Joshing aside, it’s drug criminalisation that is the unprecedented experiment. Up until 1971, we had very little in the way of prohibition and, somehow, very little in the way of a problem with drug use. It’s prohibition that has created the problems we see today far more than the drugs themselves. Think how gangsters and crime flourished in the thirties in the USA when booze was banned. Throughout all of human history, we’ve taken substances to alter our state of mind – only in the last few decades have we taken it on ourself to decide that this is so bad that people who do it must be subject to the law.

Crack itself is a by-product of prohibition. It offers greater profit margins to dealers and so it is one of the things they try to push onto users. It’s a great example of why the law is such an ass in this regard.

2) Would you mean all drugs inc ‘crack’?