7.2 /10 1 Votes
Subject Drugs, prohibition Pages 304 ISBN 9781441173317 Preceded by The Rage Against God | 3.6/5 Goodreads Genre Polemics Originally published 2012 Page count 304 Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs is the sixth book by the British author and Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, first published in 2012.
Contents
The book is intended as a rebuttal of what Hitchens sees as the widespread acceptance of drug use and the weakening of drug prohibition in Britain since the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, when a Conservative government adopted a Labour Party policy to implement the Wootton Report. Hitchens believes that there is de facto decriminalisation of drugs in the UK, especially of cannabis, contrary to claims of drug "prohibition" from "Big Dope" (name he gives to the cannabis legalisation lobby). Hitchens contends that it is only through much harsher and more stringent punishment – for both consumers and dealers of drugs – that any war on drugs can be successful.
Background
Hitchens first announced The War We Never Fought's publication in 2011, and stated that the book would examine "the secret surrender of the British establishment to the cannabis lobby in the late 1960s, and the results of this surrender".
Before the book's publication, Hitchens had often advocated in his writing a society governed by conscience and the rule of law, which he sees as the best guarantee of liberty, and he had also frequently and at length voiced opposition to the decriminalisation of recreational drugs (arguing that the legal prohibition of drug use is an essential counterweight to "pro-drug propaganda") and had debated a number of figures who are for such decriminalisation, including Christopher Snowden of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Howard Marks. He has also debated the topic of drugs with the comedian Russell Brand.
Hitchens had claimed attempts to combat drug use by restricting supply and prosecuting drug dealers were futile, unless possession and use were also punished. In April 2012, he gave evidence to the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee as part of its inquiry into drugs policy and called for the British government to introduce a more hardline policy on drugs.
The cover image is an obvious take on the album cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Critical reception
A month before The War We Never Fought's publication, Ed West in The Daily Telegraph claimed that the book had provoked criticism not only from the Left, but also from the free-market libertarian Right,
In Prospect magazine, Peter Lilley wrote that Hitchens "realises there are only two logically coherent policies: prohibition and legalisation. Decriminalisation, the fashionable option of the intelligentsia, makes no sense, though it is the destination which policy in this country has moved towards for several decades" and "the most refreshing aspect of this book is its recognition that drug taking is fundamentally a moral issue". A largely positive review by William Dove in the International Business Times stated that, "Hitchens makes a convincing case that the anti-drug laws are not unenforceable as legalisers might claim, but unenforced".
In a very critical review in The Observer, Nicholas Lezard stated that the book "should never have been published", while Jonathan Rée in The Guardian dismissed the book as "hysterical" and accused its author of "moral racism".
Chris Mullin, writing in the Mail on Sunday, praised much of the book, describing it as a "magnificent – and well-researched – rant against Establishment 'appeasers', who, he [Hitchens] believes, have opened the door to perdition." Mullin however took issue with the solutions to the problem Hitchens prescribes in the book.