The global war on drugs should be abandoned and they could be legalised, an establishment think tank has declared. A study by the International Institute of Strategic Studies found that the global war on narcotics had failed to contain the scourge of illegal stimulants. The drugs trade has spread to Africa and Eastern Europe in recent decades and entrenched its standing in its traditional strongholds of Asia and the Americas. Nigel Inkster, the former assistant chief of MI6 and author of the study, said there was a growing revolt against the cost of the fight in developing countries. [continues 247 words]
The Government was accused of self-delusion last night over the Army's mission in Afghanistan after a Foreign Office minister admitted that the campaign against the Taliban was responsible for a bumper opium crop. Kim Howells said instability in Helmand province, where 4,500 British troops are trying to eliminate Taliban forces, had hindered efforts to purge poppy fields. An emboldened coalition of "drug-runners" and "gangsters" was thriving as programmes to discourage cultivation ground to a halt. He said: "The operation to establish stability has set us back a good deal and it's going to be hard work to establish the stability the Afghans need. [continues 452 words]
HIGH in the hills of a remote part of southern China, the villagers claim to have discovered the secret of long life: rice wine, drunk more or less all day long; snake wine; and a soup made from the oily seeds of the cannabis plant. Bama county is so cut off by the hills that surround it that the motor car has yet to penetrate. It has a population of just over 300,000, yet it has 73 centenarians, one of the highest ratios in the world. [continues 613 words]
