Can't leave drug laws to pot luck

DID YOU know that Sweden once got extremely tough on drugs? Yup - liberal, laid-back, anything-goes old Sweden.

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They abolished the distinction between so-called "soft" drugs such as cannabis, and "hard" stuff like heroin. It was all equally illegal.

And guess what? Almost at once the country saw a clear drop in drug use of all kinds and an accompanying fall in crime. Mental health improved too.

For reasons best known to the Swedes, they ended up reversing this sensible, results-delivering policy and they're back in the same boat as us again - i.e. a mess.

Cannabis is in the spotlight this week after three of Britain's police chiefs publicly called for a crackdown on the class B drug.