Drug law legal reform

Most of the western democracies only recently banned the sale and consumption of what they call narcotics. If you go back to World War 2 both the allies and the Germans were given a form of crystal meth to enable them to fight for days on end without the need to sleep. It was then only after the war had finished that it was made illegal. It seems odd that the government would be happy for soldiers to use it to win battles but no one else could use it once the war was over.
Indeed if you also go back to the 18th and 18th century it was not uncommon to place to have a meeting in an opium den which were legal and you could discuss your business while you smoked opium. Narcotics like cannabis have long been known to aid in medical use for pain relief, insomnia and such like. But because it altered your mental state the government decided to ban it, even though the active compounds in it can help lots of people with chronic pain.

Indeed narcotics were not all banned at one’s in a single sweep against their use, it was a gradual banning of them over time. Till eventually, they brought all the individual laws into one bit of legislation, the Missuses of Drugs Act 1971. This classified drugs based on their perceived harm. So class A drugs were things like heroin and cocaine. Class b were things like marihuana and amphetamine. And Class C drugs were normally considered to be prescription…