The latest drugs row here in the UK - resulting from the home secretary sacking the chief drugs adviser - is surely a proxy war. The real issue is not whether drugs policy should just follow the science, which it clearly shouldn't because there are more subtle issues involved than empirical research alone can reflect. (This much Professor Nutt, as the adviser is called, himself unwittingly confirmed when he said taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse: I know which activity I'd prefer my daughter to engage in at the weekend.) Rather, the issue that no-one quite tackles is that the legally sanctioned drug of alcohol is far worse for people and society than several of the recreational ones also widely available.

That said, I don't myself believe that legalizing drugs would fix it, as liberals are wont to advocate. You see enough of drugs on the streets of London where I live, legal and illegal, not to want the obviously highly leaky stopper of criminality removed entirely - as if the criminals would just disappear and their clients would resort to some drug-free state of nature. The other truth that gets mislaid during such rows is that, when it comes to the drug problem, there's no magic pill.