Why can’t our politicians come clean on drugs?

Simon Jenkins writes for the London Evening Standard:

What is the single most curable evil afflicting community life in London? The answer is the criminalisation of drug use under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.

It blights half the capital's youth at some stage or other. It hovers as a black cloud over every neighbourhood, pub and street corner. It causes crime and gangland disorder. It packs the courts and fills the prisons. It costs billions of pounds in personal loss and public spending.

Needless to say, not one party in the current General Election is prepared to discuss it. As a result, London is about to be taught a lesson in social policy by, of all places, America.

As I whiled away last week waiting in Los Angeles for Her Majesty's Government to find an ash cloud policy, I decided to pop into one of many local cannabis “dispensaries” — strictly in the interests of research.

While the exteriors are carefully anonymous, the interiors are designed to cater for all whom “a doctor” has decided need the therapeutic benefits of a dose of “weed”. I could choose between Harmony House and Holistic Harvest. I could try Nature's Wonder or Mary and Jane's mobile delivery service. The Green Oasis chain offers “40 flavours” of cannabis, including Sour Diesel, Blue Dream and Woody Kush, plus a 1,300 square meter “vaporising lounge” to help things go swimmingly along. In most cases, the requisite chit certifying medical need is available on the premises, like club membership in a casino.

California now makes Amsterdam's drug laws look timid. Since the licensing of “medical marijuana” production and sale in 1996, California and 14 states across America have seen a blossoming of cannabis retailing. Some estimates are of more dispensaries (or “clinics”) in Los Angeles than Starbucks. The city authorities reckon they have at least 500 and possibly 1,000 outlets, meaning that in some areas there are more dispensaries than there are bars serving alcohol.

Since reliable figures are hard to find, it is impossible to discover whether the result has been an increase or decrease in the overall consumption of marijuana. Use of the drug has come out of the closet. There are certainly testimonials to the relief of pain delivered, and with it a reduction in need for conventional medicine. There is a corresponding reduction in pressure on law enforcement and imprisonment. Anecdotal evidence suggests that private growers are supplanting the criminal gangs who have long imported supplies from Canada.

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