Conservative MEP warms to decriminalising soft drugs, calls for Royal Commission

Giles Chichester, Conservative MEP for South West England and Gibraltar, has written to one of his local papers to say:

Criminal prosecution is not solving the [drugs] problem. I can see a potential benefit to health by making recreational drugs available on prescription… I can see a potential reduction in crime by cutting out the illegal market in drugs.

I could even see a fiscal benefit in taxing things like cannabis so as to put it on a par with alcohol and tobacco We need to consider what is happening in other countries to combat the spread of hard drugs. A Royal Commission to evaluate the evidence is, in my view, a step in the right direction.

Here’s the full letter: