Everyone with half a brain knows that the drug “war” is lost and was always unwinnable and that the drug “problem” is only controllable by sensible legalization, regulation and education—as has been done with other addictive drugs like alcohol and tobacco. But it’s pretty rare that someone at the center of the drug “fighting” business—an industry with its mouth firmly attached to the teet of public funding—actually comes out and admits the truth. So when a drug Czar says so, perhaps some of his counterparts should listen.

Pity that it’s the Scottish rather than American drug czar who’s saying just that. But he at least comes from a place that has a real problem (remember Trainspotting) and an even more Calvinist past than we have over here. So there is perhaps some hope in the madness, although not much I’ll admit.