Prohibition on the roads equally counterproductive?

[Martin Cassini]

In 1981 (writes Ben Goldacre, Guardian, 7.11.09), studies of rates of change in cannabis use based on national surveys in the 70s found the most rapid increase was in countries with the toughest penalties. Cannabis use in the UK fell after the move from Class B to C. Prohibition of alcohol provides the most famous example of counterproductive control and enforcement. "If you wish to justify a policy that increases the harms associated with each individual act of drug use by creating violent criminal gangs of distributors, driving the sale of contaminated black market drugs, blighting the lives of users caught by the police, etc, then as a trade-off, people will expect you to provide quality evidence showing that your policy achieves its stated aim of reducing the number of people using drugs." In the same way, road safety policy based on a system of unequal rights and coercion, stands indicted.