The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to DrugsAgain and again British politicians, commentators and celebrities intone that 'The War on Drugs has failed'. They then say that this is an argument for abandoning all attempts to reduce drug use through the criminal law. Peter Hitchens shows that in Britain there has been no serious 'war on drugs' since 1971, when a Tory government adopted a Labour plan to implement the revolutionary Wootton report. This gave cannabis, the most widely used illegal substance, a special legal status as a supposedly 'soft' drug (in fact, Hitchens argues, it is at least as dangerous as heroin and cocaine because of the threat it poses to mental health). It began a progressive reduction of penalties for possession, and effectively disarmed the police. This process still continues, behind a screen of falsely 'tough' rhetoric from politicians. Far from there being a 'war on drugs', there has been a covert surrender to drugs, concealed behind an official obeisance to international treaty obligations. To all intents and purposes, cannabis is legal in Britain, and other major drugs are not far behind. In The War We Never Fought, Hitchens uncovers the secret history of the government's true attitude, and the increasing recruitment of the police and courts to covert decriminalisation initiatives, and contrasts it with the rhetoric. Whatever and whoever is to blame for the undoubted mess of Britain's drug policy, it is not 'prohibition' or a 'war on drugs', for neither exists. |
Contents
Psychiatry is not an exact science | |
The real purpose of classification a better image for cannabis | |
No use appealing to God Try John Stuart Mill? | |
The left casts off its puritan garments | |
The mysterious spread of cannabis | |
Jaggerism is invented | |
Bloomsbury takes over Britain via the airwaves | |
Steve Abrams steps up to explain | |
The long march Wootton and after | |
Widdecombe unfair | |
Dame Ruth Runciman and the liberal establishment | |
Cannabis and violence | |
What about alcohol and tobacco then? | |
The Cabinet gets it wrong | |
Enter Richard Crossman | |
Jim Callaghans last stand | |
Part Two The Search for Soma | |
Aldous Huxley | |
Other editions - View all
The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs Peter Hitchens Limited preview - 2012 |
The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs Peter Hitchens Limited preview - 2012 |
The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs Peter Hitchens No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
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