Alan Young on Decriminalizing Drugs

Law Professor Alan Young has ruffled some feathers in the legal profession with his book "Justice Defiled: Perverts, Potheads, Serial Killers and Lawyers". He believes that drug use should be decriminalized, his argument being that too much money and court time is being used in the prosecution of drug users. He believes that if recreational drug use, including heroin and cocaine, was legal, the majority of people would use them responsibly. However, he concedes that some would not and possibly more users would become addicted. He also believes prostitution should be decriminalized. He takes a swing at his own profession, which he says is rife with hypocrisy and greed, and at the use of plea bargaining, which he sees as a sham, used only by lawyers to ditch unprofitable cases quickly. (Originally aired November 2003)