Aug 23, 2005
Common Sense on Hard Drugs
Lionel Shriver asks"Why can’t you buy heroin at Boots?" Of course, she’s not the first to ask this question but it’s not one that usually gets asked in a national newspaper, even the Guardian.
Last week Liberal Democrat MP Chris Davies called for the legalisation and regulation of hard drugs. Shriver writes: “I cannot imagine a rational, pragmatic approach to drugs in the western world evolving in my lifetime. Davies's proposal was sane, it was welcome; it was also self-destructive. Fellow Lib Dems rushed to clarify that he was not promoting party policy. And these are Lib Dems! Can you envisage an American presidential candidate going out on a limb to advocate that the US decriminalises heroin? That's right, with pigs flying merrily overhead, and hell freezing below.” Myself, I think she’s a mite too pessimistic although I’d grant that it won’t happen on GWB’s watch.
Btw, Boots is a national chain of chemists, err, drugstores.
Last week Liberal Democrat MP Chris Davies called for the legalisation and regulation of hard drugs. Shriver writes: “I cannot imagine a rational, pragmatic approach to drugs in the western world evolving in my lifetime. Davies's proposal was sane, it was welcome; it was also self-destructive. Fellow Lib Dems rushed to clarify that he was not promoting party policy. And these are Lib Dems! Can you envisage an American presidential candidate going out on a limb to advocate that the US decriminalises heroin? That's right, with pigs flying merrily overhead, and hell freezing below.” Myself, I think she’s a mite too pessimistic although I’d grant that it won’t happen on GWB’s watch.
Btw, Boots is a national chain of chemists, err, drugstores.