'Legalise all hard drugs to cut out criminals' - Ben Elton

Comedian and writer Ben Elton today urged the Government to legalise all class A drugs.

Current drug laws should be overhauled to make heroin, crack and cocaine legally available, he said.

Father-of-two Elton, who recently entertained the crowds at the Queen’s Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace, said criminalisation did nothing but lead to organised crime.

Discussing plans for a new book on ITV1 show That’s Esther, he told host Esther Rantzen: ‘‘My new novel is very serious. It’s a comedy as always, but it’s about drugs, it’s a big story.

‘‘I firmly believe that hugely radical solutions are now required. It’s about legalisation not de-criminalisation.’’

Asked whether he was referring to hard drugs like heroin, cocaine and crack, Elton said: ‘‘Yes. I think we need to get the police, the government and the emergency services in front of the criminals, not behind the criminals.

‘‘It is now a self-evident fact that criminalisation hasn’t worked. All it has presented us with is organised crime.’’

In the show, which will be screened on Sunday August 4, Elton compared the criminalisation of drugs with alcohol prohibition in the United States in the 1920s.

He said: ‘‘Prohibition in America was the absolute gleaming social experiment of the 20th century a complete failure.

‘‘People didn’t stop drinking, they just bought their drink from criminals. They bought bad booze that made them blind.

‘‘When they finally repealed it America was left with the most efficient and far-reaching organised criminal organisations that the world has ever known,’’ he said.