Pubdate: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 Source: Independent (UK) Copyright: 2013 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd. Contact: http://www.independent.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209 Author: Dan Mace Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n591/a06.html VOICE OF SANITY AMID THE 'WAR ON DRUGS' Owen Jones argues for a Uruguayan-type change of policy to legalise cannabis use, possession and supply. I may be about to change my long-held grumpy views, in part thanks to the succinct summary of Prohibition in Bill Bryson's book One Sumer: America, 1927. What unlearned lessons: the rise in official and unofficial violence; the public hypocrisy; the inability to enforce effectively; the unintended consequences of increasing the thing being controlled; the opportunities for fortunes to be made illegitimately and poverty to be increased legitimately. It's time to rethink - thanks, Owen and Bill. Dan Mace Swindon - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom