Let's legalise cocaine

Add this video
to your playlist

Let's legalise cocaine

14 Nov 2006

The panel debate the motion: Let's legalise cocaine. Chaired by Dame Joan Bakewell.

Arguing in favour of the motion are Rosie Boycott, Jamie Whyte and Camilla Cavendish.

Rosie Boycott states that the government's war on drugs has not worked, with the number of drug addicts and drug-related crime on the increase. Making cocaine illegal has driven the drugs trade underground, which exposes users to drugs of fluctuating strength and dubious origins and has fuelled the increase in crime.

Jamie Whyte suggests that we need a political philosophy that tells us when something we do is illegal. He points to John Stuart Mill's On Liberty as a pioneering example, before embarking on his own liberal proposition that the benefits of taking cocaine outweigh the costs, since it gives great pleasure to the individual.

Camilla Cavendish then claims that spending billions of pounds on law enforcement is clearly not working. She points out the difficulty of fighting against both the human desire to have a good time, and an unparalleled opportunity to make money.

Arguing against the motion are Dr Mark Collins, Julie Lynn-Evans and Joe Studwell.

Dr Mark Collins begins by outlining the history and science of cocaine use and it effects. He notes that cocaine has been shown to have the highest hit-rate of addictive problems, and irreversibly alters brain structure and function.

Julie Lynn-Evans draws on her experience as a child psychologist to suggest that legalisation of cocaine would both make the country more unsafe and increase its use by individuals.

Joe Studwell suggests that the proposition for legalisation turns on a liberal fallacy that if an individual is presented with drugs, and correct information, then they will reject their use. He says that people take drugs because they work.

First Vote: 262 For, 243 Against, 198 Don't Know

Final vote: 255 For, 389 Against, 90 Don't Know

The motion is defeated by 134 votes.