Richard Branson leaks official UN document to prompt debate over drug decriminalisation

Richard Branson leaks official UN document to prompt debate over drug decriminalisation

WHEN you’re worth nearly $7 billion, you don’t really think twice about pissing off the United Nations.

Sir Richard Branson has done just that and left the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime scrambling to cover themselves after he leaked an official document extolling the virtues of decriminalising illicit drugs.

Branson said he was “delighted” by the policy content of the two page document but feared the UN would have a last-minute change of heart. So the airline mogul, who sits on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, leaked the document, titledDecriminalisation of Drug Use and Possession for Personal Consumption, online.

The previously embargoed paper states that liberalisation of laws on controlled substances should be carried out worldwide. It argues that “arrest and incarceration are disproportionate measures” for drug possession offences.