Three years into the government's 10-year strategy to fight drugs, the war is over. The government lost. Not only is Britain awash with drugs, but they are more affordable and more easily available than ever before. The time has come to face the fact that drugs have become just another part of our leisure activity. British kids spend as much on Ecstasy as the whole nation spends on tea and coffee.
Cocaine is almost as freely available as alcohol and is nearly as popular.
And it is not just the young, the trendy or the socially deprived who are recreational drug users. Everyone's at it. No one wants to admit any of this because the subject is a political, emotional, religious, social and economic minefield. No one even wants to discuss the fact that the war is over and that we need to consider what we do now. A strategy to bring the drugs trade under control has always been available, but this strategy is not acceptable in the new global economic order.