Ben calls for all drugs to be legalised

Ben Elton has called for hard drugs like heroin and crack cocaine to be legalised.

He said crime would fall if all Class A substances were legally available.

The comic, who recently hosted part of the golden jubilee celebrations, said prohibition - like the banning of alcohol in the US in the 1920s - has proved to be a failure.

And he added that the only lasting effect of the 'social experiment" was to leave America with an efficient organised crime network,

Speaking on ITV1's That's Esther, he said: "I firmly believe that hugely radical solutions are now required. It's about legalisation not de-criminalisation.

"It is now a self-evident fact that criminalisation hasn't worked. All it has presented us with is organised crime."

Elton, who has been accused of losing his radical edge in recent years, has written a novel about a future where the war on drugs has been lost, called High Society.

Published: 23 Jul 2002