Neil McKeganey: The case for legalising drugs is fatally flawed

The arguments being put forward are deeply flawed.

The claim is that the war on drugs has failed and we now need to consider liberalising our drug laws. Scotland has one of the highest levels of illegal drug use anywhere in Europe, and it is hard to see how allowing some illegal drugs to be even more widely available at a cheaper price will do anything to reduce the scale of our problem.

It was also said that by legalising certain drugs, it will be possible to undermine the profits of the criminal gangs involved in drug supply. Even if the government was to legalise and regulate the sale of the currently illegal drugs, it would undermine all the efforts at drug prevention.

If cannabis and other drugs were to become legally available, the government could rapidly find itself in a bidding war with the current illegal drug suppliers, who could always sell their drugs cheaper than the legal suppliers and so shrink the tax revenue from drug sales.

There is another issue that underpins the call for legalisation, which is whether any government should be involved in the supply of substances that can harm mental health and induce high levels of drug dependency. At the moment, the Scottish Government is trying to reduce the level of alcohol and tobacco consumption, and it would be bizarre for it to simultaneously take up the call to identify ways in which it could involve itself in the marketing of other dangerous drugs.

International experience from countries across the globe has revealed a simple truth, that effective drug policies are always a combination of treatment, prevention and enforcement. Those of a liberal persuasion might like to saw away at the third leg of that stool, but the consequences, were they to succeed, could be as dramatic as they could be predictable.

• Neil McKeganey is director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research, Glasgow.