Sex, drugs and neoliberalism

So let me get this straight. Our economy is deemed to be doing better than we thought because the inclusion of the sex and drugs market has boosted it by about £10 billion a year. But that's not the important point when it comes to the EU. We have been presented with a bill because the improvement in our economy is bigger than the improvement in other economies, which are all now being measured by the same rules. So, clearly, we're spending more on sex and drugs than other people do. Why would that be? I can think of several reasons but for me there are two front runners.

1) Communities and our personal economies in this country are so much more tedious, pointless and hopeless than in other countries that more of us are turning to paid sex and paid drugs in order to alleviate the migraine of the mind that our condition causes us.

2) We have so completely swallowed the neoliberal Thatcherite line that the only meaningful experiences are those you pay for that we prefer to pay for our drugs and our sex.

Laugh in your grave, Lady T. Either way you've won. More comprehensively than you ever hoped. You have completely turned the country you once governed into a place that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. And pays the price.

A government minister prepared to talk sensibly about drug policy

Truly times are a'changing. And we are getting full value for money from Norman Baker.

"The new Liberal Democrat minister responsible for drugs policy, Norman Baker, has refused to rule out a policy of legalising cannabis but said that it is not his prime objective in the job.

""I think it needs to be considered along with everything else. It is not my prime objective and I am not advocating it at the moment. We should be prepared to follow the evidence and see where it takes us," he said."

It goes on to say, "He is currently completing a year-long Home Office comparison of international drug policies and is due to visit the Czech republic and Switzerland next week as part of his research."  I was in Switzerland this weekend; missed an opportunity there, obviously....

Drug policy remains a truth free zone

So with the sacking of David Nutt drug policy remains a truth free zone for Labour, and also for the Tories, as Chris Grayling says it was inevitable. Solutions aren't easy, but our politicians are paid to deal with difficult issues, and they're just dodging this one.