USS_Rentz_confiscates_cocaine._(9789043406).jpg

A Cease-fire in the War on Drugs?

By Jonathan Power

Not that long ago in Britain Sherlock Holmes could quite legally sit by the fire with his pipe and sniff cocaine. If friends wanted to join him they could, without fear of a police raid, smoke marijuana. Opium was used for those in unbearable pain and could be bought without a doctor’s prescription.