[2] Before the book's publication, Hitchens had often advocated in his writing a society governed by conscience and the rule of law, which he sees as the best guarantee of liberty, and he had also frequently and at length voiced opposition to the decriminalisation of recreational drugs.

Hitchens had debated a number of figures who are for such decriminalisation, including Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs,[3] and Howard Marks.

A month before The War We Never Fought's publication, Ed West in The Daily Telegraph said that the book had provoked criticism not only from the Left, but also from the free-market libertarian Right.

[8] In Prospect magazine, Peter Lilley wrote that Hitchens "realises there are only two logically coherent policies: prohibition and legalisation.

Decriminalisation, the fashionable option of the intelligentsia, makes no sense, though it is the destination which policy in this country has moved towards for several decades" and "the most refreshing aspect of this book is its recognition that drug taking is fundamentally a moral issue".