Drugs policies. Food for thought.

Last week I read about Portugal’s drug policy, which basically decriminalised drug use and set up very good clinics to help drug users. Here’s a link to an article about it. Today, I have been reading about Uruguay, where some chemists are legally selling marijuana, state-controlled, high quality marijuana, thus avoiding the problems of the adulterated stuff they sell on street corners. There are a few anomalies: medical marijuana is still illegal in Uruguay; purchasers have to be registered and so (a) tourists cannot buy the good quality stuff and (b) pushers still have a market; not many pharmacies are taking part yet as the banks have been putting pressure on them, threatening to close bank accounts if they sell the drug. But they are working on ironing out the wrinkles.

Two smallish countries are attacking the drugs problem in an innovative fashion. Time for others to think about it in a new way too?

Uruguay sounds like a very modern, forward-thinking country. In 1913 - yes that’s 1913 - a law was passed that said that women could separate from their husbands just by asking a court for permission. And it is still the only Latin American country apart from Cuba to have legalised abortion. Apparently part of the reason is a longstanding separation of church and state. There is no official Christmas Day on the state calendar; it is called Family Day. And Easter week is referred to as tourism week. There you go!

Here’s something else: every week in the Saturday Guardian there is a column which consists of readers’ responses to a question which was asked the previous week. This week people were offering advice in response to this question:

Should I try recipe meal kits? My partner and I work long hours, and I’m looking for a quick, healthier alternative to similarly priced takeaways.

Here is a link to the column, in case you would like to see all the replies.

In the meantime, here are a few examples:

“I've tried both Hello Fresh and Gousto, and am a big fan of the latter for its interesting recipes, tasty meals and clear instructions. (Though Gousto is the worse of the two for quantity of unnecessary packaging.) I tend to use them occasionally, but keep the recipe cards to make the same dishes again and again on my own, more cheaply and in larger batches that can be frozen or see us through a fewbusy weekdays. I'd suggest you try the same - not least because preparing the same (tasty) meal repeatedly sees you doing it considerably faster than getting to grips with a new recipe each week”

“They are a reasonable hands-on approach to cooking if you're not so confident. Having everything available, like in the TV demo, and ready measured is a relatively painless way to concentrate on the mechanics of cooking, like temperature, timing and when to stir. They do have more detailed instructions than any cook book would provide, and that's what some find useful. And there are places where having only just enough of all the ingredients is ideal, at a rented holiday cottage for instance.”

“But the cost should tell you it's a premium way of learning to cook or expanding your range. It shouldn't be your default meal choice; that's only a marginal improvement on ready meals. If you're cooking the same meal from the box for the third time, you're not making the most of the learning opportunity.”

Now, I know about these services in a roundabout, secondhand sort of fashion. Last time I visited my son and his wife, a number of their friends were talking about using these services while away on holiday in the UK. As a way of having all the ingredients you need for a good meal while in a self-catering holiday place it sounds ideal. And you get to keep the recipe cards! They were all pretty sensible about it and pooh-poohed the idea that it might be a solution to everyday catering needs.

Two partners working and meals to cook! A very “modern” problem, this one! Or is it? Haven’t almost all of my generation had the same thing to deal with? Most of us just cooked double amounts of whatever dish we were preparing, eating half and freezing the rest for future occasions. That way there was almost always something ready to defrost for those days when you both arrived home feeling too weary to start major cooking.

Don’t the younger generation have freezers?