Extra pharmacopoeia

I am not now nor have I ever been nor do I have any intention of becoming a user of illicit drugs. I routinely advise against the use of LSD, amphetamines, Ecstasy, cocaine, and the like. However …

I have no doubt that I could secure any drug within minutes of leaving my computer keyboard, although the last cannabis I handled came from a uniformed police officer. The use of illicit drugs is now ubiquitous and inextricably woven into society's fabric. My son, aged 12, has a computer game in which the player takes the part of a machinegun toting and energetically toking Rasta protecting his ganja patch from the marauding Drug Enforcement Agency which appears in Hueys, on parachutes, and, implausibly, in Fairchild A10s and Red Baron biplanes.

How much evidence must there be before it is acknowledged that prohibition does not work?

Routinely, patients raise the use of illicit drugs and, while presenting a mask of imperturbability, I find it unsettling conducting a consultation potentially …