Mick Jagger calls for drugs to be legalised on the Isle of Man

Sir Mick Jagger has called for drugs to be legalised on the Isle of Man, in a bid to see whether illegal narcotics could be successfully decriminalised across the UK. Speaking on the Larry King Live show on CNN, the Rolling Stones frontman said: "The whole question of legalising drugs is fraught."

"You usually try these things out in very small places. You know, like you try a new product out in a small kind of society or an island somewhere," Jagger explained. "In England they always try out new mobile phones in the Isle of Man. They've got a captive society. So I said, you should try – you should try the legalisation of all drugs on the Isle of Man and see what happens."

Jagger's relationship with cannabis in his youth is well known; the singer was arrested in 1967 alongside Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards for possession of the drug, and was initially sentenced to a year in prison. Both convictions were overturned following a successful appeal.

During last night's interview, Jagger discussed the wider effects of drug use in society: "Human beings seem to have a propensity to want to take drugs in some form. It seems to be the propensity of human beings to want to use them. I think you have to take that as read, you know.

"But then what do you do when it affects so many people's lives, and not in a good way? And then also you get a lot of violence at both ends of the scope," Jagger said. "That's the part that speaks to some sort of legalisation. Because that, you would hope, would help the violence from both ends of the supply line."

Jagger was later seen at the Cannes film festival for a screening of the Rolling Stones documentary Stones On Exile, about the making of the band's 1972 album, Exile On Main Street.

By Rosie Swash
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/20/mick-jagger-drugs-isle-man