of the problem and ignores the serious harm drug taking poses to the individual", added the crime prevention minister. "Legalization fails to address the reasons people misuse drugs in the first place or the misery, cost and lost opportunities that dependence causes individuals, their families and the wider community", he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Bulldog, do you seriously think that the criminals are going to roll over and hand off their profitable businesses, or let the price drop, if drugs should become legal? Dream on. From the experiences of our friend in Colombia, whose family has been pressured by FARC and Narco goons, nothing will change; in fact, it will get worse if the thugs have a bigger market. I have already expressed my opinion on this matter at great length on the Burg, so I will keep this short: drugs destroy not only the users but injure their loved ones as well. The cost in bad health, injuries, neglected children, and violence will be far higher than the cost of trying to keep this poison out. |
| Posted by: mom 2010-12-18 17:54 |
| #1 "'My departure from the front benches gives me the freedom to express my long-held view that whilst it was put in place with the best of intentions, the war on drugs has been nothing short of a disaster', Ainsworth stipulated. Crime prevention minister James Brokenshire dismissed Ainsworth's proposal as unhelpful. 'Drugs are harmful and ruin lives - legalization is not the answer', he said. Quite a breath-taking and wilfully ignorant non-sequitur from Brokenshire there, and typical of those on the pro-criminalization side of the argument. Why do politicians talk sense about drugs once they're rid of the shackles of responsibility for the problem? |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2010-12-18 04:18 |