Drrug prohibition is untenable hypocrisy

This is stated in a provocative way. "If you voted in the last election, you probably voted for prohibition. You voted to gift hundreds of billions of pounds to organised crime each year, to undermine the social and economic development of producer countries such as Colombia, Afghanistan as well as transit countries such as Guinea Bissau and Jamaica. You voted to double the amount of acquisitive crime in the UK and to double the prison population with it. Your 'X' contributed to misery and degradation for millions of the most marginalised people on earth. Unless we all do something to change it, you will probably vote for prohibition next time too."
But I must admit that I am coming round to agree. This is not to say that we shouldn't try to find ways to cut down drug use (heck, the history of China and the opium war tells us what negative effects a large addict population delivers socially). It is to say that legal prohibition actually makes it harder and more expensive to deal with drug addiction. A teacher who has written the report that triggered this article says this.

I find that when presented with the facts, the students I teach are quite capable of considering issues such as this, and reaching rational conclusions even if they started with a blind Daily Mail-esque approach. I find it a shame that no mainstream political party accords the electorate the same respect.

And indeed, I found this gave me pause for thought.

As Joseph McNamara, former police chief of Kansas City and San Jose put it: "The drug war cannot stand the light of day. It will collapse as quickly as the Vietnam war, as soon as people find out what's really going on." Tragically and despicably, the government's commitment to populist posturing means that the collapse will come far too late for many.

The comments on the opinion piece are interesting too, many mentioning the USAmerican experiment with alcohol prohibition in the 1920's.
Remember, the real debate isn't about whether drug taking is bad (leaving aside prescription drugs but including alcohol and nicotine), but on the best tactics for combatting drug abuse.
Danny Kushlick: Drug prohibition – an untenable hypocrisy | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: