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Barry, firstly as the death penalty has been abolished, even after a fair trial death would still be murder as it is technically unlawful. If we were to retract this, we may as well retract the laws put in place to make these substances illegal in the first place, problem solved! (not). It's all well and good learning from the past but just resurrecting it is rarely the answer for the future. The only people that would die would be the dealers, and by dealers I mean the people supplying directly to the streets. These are usually just as much victims, having to supply in aid to fund their habits themselves. There are then a number of levels above (the group I think you would like to kill) that are facilitating this trade without even touching these poisons.
The organisations in place that supply drugs to this and other countries are so huge that even by taking 'major' dealers in the UK would be futile as the systems would be left in place and someone else would just take over. This is bigger than just us, something that perhaps the Chinese overlooked in the 19th century when taking on that formidable drug dealing force, 'The British Empire'
To suggest this has anything to do with political correctness is madness. I think the 'PC gone mad' has 'gone mad'. Place like Thailand and other major trafficking routes have ridiculous penalties, yet people still take the risk. They are also really sexist (by our definitions) and have no regard for health and safety, yet still have massive problems. Regulating actions is no different to attempting to regulate thought that leads to actions; 'why can't I be racist' is just as much an argument as 'why can't I take drugs if I want to'. So I agree PC has no place in this debate.
As Marek points out, Portugal has recently relaxed all laws on substances at user level and has reported no higher use of drugs (supposedly a drop, although I haven't seen anything exact). Drug related crime is down, but then that goes without saying as people aren't being busted for possession. This actually does present significant benefits and allows regulation and safeguard of vulnerable addicts and possible rehabilitation. However I don't think this is the answer either (You're right Ross this is the liberal approach). The only way to stop the dealers is to stop people becoming users. This can only be achieved through a healthy and educated society. You only have to look at the levels of drug abuse in countries with high levels of social capital. Most users of hard drugs normally display previous mental health issues, abuse or a background of deprivation. As a microcosm you only have to compare somewhere like Deal to Dover or Margate, look at the level of unemployment, mortality rate and level of drug abuse.