Why Michael Gove’s cocaine confession should be shapping drugs policy

Can politicians who have used cocaine make a greater contribution to the policy debate than those who have not?

REGARDING the taking of  illegal Class A drugs such as cocaine, and the recent admission of Environment Secretary Michael Gove that he had taken the drug, isn’t there another side to the argument other than condemning it out of hand?

Isn’t it true to say that  those who have actually experienced taking cocaine  have a greater knowledge of its effect, and hence its dangers, than those without such experience?

And wouldn’t such a person be better positioned to make a useful contribution if they  ever became involved in any  sort of legislation to do with drugs?

Compare this with the praise and overwhelming support  given to those (often young men) who, after experiencing a spell in prison, the result of being found guilty of an offence involving drugs, knife crime or gang warfare, go into a community and work with young people, keeping them on the ‘straight and narrow’.

Nobody expresses the  view that they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near young people.

Why Michael Gove’s cocaine confession should be shapping drugs policy – Yorkshire Post letters