War on Drugs: Live Debate 13th March, 7pm GMT

"To liberalise or prohibit, that is the question. And to answer it the masters of live debate have joined forces with the masters of web technology to create a never-seen-before combination of Oxford debating and Silicon Valley prowess..."

Tomorrow evening (afternoon for Americans) there will be what sounds like a very interesting debate taking place in London, but which will be broadcast live across the world via Youtube.

They've lined up some pretty good participants, including: Sir Richard Branson, Antonio Maria Costa (Former Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), Eliot Spitzer, Julian Assange, Lord Ian Blair (Former Commissioner of London Police), Russell Brand, Former President of Brazil Fenando Cardoso and Former President of Mexico Vicente Fox, among others.

A rather mixed bag in truth, which might lead to it being a more interesting debate than if they'd just lined up people who focus their whole lives on the matter.

See the event info and full line-up here: http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/versus-drugs

See the Youtube video preview here:
The video builds it up like it's some kind of rock festival but I think it'll be pretty interesting at least and I shall be sat squarely in front of my screen come 7pm, Magic Flight in one hand, real ale in the other, hoping to be entertained and informed.

this looks very interesting. thanks for posting!

Took place last night and I hope at least some people managed to catch it as it was really interesting!

They probably had too many contributors so it was a bit of a rush to try and get everyone involved but the debate itself was very good. Eliot Spitzer in particular is a very clever man and you could imagine how fearsome he would have been as DA for New York.

The main thing I took away from it is that the issue of legalisation/regulation/decriminalisation, whichever you prefer, is not black and white. Clearly the War on Drugs has been a failure but that still leaves a lot of difficult questions for people on our side to answer. Portugal is not the haven of drug reform we all think, they still have issues there too, in my view mainly as a result of choosing decriminalisation instead of legalisation.

They took a vote before and after the debate of people there in the hall and while both the Yes 'I think the War on Drugs should be stopped now' and the No 'I don't think the War on Drugs should be stopped now' sides gained votes - the No's took more of the previously undecided voters, indicating the anti-legalisation side made the better case on the night.

It hasn't shaken my belief in searching for an alternative to Prohibition - in fact it's strengthened my resolve to do so. The challenges and cases put forth by the pro War on Drugs side certainly had their merits, and therefore demonstrate that the only way those of us who believe in regulation can hope to achieve our goals is to be willing to compromise and not be so bullish in our opinions as there are definitely questions we need to answer first.

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but the debate is on youtube.

Ah great thanks very much for posting it.
As I said above the amount of contributors limited the debate's effectiveness but it was still very interesting with worthwhile points being made by both sides.

Just watched it. Your right wilf789 it was a bit of a case of 'Too many cooks...' which ended up diluting both sides cases.

It was interesting and both sides put up some good arguments. Like you I also think that the most salient point to come out of it was that the issue of decriminalisation, regulation and legalisation is a lot more complicated then I thought and that a period of 'experimenting' will be necessary to find the right balance for each country.

I do feel that the question at hand 'Stop the War On Drugs or not' was a little bit side-tracked and would love to see something similar and more in-depth take place in a UK specific forum discussing the issue directly related to the UK (as I'm sure others do for their own countries).