Pubdate: Sun, 21 Oct 2007
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2007 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Jamie Doward, home affairs editor, The Observer
Cited: Transform Drug Policy Foundation http://www.tdpf.org.uk
Referenced: After the War on Drugs: Tools for the debate 
http://www.tdpf.org.uk/AboutUs_Publications.htm#tools
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Richard+Brunstrom

DRUGS STRATEGY DEBATE 'IS A SHAM'

Think-Tank Says Prohibition Has Failed and Wants Talks on 
Legalisation As Home Office Defends Ban

The government's consultation on a new 10-year drugs strategy is a 
'sham', according to one of Britain's leading think-tanks on 
narcotics, which warns that the current policy is fuelling a crime epidemic.

The Transform Drug Policy Foundation, the only UK organisation of its 
kind to advise the United Nations on such issues, will this week 
publish a new report claiming the current strategy has failed. The 
report, 'After the War on Drugs: Tools for the Debate', claims there 
is an urgent need for full consultation on allowing the controlled 
supply of illegal drugs. 'It is clear our drug policy cannot continue 
down the same failed path forever,' the report states. 'Prohibition's 
failure is now widely understood and acknowledged among key 
stakeholders in the debate... the political benefits of pursuing 
prohibition are now waning and the political costs of its 
continuation are becoming unsustainable.'

The report claims that drug prohibition has allowed organised crime 
to control the market and criminalised millions of users, putting a 
huge strain on the justice system. The Home Office estimates that 
half of all property crime is linked to fundraising to buy illegal 
drugs. The police claim that drug markets are the main driver of the 
UK's burgeoning gun culture. Official figures released last week 
showed that drug offences recorded by police had risen 14 per cent in 
April to June of this year, compared with the same period in 2006.

Politicians claim tough anti-drugs laws send clear signals to 
society. But Transform points to a Home Office survey, commissioned 
in 2000, which showed the social and economic costs of heroin and 
cocaine use were between UKP10.1 and UKP17.4 billion - the bulk of 
which were costs to the victims of drug-related crime.

'Over the course of 10 years, a series of different inquiry reports 
into UK drugs policy all say the same thing: the policy is 
malfunctioning,' said Steve Rolles, the report's author. 'They've all 
been blithely ignored by the government, which insists it is making progess.'

Last week, North Wales Police chief constable Richard Brunstrom said 
he would 'campaign hard' for drugs such as heroin to be legalised. 
Previously he has said that drugs laws are out of date and that the 
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 should be replaced by a new 'Substance Misuse Act'.

Transform claims the consultation process, which finished on Friday, 
was designed to stifle debate on drugs policy. 'The consultation 
process has been a sham,' Rolles said. 'It hasn't highlighted any 
policies to consult on. It's becoming very clear the next 10-year 
strategy is going to be identical to the last one. The whole idea 
that there is going to be a radical change is just not the case.'

The think-tank has taken the unusual step of writing to the Better 
Regulation Executive, set up to ensure government runs smoothly, to 
complain that the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is already making 
policy before the consultation process had finished.

The Prime Minister signalled earlier this year that the government 
would reclassify cannabis. He also recently insisted the government 
would never decriminalise drugs, something Transform argues makes a 
mockery of the consultation process.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: 'We have undertaken an open 
consultation and we welcome constructive ideas and views on how we 
can continue to reduce drug harm. However, the government is 
emphatically opposed to the legalisation of drugs which would 
increase drug-related harm and break both international and domestic law.' 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake