For 50 years, zero tolerance to drugs has failed – yet Britain refuses to change | Simon Jenkins

The 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act has needlessly criminalised thousands of people, and done nothing to tackle abuse

A pandemic is gripping Europe with its centre in Great Britain. More than 3 million Britons caught it in 2019-20, of whom 5,657 died – a number that has quadrupled since 2013. Scotland’s death rate has soared to three and a half times that of the whole UK, and is the worst in Europe. Multiple cures are being tested round the world, but the British government opposes every one of them.

Thi...