Sir -- You are right to reiterate the case against drug prohibition, but regulation and taxation just will not work. Opium and cocaine are cheap to grow, high value and low weight, so the hundredfold mark-up to which you refer is almost wholly due to their illegality. Any conceivable tax would fall far short of equating to a hundredfold mark-up, and would in any case be emasculated by smuggling.

Analogies with alcohol and tobacco are misleading. Relative to drugs, these are bulky and low value, and neither face anything remotely corresponding to a hundredfold mark-up. Regulation and taxation are thus fairly straightforward. The only feasible alternative to prohibition is to take the international drug-trade into public ownership.

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