Pubdate: Thu, 30 Oct 2014
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2014 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: George Murkin

THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR REFORM MUST NOT BE WASTED

The long-delayed report released by the Home Office highlights how 
its own approach to drugs is not based on evidence.

In particular, the report  which looks at the effectiveness of other 
countries' drug policies  concludes that harsh penalties for drug 
users have no effect on levels of drug use. That punitive drug laws 
have a deterrent effect is a key assumption underpinning both the 
UK's approach and prohibitionist drug policy more broadly. The report 
says: "We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious 
relationship between the toughness of a country's enforcement against 
drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country."

This isn't much of a surprise to anyone with an interest in drug 
policy. This is what they found in Portugal, which decriminalised the 
personal possession of all drugs in 2001. In fact, by two out of 
three measures, adult drug use is now lower than it was before the 
introduction of the decriminalisation policy, which was accompanied 
by more health-centred measures. The Home Office also states that it 
"will monitor the impacts" of the legally regulated cannabis markets 
established in Uruguay and the US states of Washington and Colorado. 
This is a welcome move because, as the report says, "these policies 
have common aims  disrupting organised crime and exercising greater 
control over the use of cannabis".

Indeed, these markets mean that governments - rather than organised 
criminals - are in control of the cannabis trade, managing it in a 
way that better protects public health and safety.

It is commendable that the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats 
have found common ground and acknowledged the evidence that less 
punitive, healthbased approaches to drugs can deliver better outcomes.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. The previously toxic 
nature of this debate had led politicians to adopt polarised 
positions that consisted of little more than populist rhetoric.

This report demonstrates that a cross-party approach is a 
prerequisite both for genuine scrutiny, and ultimately, for 
substantive, evidencebased reform. It is therefore crucial that the 
Labour Party also engages in this debate, to move beyond political 
pointscoring and towards a dispassionate consideration of what works. 
However, it is ironic that the UK Government, while examining the 
policies in place in other countries, has never meaningfully 
evaluated its own approach. In 2010, the National Audit Office 
criticised the Government for having no evaluative framework 
whatsoever for assessing the UK's drug strategy.

This is a new era, in which Lib Dems and Tories can agree that there 
are viable alternatives to enforcementled drug policy and where the 
majority of the public support review and reform. For the first time 
in over 40 years, we have an opportunity to not only compare 
alternatives to prohibition, but to actually implement them. George 
Murkin is policy and communications officer of Transform, a 
charitable think tank that campaigns for the legal regulation of drugs
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