Depressingly Predictable

Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales (aka the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taleban) has come in for the usual intemperate attack from the Mail (and other papers) over a remark he made about drugs. I make no comment as to his views, but what is most depressing about this is the entire lack of any reasoned debate. Whenever the drugs issue comes up, the tabloids and some of the rent-a-quote politicians who pander to them go into a knee-jerk rant mode.

I don't know the answer to the drugs problem, but I do know some of the questions. We have now reached the position where there is no chance of any rational approach to our fellow citizens' increasing appetite for chemical stimulation or relaxation. Our politicians long ago gave up leadership, in favour of a marketing-led approach dependent on focus groups and polls. That is what gives yobbish tabloid journalists their power over elected politicians who are terrified of upsetting anyone.

The 'War on Drugs' has become like the later stages of the Vietnam war: it's unwinnable, but nobody has the guts to admit it; there is disaffection in the ranks and dissent among the population.

It may be late-era Vietnam now, but if we carry on like this it will evolve into the early part of a new Hundred Years' War.