Drug survey was suppressed – Lib Dem minister
Norman Baker says Tory colleagues
did not like evidence tough drug laws did not lead to lower drug use
- One inescapable conclusion – drug laws don't work
- The Guardian view on drugs policy
-
Punitive drug laws failing, says Home Office study
UK government’s drug laws survey was suppressed, Lib Dem minister says
Norman Baker says Tories did not like evidence gleaned as deputy prime minister Nick Clegg criticises foot dragging over report that says tough laws make no difference - The Guardian,
A groundbreaking Home Office report which concluded that tougher enforcement of drug laws does not lead to lower levels of drug use was “suppressed” by the Conservatives, a Liberal Democrat minister has said.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat Home Office drugs minister, said the report, published on Thursday, had been suppressed not by the home secretary, Theresa May, but by the Conservatives.
In support, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said there had been a lot of “foot dragging” over the publication of the report but urged the Tories to “have the courage just for once to break some of the taboos about Britain’s ineffective drug laws”.
The deputy prime minister accused Downing Street of being frightened to open its eyes to the way in which Britain’s drugs laws leads to 2,000 deaths a year while “the pushers, the Mr Bigs and the criminal gangs get richer and richer”.
The government’s first evidence-based survey examined international drug laws and said there was no evidence that tough enforcement of laws on personal possession led to lower levels of drug use. The Home Office document brings to an end 40 years of almost unbroken official political rhetoric that only harsher penalties can tackle the problem caused by the likes of heroin, cocaine or cannabis.
The report was signed off by May and Baker and was published on Thursday alongside an official expert report calling for a general ban on the sale and trade in legal highs, although Baker has said it had been ready for publication since July.
The Lib Dem Home Office minister said: “The reality is that this report has been sitting around for several months. I’ve been trying to get it out and I’m afraid that I believe that my coalition colleagues who commissioned the report jointly don’t like the independent conclusions it’s reached.
“It was suppressed, not by Theresa May, it was suppressed by the Conservatives and the reality is that it has got some inconvenient truths in it.”
Baker said the international comparisons demonstrated that “banging people up and increasing sentences does not stop drug use”. He said the last 40 years had seen a drugs debate in Britain based on the “lazy assumption in the rightwing press that if you have harsher penalties it will reduce drug use, but there is no evidence for that at all”.
Baker added: “If anything the evidence is to the contrary.”
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, he said some Conservative colleagues did not like the evidence that had come out but “if you see a tree, it is a tree”.
Downing Street insisted the report did not reach the conclusions Baker claimed and accused him of a desperate spinning operation.
In a statement, Number 10 said: “This report provides no support whatsoever for the Lib Dem’s policy of decriminalisation. In fact, it clearly states that it would be inappropriate to draw those kind of conclusions.
“The Lib Dem policy would see drug dealers getting off scot-free and send an incredibly dangerous message to young people about the risks of taking drugs “As the report makes very clear, the Government’s approach already provides a good balance between enforcement and treatment, drug use is plummeting as a result and there is simply no chance that we will entertain such a reckless change of course .”
Clegg, speaking on LBC, said: “I think the Tories have a misplaced, backward-looking, outdated view that the public would not accept a smarter approach on how to deal with drugs. The argument I have made to them privately and publicly is pluck up the courage to face up to the evidence that what we are doing is not as effective as it should be, there are lessons we can learn from other countries and if you are anti-drugs you should be pro-reform. Have the courage for once just to break some of the taboos.”
He said: “We have got to get away from this facile view that talking tough solves this problem. It is a betrayal of those 2,000 families of those that die every year in our country.”
Clegg said he had unsuccessfully pressed his Conservative colleagues to set up a royal commission, but then persuaded them to undertake an international comparative study that had finally been published after “lots and lots of foot dragging”.
He stressed that he was not advocating decriminalisation of drugs, saying he did not support a free-for-all, but wanting more criminalisation of the pushers.
“I hope today’s report is a wake-up call to Ed Miliband and David Cameron to open their eyes and actually get on with changing things so we can help the addicts to break their habit and really get the criminals that should be behind bars in prison.”
Michael Ellis, a Tory member of the home affairs select committee, accused Baker of naked political posturing and being pro-drugs, adding Baker was acting in desperation as his party fell behind the Greens in opinion polls.
Baker added that wider societal factors, such as a more risk-averse generation of young people who suffered fewer alcohol problems and were healthier, contributed to the general downward trend in drug use.
The international report documents in detail the successes of the health-led approach in Portugal, combining decriminalisation with other policies, and shows reductions in all types of drug use alongside falls in drug-related HIV and Aids cases.
The Home Office international research paper on the use of illegal drugs, which redeems a Lib Dem 2010 election pledge for a royal commission to examine the alternatives to the current drug laws, also leaves the door open on the legalisation experiments in the American states of Washington and Colorado, and in Uruguay. It said: “It is too early to know how they will play out but we will monitor the impacts of these new policies in the years to come.”
