Before Ainsworth's speech, Nigel Morris reported in The Independent, the former Home Office minister responsible for drugs policy and former Defense Secretary who "witnessed first-hand the huge opium fields in Afghanistan that supply the West ... will argue that it is better for addicts to receive their fixes on prescription rather than relying for their supply on the international criminal gangs."

And, Morris adds, Ainsworth "will receive the backing of senior MPs of all parties who will argue that the current tough stance on drugs is counter-productive. ... As Labour Party MP Paul Flynn said: 'This could be a turning point in the failing UK war on drugs.'"

Ainsworth told The Independent that his departure from government has given him the freedom to express his view that the "war on drugs has been nothing short of a disaster. ... Prohibition has failed to protect us. Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harm to individuals, communities and entire countries.

"It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation. ... We must take the trade away from organized criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists" — and, we hasten to add, into the capable hands of our heroic community-based marijuana farmers, all over the world.

—Amsterdam, Dec. 16-17, 2010

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