Monday 2 June 2003

A lawyer tells the truth

Scotland's best-known criminal lawyer has called for the legalisation of all drugs. Unsurprisingly, politicians don't agree with Donald Findlay:
Michael Matheson, the deputy justice spokesman for the SNP, insisted legalising all drugs would send the wrong message to society.
The "wrong message" being that the state doesn't own our bodies. That would never do, would it?

Mr Findlay wrote an interesting article in the Edinburgh Evening News last week in which he said:

The Scottish Parliament works on a limited budget, but somebody has got to have the strength of character to stand up and say that we will spend less on education and health for a year or so and spend the money on law and order.
If the state has any legitimate purpose, it is to protect law-abiding folk from criminals. Education and health are not proper functions of government. If we abandon the ludicrous war on drugs and return most of the state's activities to the people, we shall be able to deal appropriately with our shocking crime wave.