Obviously, a lot of the world’s attention is currently on Iran and the political turmoil there. I don’t think that this blog is the place to make comments about the disputed presidential election – but I am reminded of a story from a couple of years ago, and it’s worth airing here. One of the […]
Category: Politics
Anyone’d Think I was Addicted
It’s another one of those posts about drug policy, I’m aftaid: this week’s All in the Mind covered the Portuguese experiment with decriminalisation (about which I posted recently), and is available to listen for the next few days. Depressingly, one of the contributors dropped a fairly broad hint – accurately, I think – that the UK […]
Portugal’s Experiment with Drug Decriminalisation
In 2001, drug use was decriminalised in Portugal, meaning that the country had, in effect, the most lenient drug laws in the world. What has been the effect of this move? Martin Robbins considers the evidence. His conclusion is that the policy hasn’t been the unmitigated success that he – and the Cato institute (warning: bigger-than-the-moon 4Mb […]
DNA Retention: Stupid or Scary?
Not so long ago, Søren posted an item on this blog welcoming the ECHR’s verdict that the UK policy of storing DNA samples from all people who’d been arrested, regardless of guilt, was in contravention of Human Rights laws. A couple of days ago, the UK government published its response. It’s either remarkably sinister or remarkably […]
Contraception, Duties and Rights
Ema is not happy: The Missouri House on Tuesday [that is, 28.iv.09 – IB] voted 115-43 to approve HB 226, an amendment that [s]pecifies that no pharmacy can be required to perform, assist, recommend, refer to, or participate in any act or service resulting in an abortion and it will be immune from liability for […]
Obligatory Topical Swine Flu Post
The appearance of Swine Flu over the past couple of days is the sort of thing that provides ample food for thought among ethicists, particularly public health ethicists. One perennial question, for example, concerns exactly what governments ought to do to protect their populations from infection – is spending on flu vaccines a good way […]
UK among Worst Places in Europe to be a Child
The Child Poverty Action Group has published a report today in which the UK is accused of being among the worst places in Europe to be a child on a range of measures. For example, the UK comes 24th out of 29 countries when it comes to the assessment of birth-weight; it’s 21st when it comes […]
Irish Euthanasia Lecture Cancelled
A curious story from the Irish Times: a lecture by Len Doyal on euthanasia had to be cancelled after disruption from protesters: he’s now complained to the President. The protesters apparently shouted obscenities and, er, the Rosary. There are more details here. In the meantime, I just can’t help myself: Thanks to Richard Ashcroft and […]
The Benefits of not being an Alcoholic
Some health policies are very well thought-through and their merits are obvious. Others take a bit of time and thought for their merits to become clear. Some are well-meaning but wrong. And some are mad as a bag of wasps in a salad-spinner. Into which category should we put James Purnell’s suggestion that alcoholics should […]
Drug Policy Transformed?
I’ve spent the morning looking over the Transform Drug Policy Foundation’s consultation paper, A Comparison of the Cost-Effectiveness of the Prohibition and Regulation of Drugs, which was published today. The full report is available as a .pdf here (note the filesize – at 445k, it’s HUGE) – or there’s a summary on Transform’s blog, here. […]