{"id":208,"date":"2009-11-17T12:10:31","date_gmt":"2009-11-17T11:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=208"},"modified":"2009-11-17T16:47:15","modified_gmt":"2009-11-17T15:47:15","slug":"knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/11\/17\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowing the Enemy in the “War on Drugs”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re going to fight a war, you need to know whom you’re fighting.\u00a0 You also could do with knowing when to stop fighting.\u00a0 Johann Hari is eloquent in this piece<\/a> on the so-called “war on drugs”: the time to stop is now.<\/p>\n

Yes, it is shocking that he was ditched for pointing out the mathematical truth that taking ecstasy is less dangerous than horse-riding and smoking cannabis is less harmful than drinking alcohol. But this is how the war on drugs has to be fought. The unofficial slogan of the prohibitionists for decades has been: The facts will only undermine the war, so invent some that show how successful we are, fast.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Imagine a country with no drug dealers killing to protect their patch or terrorizing whole estates. Imagine a country where burglary fell by 60 percent. Imagine a Britain where we spent all these billions treating addicts as ill people who need our help, not hunting them down as criminals who need punishment. We can be that country. We just have to come down from chasing the dragon of a drug-free world \u2013 and start looking soberly at the facts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Drugscope has produced this table of harms<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Table 1 Drug-related deaths in England and Wales 2000 to 2004<\/strong>[4]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Cocaine<\/strong><\/td>\n575<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Amphetamine<\/strong><\/td>\n384<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ecstasy<\/strong><\/td>\n227<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Solvents<\/strong><\/td>\n246<\/strong>[3]<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Opiates (heroin, morphine & methadone)<\/strong><\/td>\n4,976<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alcohol<\/strong><\/td>\n25,000 – 200,000 approx.<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tobacco <\/strong><\/td>\nhalf a million approx (UK – <\/strong>[1]<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Hat-tip: Dr Grumble<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Note that we’re talking about drug-related<\/em> deaths here – so the number of people killed directly<\/em> by, say, Ecstasy is likely to be lower.\u00a0 Given the vast number of disco-biscuits taken every week in the UK, it’s not a bad record at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re going to fight a war, you need to know whom you’re fighting.\u00a0 You also could do with knowing when to stop fighting.\u00a0 Johann Hari is eloquent in this piece on the so-called “war on drugs”: the time to stop is now. Yes, it is shocking that he was ditched for pointing out the […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1240,511,475],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogosphere","category-in-the-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nKnowing the Enemy in the "War on Drugs" - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/11\/17\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Knowing the Enemy in the "War on Drugs" - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you’re going to fight a war, you need to know whom you’re fighting.\u00a0 You also could do with knowing when to stop fighting.\u00a0 Johann Hari is eloquent in this piece on the so-called “war on drugs”: the time to stop is now. Yes, it is shocking that he was ditched for pointing out the [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/11\/17\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-17T11:10:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-11-17T15:47:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/17\\\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/17\\\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Knowing the Enemy in the “War on Drugs”\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-17T11:10:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-11-17T15:47:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/17\\\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":283,\"commentCount\":146,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Blogosphere\",\"In the News\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/17\\\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/17\\\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/11\\\/17\\\/knowing-the-enemy-in-the-war-on-drugs\\\/\",\"name\":\"Knowing the Enemy in the \\\"War on Drugs\\\" - 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