Time to legalise drugs?

Throughout my life the blight of drug abuse has plagued our world and the societies we live in.... and I would bet your experience has been the same.

So... is it time for a radical re-think? I think so!

I suppose the abuse of drugs has been going on... forever. In the distant past though, we didn't control or prohibit the use of drugs. This is pretty much a 20th century innovation... an innovation which, to my mind, is long overdue for review.

I've often heard some argue about the legalisation of drugs many times in the past and through my adult life... but these pleas always used to come pretty much from liberal fundamentalists, 'glassy-eyed hippies' and the more 'airy fairy' fringes. But... in recent years, I have been hearing it more and more, from other more 'maverick' thinkers and ideologues... even from what one might describe as more 'conservative' or 'establishment' sources.... and I have to say... I'm finding the ideas on the legalisation of drugs are no longer so outlandish after all!

One of these, perhaps more radical thinkers, very much in the forefront of the international debate going on right now (and very welcome it is)... is Dr Jeffrey Miron, who I listened to on BBC Radio Five Live's Up All Night last night, with great interest. His arguments for the legalisation of recreational drugs are very compelling!

Dr Jeffrey Miron is an American economist. He served as the chairman of the Department of Economics at Boston University from 1992 to 1998 and is currently a Professor of Economics and teaching at Harvard University. He is also the author of several books including Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition.

Dr Miron basically contends that there is a strong economic argument to be made in favour of the legalisation of drugs. In 2005, he authored a paper, relating to the US drug problem, in which he argued that marijuana legalisation would effectively generate more than $10 billion per year. He has since reviewed this and now estimates the legalisation of drugs could save the US economy around $74 Billion! (see video below)

Miron's report and claims have since been endorsed by scores of other prominent economists and commentators across the world.

More recently, in an article on CNN this month, entitled 'Legalize drugs to stop violence', he says the "prohibition of drugs creates violence because it drives the drug market underground".

"This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.

Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after.

Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it's permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.

The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs. Fortuitously, legalization is the right policy for a slew of other reasons.

His 'slew of other reasons' include....

• Thousands killed in ongoing drug wars across the world
  
• Governments' prohibition of drugs policies lead to corruption of politicians and law enforcement
  
• Legalising drugs is the best way to reduce drug violence
  
• Drugs should be controlled through regulation and taxation

Five years ago, in the UK, a Cabinet Office report estimated the cost to the UK was around £24bn a year - £16bn of that from the costs of acquisitive crime by users funding their habit.

So... what if those drugs were legal and regulated? What if heroin and cocaine were available on prescription or at affordable prices?

In 2002, the man who hopes to be our next Prime Minister, David Cameron, argued that the British government should initiate discussion with the UN about the possible legalisation of drugs. As a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee he accepted that "many sensible and thoughtful people" have proposed legalising all or most presently illegal drugs. "There may come a day when the balance may tip in favour of legalising" the committee said but concluded they were being invited to take a step into the unknown. "To tread where no other society has yet trod" and declined, in their words, "to recommend this drastic step".

Drastic, but worth talking about. Why? Because it was becoming increasingly clear that what Richard Nixon first called "The War on Drugs" was not... and IS not being won.

Earlier this month a report by the campaigning Transform Drugs Policy Foundation argued that government must look at the current drugs policy with the cold eye of a cost-benefit analyst. If they did, it is suggested, ministers might save the taxpayer close to £11bn a year!

At the centre of their analysis is the claim that prohibition itself is the root cause of almost all drug-related acquisitive crime. If government took control from the pushers, dealers and gangsters, they suggest, levels of such crime would be "negligible". Even in the "highly unlikely" event that drug use doubled, suggests Transform, a regulated market for cocaine and heroin would see almost £7bn of savings in the cost of crime.

Well, I don't know about you, but I find these arguments very convincing... and let's face it... the so called 'anti drugs war' has patently obviously not worked... is not working. We see more and more drug related crime, especially violent crime with shootings and killings, increasing daily on our country's streets... so it is time to take a much more radical look at the whole issue of drugs. Seems to me legalising the damn lot is a very sensible and radical alternative that could have a huge and beneficial effect, worldwide.

