Dear david f,

All good points. Drug use is an example of an illegal activity that even the most conservative criminologist would not consider a crime, but rather a mental health issue, and perhaps a manifestation of unresolved social problems.

Prohibition is known to be a resounding failure, and the 1920s Prohibition in the US provided criminologists with a rare opportunity to study its effects and usefulness (or should I say, “uselessness”?).

I did an essay on illicit drugs as one of my assessment items, and started with the intention of approaching the issue from what appeared to me to be the common sense angle: that prohibition was necessary, and to ask what could be done to improve the ‘war on drugs’. To my surprise, I found no evidence whatsoever in the literature to support continued prohibition and had no choice but to argue that prohibition was counterproductive and that a harm minimisation approach needed to be taken instead.

In fact, so non-existent was the evidence that prohibition was a good idea, that, in order to present a contrary view to rebut, I needed to reference some dodgy religious webpage and, consequentially, lost marks there for referencing something that was not scholarly.

There is a brilliant TED talk on this topic that bears an uncanny resemblance to the essay I wrote:

http://www.ted.com/talks/ethan_nadelmann_why_we_need_to_end_the_war_on_drugs?language=en

Legalising illicit drugs would be a significant blow to organised crime. The only downfall is that a society that legalised all illicit drugs would possibly end up sacrificing the current generation of addicts. Prohibition, however, taught us that when a substance is legal and no longer taboo, abuse rates of it drop.

As for religion and the perception of violence, Christians tend to be the most sceptical that violence (or conventional violence, at least) is declining, as it is imperative to Christian theology that the world be going to pot. Not only does the Bible predict this, but it’s also supposed to be a sign of the eagerly awaited return of Jesus.

Dear Banjo Paterson,

It seems pointless for us continue much further when neither of us has finished reading the book. I’ll be sure to report back with more details if it ever becomes relevant in a future discussion. Although, I would recommend reading the book yourself.

The book has its critics, naturally. But it is a fascinating read nonetheless. It has helped to fill some of the gaps in my criminological knowledge that were never filled during my years at university. Questions I had such as, how is it that we live in more civilised times, and yet some things that were once considered uncivilised are now more commonplace (e.g. swearing, wearing revealing clothing)?

(FYI, the answer to the above is because we no longer need to fear violent retribution in the event that we offend someone.)