Why is our 'war on drugs' mired in contradictions?

Emergency legislation to close a loophole that legalised a number of drugs has raised the question as to why some substances are banned but others are not, writes Cormac O’Keeffe

While the Government has moved with great speed to rectify a gaping hole in our drug laws following a landmark ruling in the Court of Appeal, it has not tackled a wider, and more fundamental, issue raised in the same judgement.

As has been widely reported, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said that the legal mechanism used by the Government to add new substances to a list of controlled drugs was unconstitutional.