One day when my son was buying some for everyone to use together the man who was

One day, when my son was buying some for everyone to use together, the man who was selling also offered him 50 tabs of ecstasy. He just said yes, and it was left in a pot in the living room. But ecstasy is a class A drug, and so, when he was prosecuted and convicted of possession with intent to supply, there was no alternative but a prison sentence.It was a complete shock At first I thought it meant my son was a drug addict. Then I realised that he had a problem, not with drugs, but with the law.In the past six years, I have made it my business to find out everything I can about drugs and how the law deals with them.

It became obvious to me that the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act is outdated. It is dangerous and harmful, both to addicts and to recreational drug-users. It inadvertently grants the monopoly of drug supply to criminals The use of illegal substances has widened and proliferated. More people are in prison because of drugs, or suffering and dying than ever before. At the same time, more people are enjoying drugs and coming to little harm.Prohibition has been staggeringly unsuccessful. It is inevitable that it fails as a policy because it denies the most fundamental thing of all: human nature It’s not just that forbidden fruits are tempting.

It’s more that forbidden fruits can be fun, and the risks are sometimes part of that fun. If we avoid the truth of this premise, we risk losing the attention of the young. If we are more interested in control than in safety, we don’t deserve to be listened to.Recreational drug use and addiction are different They do not go hand in hand, as is so often claimed Most recreational drinkers do not become alcoholics. It is unhelpful to have different principles for treating legal and illegal addiction. Some drug addicts will now not be sent to prison, but will be offered drug rehabilitation programmes instead.