It is not often that I commend the Today programme’s John Humphrys, but yesterday he made up a lot of lost ground. In the two interviews he conducted at 8.10, first with the very cogent and rational Dr Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former White House drugs policy adviser, and next with Sir Vince Cable, we got a real (and unusual for the Leftie-liberal BBC) eye-opener into why cannabis legalisation – medical and otherwise – is not the panacea it is made out to be.
First, Humphrys was on excellent form. But second, from his interview with Sabet, he finally had the ammunition to fire at Cable on his party’s official legalisation policy. It was Humphrys’s questioning on the basis of the pretty incontrovertible case made by Dr Sabet that had Cable floundering.
It certainly demonstrated the power of the well-researched interrogative interview as opposed to the pseudo balance of head-to-heads. And in nearly 20 years of listening, it is the first time I recall the Today programme being so rigorous in questioning legalisation. It was overdue but nonetheless the cause for celebration.
You can listen here to both interviews. And yes, well done John.
