Much as I admire him for being a stout and sturdy defender of real Conservatism I have to say on the drugs issue I believe Mr Hitchens could not be more wrong.I would have thought that for even an ex Marxist like him the degree of State intervention required to police what substances people ingest would have given him pause but apparently not.Perhaps when one discovers that the admirable Peter also favours renationalisation of the railways (and perhaps the post office as well?)it is not so inconsistent after all.
It is noticeable that both sides of the political aisle have their own pet issues and areas where they favour State interventionism and neither are known for any consistency here.Tories tend to be broadly speaking non interventionist in economic areas but favour meddling in personal behaviour matters whereas the Left are more liberal in the latter but urge meddling in economic areas.Only libertarians are totally intellectually consistent and of course they are always conspicuous by their absence in UK politcs.
The argument for drug liberalisation has to be made on the individual rights issue and not the ridiculous one of being a way of reducing crime.You could argue on those grounds that burglary should be de-criminalised! It is the anti Big Brother argument that should prevail and which policy has led to the ridiculous failed and doomed prohibitionist approach that has had such comprehensively dismal results with historical parallels that only the ignorant can be unaware of.
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