A growing consensus is emerging among drugs experts that we're losing the war on recreational drugs and it's time to consider legalisation.
As we report in the Guardian today, Julian Critchley, the former director of the cabinet office's anti-drugs unit, said legalisation is favoured by the "overwhelming majority" of professionals in the field, including ministers, police officers and health workers.
Critchley's comments are significant because of his former seniority. He was director of the UK Anti-Drug Co-ordination Unit in Cabinet Office, co-ordinating government policy and deputy to drugs tsar - and former police chief - Keith Hellawell.
In a contribution to the debate on the "war on drugs" on a BBC website, Critchley said:
I joined the unit more or less agnostic on drugs policy, being personally opposed to drug use, but open-minded about the best way to deal with the problem... However, during my time in the unit, as I saw more and more evidence of 'what works' it became apparent to me that the available evidence pointed very clearly to the fact that enforcement and supply-side interventions were largely pointless.
His comments come hot on the heels of independent thinktank the UK Drugs Policy Commission's conclusion that waging war on drugs doesn't work, as we reported on our blog last week.
Today his comments were welcomed by campaigners for legal reform. Danny Kushlick, of Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said:
Julian Critchley is one of the brave few to tell the truth about the failure of prohibition.
Is the government brave enough to back a radical change of policy?
