Legalise Drugs to Solve UK Gun Crime

Britain's escalating gun culture could be eradicated by legalising all drugs, leading British politician Mo Mowlem suggested this week in a surprisingly explicit article in the Guardian.

"Most gun crime relates to the illegal drugs trade, which is mainly controlled by foreign gangs, for whom guns are a regular part of the business," Ms Mowlem, who was responsible for the UK government's drug policy between 1999 and 2001, pointed out.

"The increase in gun crime is a byproduct of the level of organised crime that we are allowing to fester within our society - an organised crime business that is being fuelled by our wrongheaded laws relating to drugs."

Her comments followed the New Years Day shooting of four girls in Birmingham and closely matched the opinions expressed in a Daily Telegraph editorial this week.

"Most of the young men who carry and use guns in Britain are consumers or dealers in drugs. In that sense, any crime in which they carry a gun is therefore 'drug-related', to use the fashionable term," said the Telegraph.

"But it would be more accurate to say the crime is 'drug-law related'. If drugs were not criminalized dealers would not need to carry guns any more than brewers or distillers would feel the need to be armed today."

While the Telegraph concentrated on cannabis, Ms Mowlem called for all drugs to be legalised and sold through off licences, with sensible controls in place.

"Large numbers of people smoke marijuana, particularly teenagers and young people, and a lot also take ecstasy and cocaine," she said.

"They are not criminals; they are people you know."
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