Drugs

Conrad Black: The US is now a carceral state that imprisons eight to 12 times more people (2.5m) per capita than the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan. US justice has become a command economy based on the avarice of private prison companies, a gigantic prison service industry and politically influential correctional officers’ unions that agitate for an unlimited increase in the number of prosecutions and the length of sentences. The entire “war on drugs”, by contrast, is a classic illustration of supply-side economics: a trillion taxpayers’ dollars squandered and 1m small fry imprisoned at a cost of $50 billion a year; as supply of and demand for illegal

Well, this is common-sense. So, obviously, don’t expect it to have an impact. A report on cannabis prepared for next year’s UN drug policy review will suggest that a “regulated market” would cause less harm than the current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored. The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which its authors suggest “challenge the received wisdom concerning cannabis”. It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a UN-accredited NGO, for the

More Culture11: I’ve a piece arguing that no-one should be terribly happy about Lance Armstrong’s decision to come out of retirement next season. Snippet: Unlike fans in other sports, such as baseball or track and field, many cycling fans simply don’t see doping as a criminal or ethical offense. In its way, then, cycling is the purest distillation of the logic behind elite sport: Super-human performance demands supra-human resources. It is the cost of doing business. We might more profitably ask why our attitudes to drug-use have changed. Everyone has known for decades that the peloton has been a pharmacy on wheels. Until recently, this bothered few people. These days,

Sometimes the news isn’t terrible: A doctor caught with 14 ecstasy tablets at a music festival has been allowed to keep his licence to practise. A General Medical Council panel told Dr Fraser Gibb they were satisfied he only used drugs to enhance his life and not to “prop it up”. However, it found him guilty of misconduct and imposed conditions on his licence over the next 18 months. But suppose Dr Gibb were popping the occasional pill to “prop-up” his life? Why would that be an affront to civilised society and all that’s sweet and wholesome on this planet? After all: Colleagues at Dumfries and Galloway NHS Trust said

America’s drug laws are wicked. So too are the scandalous conditions inside American prisons. And sometimes the people running those prisons are crueler than you might think possible. Radley Balko has the details of what is, alas, just another outrage.

If you only read one article this weekend, might I suggest you make it Ben Wallace-Wells long and brilliant Rolling Stone piece on the multiple – if well-intentioned – idiocies and failures of the War on Drugs. Since it’s been running since the Nixon administration you might think that it’s time for a fresh approach. Wallace-Wells concludes on a hopeful note: there are grass roots signs of a shift in attitudes amongst police departments across America and there are some signs that Democrats and some Republicans are learning from the War’s manifest $50bn a year failure. On the other hand, Washington is sufficiently thrilled with the success of Plan Colombia

Dispatches from the Drug Wars: Agents with a regional drug task force raided Leonard French’s home in southeastern New Mexico on Tuesday and seized several marijuana plants. But the wheelchair-bound man said he’s certified by the state Health Department to possess and smoke marijuana for medical reasons. The 44-year-old lost the use of his legs about 20 years ago as the result of a motorcycle crash and now suffers from chronic pain and muscle spasms. French allowed the agents into his home in Malaga, just north of the New Mexico-Texas border, because he said he believed he was doing nothing wrong. He had worked with his doctor and the state

If you only read one thing today, read this. Then weep. Of course, don’t expect this sort of thing to be addressed by any of the Presidential candidates (with the possible exception of Ron Paul I suppose).