I have just revised the last chapter of my Philosophy notes and put it on my web site. I thought it would do justice to the oddity of the subject to delay a tentative answer to the question What is Philosophy? until the final chapter.

Having provided content for this posting by making that announcement, I feel that I can mention cannabis without delivering the ill-tempered rant I might have indulged in had that been my only subject.

I do not believe that any sane and thoughtful person can think it helpful to make recreational drugs illegal, and assume that the near unanimity in favour of that inanity among our politicians indicates dirty work of some kind behind the scenes.

The greatest beneficiaries of legal restrictions are those who deal in illegal drugs on a large scale, since illegality greatly inflates their profits. I surmise that drug profits in some way play a part in maintaining the present state of the law, but am not sure how. I doubt if there is overt bribery, at least not in Britain, but I think it would be interesting to examine the financing of drug charities. Do they have lots of anonymous donations ?