In his CNN article, Miron concludes:

"The U.S. repealed Prohibition of alcohol at the height of the Great Depression, in part because of increasing violence and in part because of diminishing tax revenues. Similar concerns apply today, and Attorney General Eric Holder's recent announcement that the Drug Enforcement Administration will not raid medical marijuana distributors in California suggests an openness in the Obama administration to rethinking current practice.

Perhaps history will repeat itself, and the U.S. will abandon one of its most disastrous policy experiments."

I certainly do not advocate the legalisation of drugs as a cure for our economic ills right now... far from it... but I can't see it doing much harm and I do see a lot of benefit to be had by the legalising of drugs across the board!

Here's Dr Miron offering us further food for thought, discussing Marijuana Legalisation on CNN recently:



You can read more about the Arguments 'for and against' the legalisation of Drugs and Prohibition on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition by Dr Jeffrey Miron

In my Inbox today... a dire warning on getting the wrong telephone number!

**Rrriiiiinnnnggg, rrriiiinnnngg,**

'Hello?'

'Hi honey.... This is Daddy. Is Mommy near the phone?'

'No, Daddy.... She's upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Paul.'

After a brief pause... Daddy says...

'But honey, you haven't got an Uncle Paul.'

'Oh yes I do, and he's upstairs in the room with Mommy... Right now.'

Brief Pause...

'Uh, okay then, this is what I want you to do... put the phone down on the table, run upstairs... and knock on the bedroom door and shout to Mommy... that Daddy's car just pulled into the driveway!'

'Okay, Daddy, Just a minute.'

A few minutes later... the little girl comes back to the phone.

'I did it, Daddy.'

'And what happened, honey?'

'Well, Mommy got all scared, jumped out of bed with no clothes on and ran around screaming!

Then she tripped over the rug, hit her head on the dresser... and now she isn't moving at all!'

'Oh my God!!! What about your Uncle Paul?'

'He jumped out of the bed with no clothes on, too...

He was all scared and he jumped out of the back window... and into the swimming pool... but I guess he didn't know that you took out the water last week to clean it... he hit the bottom of the pool and I think he's dead!!'

*****Long Pause*****

****Longer Pause*****

*****Even Longer Pause*****

**Then Daddy says,**

'The Swimming pool?...........

errr.... is this 486-5731?'

'No.... I think you have the wrong number.......'

Gibraltar committed to OECD 'tax haven' delisting and tax sharing agreements

Yesterday, I commented on a post over at Tilting at Windmills, defending Gibraltar's inclusion in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) list of 'jurisdictions that have committed to the internationally agreed tax standards' but that have not yet substantially implemented these agreements.

I was therefore very interested to read a story in the Gibraltar Chronicle today quoting a report published in the Financial Times last Friday, which I missed, saying that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written to the UK’s offshore tax havens, including Gibraltar, "warning them to meet international transparency standards within six months or face sanctions".

These reports say Mr Brown has told these jurisdictions to sign at least 12 bilateral tax information sharing agreements by November.

The Chronicle say that in his letter to Chief Minister Peter Caruana, Mr Brown also welcomed recent steps taken by the Gibraltar Government in this context.

He referred to a statement issued by the Gibraltar Government ahead of the G20 summit in London, in which Mr Caruana reiterated Gibraltar’s commitment to OECD standards. A Chief Minister's Office spokesman at the Convent told the Chronicle:

"The Prime Minister highlighted the fact that that statement was well received."

Mr Brown also stressed the importance of the tax information sharing deal reached between Gibraltar and the US, and acknowledged that Gibraltar was in well-advanced negotiations with other countries.

Last week, even before he had received Mr Brown’s letter, Mr Caruana said he was confident that Gibraltar "would sign at least 12 agreements by November".

In early April, following the G20 Summit, the Gibraltar Government issued a statement welcoming the global raising of standards of financial services regulation, transparency and exchange of information, saying "Gibraltar is already very well positioned and well placed to prosper from" these agreements and added that the Gibraltar Government "is very comfortable with the outcome of G20, as it affects Gibraltar".

In the aftermath of the G20 Summit, the Gibraltar Government said the OECD "appears to have adopted, as a test of 'substantial implementation' of agreed tax information exchange standards, the entry into of around 12 Tax Information Exchange Agreements".

The OECD has published a Progress Report as at 2 April 2009 in this respect.