Regarding legal highs, Baker said the government would look at the feasibility of a blanket ban on new compounds of psychoactive drugs that focused on dealers and the “head shops” that sell tobacco paraphernalia rather than users.
“The head shops could be left with nothing to sell but Rizla papers,” Baker said. “The approach of a general ban had a dramatic effect on their availability when it was introduced in Ireland, but we must ensure that it will work here.”
A ban would apply to head shops and websites. Legal highs are currently banned on a temporary 12-month basis as each new substance arrives on the market. Legislation is possible before the election but not certain.
The new blanket or generic ban would not be accompanied by a ban on the possession or use of the new psychoactive substances, which often mimic the effects of traditional drugs. This would remain legal.
It is expected the expert report on legal highs will recommend a threshold for substances to be banned so that those with minimal psychoactive effects – such as alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee – would not be caught by the proposed new ban.
The report firmly rejects a New Zealand style-approach of regulating head shops and other sales outlets for legal highs.
Publication of both reports has been held up for months as interminable negotiations between the two coalition parties have gone on over every detailed issue.
Baker has repeatedly warned of the dangers of legal highs, citing evidence that some cannabinoids synthesised in chemical labs are 100 times more powerful than traditional strains of cannabis.
The expert report says there were 60 deaths related to new psychoactive substances in 2013 – up from 52 the year before.
It also considers basing future controls on the effect on the brain rather than the current test of their chemical structure.
Frontline health staff are also urged to receive strengthened training to deal with their effects.
Danny Kushlik, of the Transform drugs charity which campaigns for drug legalisation, said the international report represented a landmark in British drugs policy since the introduction of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that is still in force today.
“This is a historic moment in the development of UK drug policy. For the first time in over 40 years the Home Office has admitted that enforcing tough drug laws doesn’t necessarily reduce levels of drug use,” said Kushlik.
“It has also acknowledged that decriminalising the possession of drugs doesn’t increase levels of use. Even more, the department in charge of drugs prohibition says it will take account of the experiments in the legal regulation of cannabis in Washington, Colorado and Uruguay.
“Pragmatic reform will only happen if there is cross-party support for change and we can assume now that the Labour party can engage constructively on this previously toxic issue.”
A Home Office spokesperson, responding to the evidence of the international report, said: “This government has absolutely no intention of decriminalising drugs. Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK.
“It is right that we look at drugs policies in other countries and today’s report summarises a number of these international approaches.”
Earlier this year the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, pledged to abolish prison sentences for the possession of drugs for personal use – including class-A substances such as heroin and cocaine. He urged David Cameron to look at issues such as decriminalisation or legalisation of drugs.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat Home Office drugs minister, said the report, published on Thursday, had been suppressed not by the home secretary, Theresa May, but by the Conservatives.
In support, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said there had been a lot of “foot dragging” over the publication of the report but urged the Tories to “have the courage just for once to break some of the taboos about Britain’s ineffective drug laws”.
The deputy prime minister accused Downing Street of being frightened to open its eyes to the way in which Britain’s drugs laws leads to 2,000 deaths a year while “the pushers, the Mr Bigs and the criminal gangs get richer and richer”.
The government’s first evidence-based survey examined international drug laws and said there was no evidence that tough enforcement of laws on personal possession led to lower levels of drug use. The Home Office document brings to an end 40 years of almost unbroken official political rhetoric that only harsher penalties can tackle the problem caused by the likes of heroin, cocaine or cannabis.
The report was signed off by May and Baker and was published on Thursday alongside an official expert report calling for a general ban on the sale and trade in legal highs, although Baker has said it had been ready for publication since July.
The Lib Dem Home Office minister said: “The reality is that this report has been sitting around for several months. I’ve been trying to get it out and I’m afraid that I believe that my coalition colleagues who commissioned the report jointly don’t like the independent conclusions it’s reached.
“It was suppressed, not by Theresa May, it was suppressed by the Conservatives and the reality is that it has got some inconvenient truths in it.”
Baker said the international comparisons demonstrated that “banging people up and increasing sentences does not stop drug use”. He said the last 40 years had seen a drugs debate in Britain based on the “lazy assumption in the rightwing press that if you have harsher penalties it will reduce drug use, but there is no evidence for that at all”.
Baker added: “If anything the evidence is to the contrary.”
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, he said some Conservative colleagues did not like the evidence that had come out but “if you see a tree, it is a tree”.
Downing Street insisted the report did not reach the conclusions Baker claimed and accused him of a desperate spinning operation.
In a statement, Number 10 said: “This report provides no support whatsoever for the Lib Dem’s policy of decriminalisation. In fact, it clearly states that it would be inappropriate to draw those kind of conclusions.
