Of course legalising does not “fix the drug problem” in the same way that making laws does not fix traffic jams. But leaving the laws as they are, continuing this unproductive, ineffective and certainly destructive “war on drugs” lacks political intelligence.

The point is that people are dying because of the laws. Addiction is a disease that doctors can not treat as their patients do not go to their doctors when they feel ill, they are far more likely to go to their drug dealer to “fix” it.

Making heroin illegal causes the addiction to become a disease of magnitude and a locus for crime as well as ultimately funding the Taliban. If the police could arrest all the addicts would society be any better? No. That is the worst thing to do. a society that locks up its weak and its artists is not a society worth living in. Let them live and explore their complex worlds without making life so unrewarding and banal that the only inspiration comes from the desperate need and the onrush of illusory satisfaction from drug use.

The War on Drugs may be the worst solution to the problem. The political will to change this can only come about by education.