Idiotic ‘war’ strategy is only playing into the hands of the drug barons

SURELY the worst kind of stupidity is the failure to learn from mistakes. Yet we persist in making the same ones. Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity was “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

The Global Illicit Drug Markets Report 1998 to 2007 was highlighted during the week. It concluded that the war on drugs has not reduced production, trafficking, availability or the use of illicit drugs. This huge study was conducted on behalf of the European Commission.

While the use of illicit drugs has not gone down, the price of those drugs has fallen between 10% and 30% in western Europe. This is a sure indication that the availability of those drugs is greater than ever, despite more severe penalties.