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Former President questions whether legal regulation and control of drugs would better protect children

March 27, 2017

But the former president urges caution in relation to possible future business interests in currently illicit drugs. "Our experiences with alcohol and tobacco show that we cannot entrust such commodities to corporations whose interests are in profit maximisation not public health. We cannot relinquish drugs to the criminal market, nor to an unregulated free market."

"To protect children from drugs it is to my mind now beyond debate that drug laws need to be reformed. From what we already know, the ongoing and future identified harms of current drug policies to our children must be considered not as unintended, but a result of negligence, recklessness or simple disregard," concludes Cardoso.

"President Cardoso's editorial is a challenge to politicians, researchers and activists and is a much needed contribution to an important part of the drug policy debate we all too often overlook", said Professor Gerry Stimson, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Drug Policy. "This is no doubt a very difficult and controversial area and I wholeheartedly agree with President Cardoso, we need to create an environment where it is safer to openly discuss these issues."

Source: Elsevier