Legalise it?
Twice in the last three days I’ve read about how legalising drugs may solve some of the world’s problems.
According to William Buiter, a professor of economics at LSE wrote in a column in the FT on Friday that:
“It surely makes more sense for the government to tax the poppy harvest than for the Taliban to do so.
So legalise, regulate, tax, educate and rehabilitate. Stop a losing war, get the government off our backs, beat the Taliban and deal a blow to al-Qaeda in the process. Not a bad deal!”
And Matthew Engal, a columnist with the FT believes that as bad as the Iraq War, the settler based empire that followed the 1967 war in Israel and global warming all are, none of these have,
“Caused as much death, destruction and misery as the laws that have barred legitimate business from the recreational drugs industry and handed a worldwide monopoly of distribution to the Mafia and its imitators.”
After giving examples involving the US, UK and Afghanistan Engal concludes that:
“It is clear that drugs policy would be infinitely better conducted if governments actually had some influence on the business. Legalisation would enable them to tax the drugs, ensure quality control, cut out the most dangerous strains, help genuine addicts, try to prevent the sale to minors, de-glamorise the habit and, above all, deny the gangs and the terrorists their financial lifeblood. “
That makes a lot of sense to me, but I can’t see any government, party or individual taking the first step to making this a reality.
