Drug psychosis

Tim Leary once quipped that acid is a substance that causes psychosis in people who don’t take it. We find broader evidence of this principle of drug psychosis in the discussion of a new UK Drug Policy Commission report, which shows “just how little evidence there is to show that the hundreds of millions of pounds spent on UK enforcement each year has made a sustainable impact.”

Former police chief constable David Blakey, of the UK Drug Policy Commission, said enforcement agencies tended to be judged by the amount they had managed to capture.

“This is a pity as it is very difficult to show that increasing drug seizures actually leads to less drug-related harm,” he added.

But he later said asking whether the money spent on enforcement was wasted was “more of a moot question”.

“This is against the law and the law needs to be enforced so whether or not we are actually driving drugs down and making drugs disappear – which I think would be asking too much of any country – there is an element of law enforcement which should and must continue,” he told the BBC.

Don’t try to follow the logic here too closely—this kind of insanity can be contagious.