purplecthulhu

ElReg discusses a rather interesting report that looks into the costs of drug prohibition in the UK and the potential benefits of a change in this policy.

Benefits include a reduction in user deaths, thanks to clean needles and better quality supplies (no longer cut with scouring powder for example), a reduction in crime (about 80% of petty crime is to feed drug habits), a clearer path in Afghanistan (you no longer drive the poppy growing locals into the hands of the Taliban) and elsewhere, there are solid financial benefits. The authors of the report (the thinktank Transform) calculate that legalization and regulation will save between 4.5 and 14 billion pounds a year (and the assumptions that lead to these figures are rather conservative).

With the impact of the global recession forecast to require 38 to 78 billion in savings in government spending each year maybe this is an idea whose time has come...

After all, in 1970, before drug prohibition, there were only 2000 heroin addicts in the UK. Now there are 100000 on treatment programmes and an estimated 200000 more. Prohibition doesn't exactly seem to be working.

ETA: More coverage at The Guardian

ElReg discusses a rather interesting report that looks into the costs of drug prohibition in the UK and the potential benefits of a change in this policy.

Benefits include a reduction in user deaths, thanks to clean needles and better quality supplies (no longer cut with scouring powder for example), a reduction in crime (about 80% of petty crime is to feed drug habits), a clearer path in Afghanistan (you no longer drive the poppy growing locals into the hands of the Taliban) and elsewhere, there are solid financial benefits. The authors of the report (the thinktank Transform) calculate that legalization and regulation will save between 4.5 and 14 billion pounds a year (and the assumptions that lead to these figures are rather conservative).

With the impact of the global recession forecast to require 38 to 78 billion in savings in government spending each year maybe this is an idea whose time has come...

After all, in 1970, before drug prohibition, there were only 2000 heroin addicts in the UK. Now there are 100000 on treatment programmes and an estimated 200000 more. Prohibition doesn't exactly seem to be working.

ETA: More coverage at The Guardian