“The Lib Dem policy would see drug dealers getting off scot-free and send an incredibly dangerous message to young people about the risks of taking drugs “As the report makes very clear, the Government’s approach already provides a good balance between enforcement and treatment, drug use is plummeting as a result and there is simply no chance that we will entertain such a reckless change of course .”
Clegg, speaking on LBC, said: “I think the Tories have a misplaced, backward-looking, outdated view that the public would not accept a smarter approach on how to deal with drugs. The argument I have made to them privately and publicly is pluck up the courage to face up to the evidence that what we are doing is not as effective as it should be, there are lessons we can learn from other countries and if you are anti-drugs you should be pro-reform. Have the courage for once just to break some of the taboos.”
He said: “We have got to get away from this facile view that talking tough solves this problem. It is a betrayal of those 2,000 families of those that die every year in our country.”
Clegg said he had unsuccessfully pressed his Conservative colleagues to set up a royal commission, but then persuaded them to undertake an international comparative study that had finally been published after “lots and lots of foot dragging”.
He stressed that he was not advocating decriminalisation of drugs, saying he did not support a free-for-all, but wanting more criminalisation of the pushers.
“I hope today’s report is a wake-up call to Ed Miliband and David Cameron to open their eyes and actually get on with changing things so we can help the addicts to break their habit and really get the criminals that should be behind bars in prison.”
Michael Ellis, a Tory member of the home affairs select committee, accused Baker of naked political posturing and being pro-drugs, adding Baker was acting in desperation as his party fell behind the Greens in opinion polls.
Baker added that wider societal factors, such as a more risk-averse generation of young people who suffered fewer alcohol problems and were healthier, contributed to the general downward trend in drug use.
The international report documents in detail the successes of the health-led approach in Portugal, combining decriminalisation with other policies, and shows reductions in all types of drug use alongside falls in drug-related HIV and Aids cases.
The Home Office international research paper on the use of illegal drugs, which redeems a Lib Dem 2010 election pledge for a royal commission to examine the alternatives to the current drug laws, also leaves the door open on the legalisation experiments in the American states of Washington and Colorado, and in Uruguay. It said: “It is too early to know how they will play out but we will monitor the impacts of these new policies in the years to come.”
Regarding legal highs, Baker said the government would look at the feasibility of a blanket ban on new compounds of psychoactive drugs that focused on dealers and the “head shops” that sell tobacco paraphernalia rather than users.
“The head shops could be left with nothing to sell but Rizla papers,” Baker said. “The approach of a general ban had a dramatic effect on their availability when it was introduced in Ireland, but we must ensure that it will work here.”
A ban would apply to head shops and websites. Legal highs are currently banned on a temporary 12-month basis as each new substance arrives on the market. Legislation is possible before the election but not certain.
The new blanket or generic ban would not be accompanied by a ban on the possession or use of the new psychoactive substances, which often mimic the effects of traditional drugs. This would remain legal.
It is expected the expert report on legal highs will recommend a threshold for substances to be banned so that those with minimal psychoactive effects – such as alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee – would not be caught by the proposed new ban.
The report firmly rejects a New Zealand style-approach of regulating head shops and other sales outlets for legal highs.
Publication of both reports has been held up for months as interminable negotiations between the two coalition parties have gone on over every detailed issue.
Baker has repeatedly warned of the dangers of legal highs, citing evidence that some cannabinoids synthesised in chemical labs are 100 times more powerful than traditional strains of cannabis.
The expert report says there were 60 deaths related to new psychoactive substances in 2013 – up from 52 the year before.
It also considers basing future controls on the effect on the brain rather than the current test of their chemical structure.
Frontline health staff are also urged to receive strengthened training to deal with their effects.
Danny Kushlik, of the Transform drugs charity which campaigns for drug legalisation, said the international report represented a landmark in British drugs policy since the introduction of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that is still in force today.
“This is a historic moment in the development of UK drug policy. For the first time in over 40 years the Home Office has admitted that enforcing tough drug laws doesn’t necessarily reduce levels of drug use,” said Kushlik.
“It has also acknowledged that decriminalising the possession of drugs doesn’t increase levels of use. Even more, the department in charge of drugs prohibition says it will take account of the experiments in the legal regulation of cannabis in Washington, Colorado and Uruguay.
“Pragmatic reform will only happen if there is cross-party support for change and we can assume now that the Labour party can engage constructively on this previously toxic issue.”
A Home Office spokesperson, responding to the evidence of the international report, said: “This government has absolutely no intention of decriminalising drugs. Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK.
“It is right that we look at drugs policies in other countries and today’s report summarises a number of these international approaches.”
Earlier this year the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, pledged to abolish prison sentences for the possession of drugs for personal use – including class-A substances such as heroin and cocaine. He urged David Cameron to look at issues such as decriminalisation or legalisation of drugs.
- copy http://www.theguardian.com/
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