Following on from yesterday’s post about the views on drugs of the Chief Constable of North Wales … Needless to say said Chief Constable has today come in for the “usual intemperate attack” from the Daily Mail and other papers (eg. this relatively well tempered article in the Daily Telegraph).

Bystander over at The Magistrate’s Blog comments in his usual forthright and perceptive style:

… what is most depressing about this is the entire lack of any reasoned debate. Whenever the drugs issue comes up, the tabloids and some of the rent-a-quote politicians … go into a knee-jerk rant mode …

We have now reached the position where there is no chance of any rational approach to our fellow citizens’ increasing appetite for chemical stimulation.

Our politicians long ago gave up leadership, in favour of a marketing-led approach dependent on focus groups and polls.

… elected politicians … are terrified of upsetting anyone.

The ‘War on Drugs’ has become like the later stages of the Vietnam war: it’s unwinnable, but nobody has the guts to admit it …

I really couldn’t have expressed it better myself, even with all day to think about it!

However the “intemperate attacks” are precisely why I think Brunstrom is wrong. The legalisation he is advocating won’t happen; the tabloid press and the tabloid politicians will ensure it doesn’t; they’ll drown out anyone who dares to think about the subject.