The old line ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’ is, oddly enough, often misattributed to Albert Einstein. In fact one of its earliest appearances is in the Narcotics Anonymous handbook of 1982, where it forms part of a discussion on the destructive, repetitive behaviour of the addict. To me it seems apt that this definition of insanity is given in a handbook for drug addicts because, while reading Liam Pieper’s Meanjin Papers essay on the current state of drug policy around the world, it occurred to me that if we accept this definition for insanity, then the hard-line attitude to illegal drugs adopted in this, and many other countries, is undeniably insane.

What other word could we use to describe policies that do not work, have never worked, and actually harm the people they’re designed to protect? Policies that fail to stop illegal drug use, but create a lucrative black market for unscrupulous and unaccountable dealers and manufacturers? Policies that no longer keep step with popular opinion on recreational drug use and go completely against the advice of experts in drug policy?