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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
This is a very important book which deserves to be read by anyone and everyone who has an interest in the drugs business.
The book is a very comprehensive treatment (pardon the pun) of the case for the legalisation of drugs. Although the study is applicable to Britain it also has a general applicability elsewhere.
For me the value of this book lies in it's general consideration of the public policy making process. What emerges from the case of legalisation of drugs is a strong public choice view of the interests of the politicians and bureaucrats involved in the drugs trade. The growing funds available to those fighting in the war against drugs may not achieve success in the sense of a growing number of arrests and confiscations and a reduced supply of the drugs themselves but can be considered successful in the sense that there are more police, drug enforcement officers, more managers, administrators, more bureaucrats but there are wider powers of stop and search, of bank accounts frozen and assets confiscated, more powerful and advanced equipment etc.
Comparisons of the illegal trade in drugs and the legal trade in accepted drugs such as alcohol, cigarettes or chocolate, or the slightly more restricted trade in drugs such as prozac etc, show how much of the funds available to enforcement agencies could be redirected into criminal investigations where there are identifiable victims and where the success and glamour rates are much lower.
Above all, this is a phoney war. It is indicative of a fettered society where certain practices are outlawed because they do not fit the public values of the elites who manage our society yet who avail themselves of those practices. We live in a hypocritical society where drug use and payment for sexual services are pervasive yet are both categorised as illegal as well as immoral.
The case for the legalisation of drugs is often obscured by reference to the resulting addiction to so-called hard drugs despite the lack of clear evidence. What continues to surprise is the fact that under a legalised system combined with normal business regulation, usage would be much more transparent. This would allow the more accurate use of resources to help people with their own problems which lead to their dependency. It is beyond belief that people cannot see how the resources currently used against petty theft, burglary and prostitution which result from drug users having to find the funds to pay for their drug consumption could be more usefully deployed, not to mention the reductions in those categories that would be reduced.
This is a well written, well argued book that makes an excellent case for the legalisation of drugs. Together with a recent declaration of a change in thinking amongst senior police officers, it is a welcome addition to the literature and debate on the subject.
Should be required reading for every politician.
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