Scotland Yard Chief Calls For Hard Drugs to be Legal

UK Telegraph -- One of Scotland Yard's most senior officers has called for hard drugs - including crack cocaine and heroin - to be decriminalised, saying that police cannot win the war against dealers.

Chief Supt Anthony Wills, the borough commander of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, said that as the state could not control the criminal trade in drugs, it should take it over instead.

"I would have no problems with decriminalising drugs full stop," said Mr Wills. "There have to be very stringent measures over the production and supply of drugs and we have got to remove the drug market from criminals. I do not want people to take drugs but if they are going to, I want them to take them safely, with a degree of purity and in a controlled way."

Mr Wills, who heads more than 2,000 officers, said that draconian anti-drugs measures had always failed. "There are some places where people are beheaded if they sell drugs but even this does not stop the trade."