Danny Kushlick interview with Paddy O’Connell Broadcasting House Sunday 13 June 2010

DK Prohibition means that we collectively support the Mafia in a trade that is worth $320bn dollars each and every year. That contributes in the UK to 95% of street prostitution, half of the prison population, a trade in the UK that is valued at between £4 and £6 bn a year that basically causes enormous harm at every single level from Afghanistan, Colombia Mexico and West Africa through to every inner city in the UK.

PO Can you put a figure on it? Can you tell us what money we would save by your suggestion?

DK The costs of running the current regime are estimated by the government at £20bn a year. What we’d see if rates of use were to remain constant, we would see crime costs reduce by £10bn every year. We would see health costs reduce significantly. We would see drug related deaths reduced. But we’re talking about an overall saving here of up to £10 bn a year. It’s not a radical free for all. We’re talking about ending a radical solution that has failed spectacularly over the last fifty years and replacing it with a system of management and regulation.

P What about taxing the trade?

DK Significant taxes can be raised by taxing cannabis and we know from some modelling work that there is anything from £300m to £1.2bn to be raised every year purely on cannabis. But the significant savings are really to do with crime costs which are anywhere between £2bn and £3bn each and every year.

PO In the chain of production people’s lives are destroyed making these drugs and in the chain of use people’s brains are eaten up in many cases in a very tragic end. Do you have a moral fear if you got what you wanted.

DK I have no moral fears whatsoever. My morals are very clear. I want to make the world a better place and it’s absolutely clear from all the evidence from all round the world that the global war on drugs is contributing to misery death degradation and disease. So, on every single measure this is an absolutely moral position to move to a position where the state runs the trade rather allowing the mafia and unregulated dealers to run it.

Peter Jay I think that if you want to legalise all drugs the economic logic of Danny’s suggestion is entirely sound. I think however there may be drugs particularly, are the so called category A drugs, where it is not reasonable to suppose that ordinary members of the public, even adults let alone young people will have sufficient information to make rational decisions about what they do and I think legalising those kind of drugs could be extremely dangerous.