In their statement after the G20, the Gibraltar Government added:

Since Gibraltar has not yet signed 12 agreements, Gibraltar is categorized among 'Jurisdictions that have committed to the internationally agreed tax standard, but have not yet substantially implemented'. This categorisation is accurate and fair.

The countries listed as committed but not yet substantially implemented, (like Gibraltar), include reputable EU Member States like Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and others such as Switzerland, Singapore and Bermuda.

Gibraltar is well advanced in the process of signing up tax information exchange agreements and fully expects to be in the category of countries that have fully implemented the internationally agreed standard, by the time that the OECD issues its next progress report in November 2009.

The Gibraltar Government considers that it is right and fair that no 'black list' emerged at G20, especially not one based on a new, sudden criteria of which
committed, active countries had had no prior notice."

Concluding their statement in the aftermath of the G20 Summit, the Gibraltar Government publicly repeated their offer to all OECD countries, which was made through the OECD in November 2008 and subsequently directly to these countries, "to enter into Exchange of Information Agreements, at their request".

The reports of Mr Brown’s letter today in the Chronicle, comes just days ahead of publication of an initial report on the UK’s offshore havens. Michael Foot, a former Bank of England director who was commissioned to write the report, will publish his interim findings on April 22.

I'm sure this report will be read with great interest in Gibraltar.

These reports, in the Chronicle today and in the FT last week, gave me the opportunity to refresh my memory on the Gibraltar Government's statements on their inclusion in this OECD 'tax havens' list... and I'm pleased to say these rather underline my comment yesterday in the post over at Tilting at Windmills, when I said that Gibraltar was not "wishing to act illegally and cock a financial tax snook at the rest of the world"!

The Gibraltar Government's position is clearly one of willing co-operation and are clearly committed to meet Prime Minister Brown's deadline on bilateral tax information sharing agreements by November.

In meeting these internatonal standards and deadlines however, the Gibraltar Government must still ensure they maintain their position in safeguarding Gibraltar's independent economy, as a beneficial tax jurisdiction for high net worth individuals (HNWI's) and offshore corporations.

As I said yesterday, I'm no lawyer or international finance expert, but I imagine this is a tricky balancing act for Gibraltar... and I do hope these agreements do not put at risk, Gibraltar's ability to make it's own way economically... in difficult and changing global financial markets and tax jurisdictions.

One final point on this is that I believe the Government and Gibraltar authorities should be given credit for the commitment and effort they are showing in meeting these international standards... rather than be castigated... as they often are by the uninformed or, especially by mischievous opportunistic politicians from our neighbours to the north! As the Gibraltar Government themselves highlighted in their statement, there are many other countries listed as "committed but not yet substantially implemented", (like Gibraltar), including reputable EU Member States such as Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Singapore and Bermuda!

In conclusion, it is worth reiterating the Government's stated position that "Gibraltar is well advanced in the process of signing up to tax information exchange agreements and fully expects to be in the category of countries that have fully implemented the internationally agreed standard, by the time that the OECD issues its next progress report in November 2009".

Telling it to Brown... telling it like it is

When it comes to integrity in politics today... a rare thing... it's good to see one can still count on people like Frank Field MP.

Writing on his blog today... Frank Field, who has been Labour MP for Birkenhead for the past 30 years, tells it like it is to Gordon Brown.

Yesterday, I wrote about Gordon Brown's 'morally defunct government'... today in a blog post, Frank writes about the "Darkness at the Heart of the Labour Party" and tells Brown "he is in for a very rude awakening"!

Frank Field is a worried man. He writes:

"McBride sat on the Prime Minister's political War Cabinet. If this is the war the Prime Minister thinks the country wants he is in for a very rude awakening. In the meantime, Labour supporters are left bewildered and wondering what happened to the moral crusading side of our mission.

Poor old Labour party."

You may well ask Frank... "what happened to the moral crusading side" of the Labour party? What the rest of us are wondering is... what happened to its morals!

The sad thing is Frank... they never listened to you before... and I doubt very much if they'll listen to you now. In any case, even if Brown does hear you now... it's far too late... the Labour goose is well overcooked... well past it's 'sale by date' too!

What worries me far more is... I cannot see any viable alternatives... we do not have an 'Obama' waiting on the sidelines... ready to offer our country the leadership it so badly needs!