[Shaun]

Following the death of Whitney Houston, Tony Bennett has called for the legalisation of hard drugs. Houston would not have died, Bennett said, if drug users were not forced "to hide".

Bennett made his comments just hours after Houston's body was found in her hotel room. The 85-year-old singer was speaking at Clive Davis's annual pre-Grammys party, which had been abruptly re-dedicated to Houston's life. "I'd like to have every gentleman and lady in this room commit themselves to get our government to legalise drugs," he told the star-studded crowd. "So they have to get it from a doctor, not just some gangsters that just sell it under the table."

According to Bennett, drug laws were responsible not just for Houston's death but for the premature ends of Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse. This is a bizarre claim: Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning, while Jackson was killed by the effects of a legal drug, administered by a doctor. Houston's death has yet to be explained.

Despite criticism from certain quarters, Bennett said on Monday that the reaction to his comments has been "mostly positive". "[Legalisation would] get rid of all the gangsters that make people hide," he told Rolling Stone magazine. "Once it's legal and everybody can do it, there is no longer the desire to do something that nobody else can do … You're always afraid you're going to get arrested. You have to hide. Why do that?"

Bennett won two Grammys on Sunday, including a prize for Body and Soul, his duet with Amy Winehouse; this brings his career total to 17. "Winning just feels great," Bennett said.

[Me. I Am Salman]

There's a reason why its illegal...

[Shaun]

Enlighten us

[fruit_cake]

maybe a lot of potential users who aren't interested enough to break the law to try drugs might try them if they were legal?

[Ammi]

Hmmmm....not convinced I agree with that. The music industry has taken three 'hits' in a short space of time and it's easy to look for a solution......I don't think there is one tbh

[Me. I Am Salman]

Originally Posted by fruit_cake

maybe a lot of potential users who aren't interested enough to break the law to try drugs might try them if they were legal?

Exactly!

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

thats ****ing retarded

is he trying to say that drug users are ashamed and they wouldnt do it if they had to do it publicly by going to the doctor?

what a ****ing goon

[CharlieO]

He has a point the legalisation of drugs wil in the long term actually reduce the use of them. Firstly becuase some of the 'cool' aspect will be lost, secondly the government will be able to control the prices, and thirdly it will vastly reduce the gateway effect.

[Shaun]

An interesting read on the decriminalisation of drugs in Portugal, which led to drug abuse halving.

Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.

Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:

Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

“There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

The number of addicts considered “problematic” — those who repeatedly use “hard” drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.

Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.

“This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies.”

Many of these innovative treatment procedures would not have emerged if addicts had continued to be arrested and locked up rather than treated by medical experts and psychologists. Currently 40,000 people in Portugal are being treated for drug abuse. This is a far cheaper, far more humane way to tackle the problem. Rather than locking up 100,000 criminals, the Portuguese are working to cure 40,000 patients and fine-tuning a whole new canon of drug treatment knowledge at the same time.

None of this is possible when waging a war.

The story covered by Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...f-in-portugal/