{"id":266,"date":"2010-03-17T13:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T12:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=266"},"modified":"2010-03-17T20:41:38","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T19:41:38","slug":"quick-ban-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick! Ban Something!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It goes without saying that the deaths of Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith, apparently after having taken the legal high mephedrone,\u00a0is a matter of deep regret.\u00a0 But it’s also a matter of sad predictability that the news has been hotly followed by calls for mephedrone to be banned<\/a>; speaking on Today<\/em> this morning, Chris Grayling, the shadow Home Secretary, spoke about launching a review into legal highs “with a view to banning some of these substances<\/a>“.\u00a0 James Naughtie was quick to point out the uncomfortable parallels with the government’s treatment of David Nutt<\/a> in the autumn; but the wider point here has been missed, which is that the default position in drugs policy is prohibitionary.<\/p>\n

It’s possible that I’m just getting old, but the strategies used by some people to get caned stagger me.\u00a0 I know that you don’t need too many degrees in chemistry to notice that A<\/em> is similar to B<\/em>, and that it might be fun to ingest it – but, still, I can’t quite get my head around the fact that mephedrone is plant food, and someone decided that they’d give it a go anyway.\u00a0 What we can see in full colour that, no matter how tight you draw the net, some ingenious person will find something in his bathroom or shed that he can use to get off his chops.\u00a0 Renton’s speech in Trainspotting<\/em> – “We would have injected vitamin C if only they had made it illegal” – seems apposite here; you can’t ban people into sobriety.<\/p>\n

What a ban does do is criminalise people, and prevent a genuine public health programme related to the use of drugs.\u00a0 Moreover, it’s patronising, because it removes responsibility from the user.\u00a0 After all, illegality means that information is difficult to find (and difficult to winnow from misinformation); and this artificially elevates the danger while at the same time forcing users underground (and so making them reluctant to seek professional advice, which multiplies the problem by itself to boot).\u00a0 This artificially elevated danger, in turn, feeds back into the clamour for a ban… and so it goes on.<\/p>\n

A brave government, it seems to me, would try to break this circle.\u00a0 Doing so doesn’t mean giving up on drug use: it means taking effective steps to educate and discourage, based on a cool assessment of the dangers and benefits of a given substance.\u00a0 (And, let’s face it – there must be benefits to mephedrone, otherwise noone’d take it.)\u00a0 Such a policy is perfectly compatible with the idea that taking mephedrone – or ketamine, or anything else – is incredibly<\/em> silly and potentially dangerous; but the same applies to playing scrum-half, and there’s no real pressing reason to ban that.<\/p>\n

UPDATE, 19:40: See Tom Bull’s very useful clarification on the nature of mephedrone in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It goes without saying that the deaths of Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith, apparently after having taken the legal high mephedrone,\u00a0is a matter of deep regret.\u00a0 But it’s also a matter of sad predictability that the news has been hotly followed by calls for mephedrone to be banned; speaking on Today this morning, Chris Grayling, […]<\/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":[511,475],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nQuick! Ban Something! - 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\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quick! Ban Something! - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It goes without saying that the deaths of Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith, apparently after having taken the legal high mephedrone,\u00a0is a matter of deep regret.\u00a0 But it’s also a matter of sad predictability that the news has been hotly followed by calls for mephedrone to be banned; speaking on Today this morning, Chris Grayling, [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-17T12:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-03-17T19:41:38+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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Quick! Ban Something!\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-17T12:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-03-17T19:41:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":485,\"commentCount\":12,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/\",\"name\":\"Quick! Ban Something! - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-17T12:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-03-17T19:41:38+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/17\\\/quick-ban-something\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Quick! Ban Something!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"description\":\"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\",\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"BMJ\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Quick! Ban Something! - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Quick! Ban Something! - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","og_description":"It goes without saying that the deaths of Louis Wainwright and Nicholas Smith, apparently after having taken the legal high mephedrone,\u00a0is a matter of deep regret.\u00a0 But it’s also a matter of sad predictability that the news has been hotly followed by calls for mephedrone to be banned; speaking on Today this morning, Chris Grayling, [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/","og_site_name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","article_published_time":"2010-03-17T12:44:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-03-17T19:41:38+00:00","author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"Quick! Ban Something!","datePublished":"2010-03-17T12:44:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-03-17T19:41:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/"},"wordCount":485,"commentCount":12,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"articleSection":["In the News","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/","name":"Quick! Ban Something! - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-17T12:44:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-03-17T19:41:38+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/03\/17\/quick-ban-something\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Quick! Ban Something!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","description":"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","width":200,"height":50,"caption":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe","name":"BMJ","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"BMJ"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}