The “softening up” process leading up to reclassification of cannabis to class B has started. The BBC played its usual role of government messenger again, this time with a  programme broadcast on the digital station 1xtra last week entitled “Home Grown” supported by a website page, the documentary is online here for the next few [...]

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The highlight of the week was without doubt the contribution to the law reform debate by Dr Ian Oliver; former Chief Constable of Grampian police,  author and an independent consultant to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Now with credentials like that, Dr Oliver certainly sounds like someone to listened to, so perhaps [...]

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Oh dear, another bad week for the defenders of prohibition. First someone who worked in a senior position in the government anti drug unit spills the beans, then the latest drug use figures came out. First, of course, it was Julian Critchley who did the bean spilling which even the Daily Mail managed to report [...]

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Politicians are probably the reason most people don’t vote. They have a very bad reputation which is well deserved and no-where is this more apparent than when politicians talk about drugs. Whereas most  people who try drugs enjoy them  – even if they don’t end as hopeless addicts – the politicians who dabble  almost never [...]

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As you drive over the Pyrenees – the mountains which separate France and Spain – it becomes possible to hear Radio 4 on Long Wave if you can ignore the static and the cricket isn’t on. So it was, parked on a campsite near the French town of Condom, I braved the loud static bursts [...]

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