Pubdate: Thu, 29 Aug 2013
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2013 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Authors: Mike Trace and Caroline Lucas
Page: 17
Note: Mike Trace is a former deputy drugs tzar; Caroline Lucas is a
Green Party MP

OUR DRUGS POLICY ISN'T WORKING. IT'S TIME TO CHANGE IT

For All the Policing and Prosecuting, There Is No Effect on Levels of
Drug Use

Evidence is mounting that our drug laws are not working. New analysis
from Release and the London School of Economics shows beyond doubt
that the way in which they are implemented is highly discriminatory,
ineffective, and counterproductive. Hundreds of millions of pounds of
taxpayers' money are spent every year on arresting and processing
people for possessing drugs, with no discernible impact on drug
markets or levels of use. Meanwhile, thousands of otherwise
law-abiding people receive criminal records, and many poor and
minority communities deal daily with the feeling that the police are
unfairly targeting them.

The Release/LSE report makes a persuasive case that the main reason
police forces remain addicted to low-level drug policing (172,400
people were dealt with by the police in 2010 for possession of drugs a 
235 per cent increase over the previous 10 years) is that they give
beat officers and managers an easy route to hitting targets for
"solved" crimes.

But perhaps the more damaging impact of all this is on
police-community relations. The research finds that only 7 per cent of
the 550,000 stop-and-searches carried out in 2010 resulted in an
arrest, and these intrusions into personal privacy were overwhelmingly
targeted at young, poor, ethnic minority males.

The Government claims that the existing drug policy is working, and
indeed there are some encouraging results  HIV infection among
drug-users remains low, thanks to our early implementation of harm
reduction programmes from the 1980s onwards. We have world-leading
treatment and recovery services, and are helping more and more people
recover from addiction. Intelligence-led policing has held drug
market-related violence to relatively low levels.

But these successes mask an inconvenient truth - that the element of
drug policy in which political leaders have put most faith (the
deterrence of potential users through the threat of arrest and
punishment) has contributed little if anything to this progress, and
entails massive financial and social costs. We have seen in recent
years a significant fall in cannabis use, but rises in the use of many
new synthetic substances. Supporting the Release/LSE argument that
these trends have nothing to do with the deterrent effect of arrests,
the most significant drops in cannabis use occurred between 2004 and
2009, when it was temporarily downgraded to a Class-C drug.

Both of us have been involved in the politics and implementation of
drug policy for many years and, like most people, know that it is a
complex problem with no simple answers. It is not just about being
"tough" or "soft", or looking for the next eye-catching solution. But
when the clear evidence and years of experience show that a particular
strategy is producing more harm than good, any sensible government
would conduct a review, in order to find a more cost-effective approach.
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