“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”
That is the finding of The Global Commission on Drug Policy – whose 19 members include former presidents, humanitarians, as well as previous UN secretary general Kofi Annan and Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson – in a report released today.
The report coincides with the publication of an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, signed by 30 prominent UK figures – including Dame Judi Dench and Sting – calling for drug policy reform in this country.
The GCDP report says that criminalisation has clearly failed and that governments need to experiment with models of legal regulation of drugs.
“Replace drug policies and strategies driven by ideology and political convenience with fiscally responsible policies and strategies grounded in science, health, security and human rights.”
Today’s open letter, published in The Guardian and organised by Release, the national centre of expertise on drugs and the law, points out that countries that have decriminalised drugs, such as Portugal in 2001, have seen problematic drug use and drug-related deaths fall.
The letter marks the 40th anniversary of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and states: “In the past forty years use of illicit drugs in the UK has grown rapidly. It is clear that the present system of applying criminal law to the personal use and possession of drugs has failed in its aim”.
“We call on the Coalition Government to undertake a swift and transparent review of the effectiveness of current drug policies.”
The Misuse of Drugs Act was created not as a policy for prohibition, but one of protection, and covers legislation “with respect to drugs which are being or appear likely to be misused and of which the misuse is having or appears capable of having harmful effects sufficient to constitute a social problem”. And it allows for any method of control that best serves in protecting society, including healthcare, education and police intervention.
But UK lawmakers seem to have been pre-occupied with criminalisation, rather than harm minimisation and education.
Indeed, in October 2009 Professor David Nutt, then chair of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, was sacked when he publicly stated that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco.
The UK Home Office has issued a statement saying it will ignore the GCDP report and the open letter.
“We have no intention of liberalising our drugs laws. Drugs are illegal because they are harmful – they destroy lives,” a spokesman said.
But what the Home Office refuses to acknowledge is that legal ‘drugs’ – such as tobacco and alcohol – create substantially more health and social problems and cause many more deaths, than illegal drugs.
Figures from both the Department of Health and Office for National Statistics show that yearly deaths attributed to tobacco average more than 100,000, alcohol averages around 60,000, while illegal drugs average less than 1500.
Yet in the past year alone, more than 80,000 people in the UK have been found guilty or cautioned for possession of an illegal drug.
The GCDP report recommends that governments around the world consider the “legal regulation of drugs to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens”.
The open letter – endorsed by politicians, professors, members of the nobility, lawyers, police, entrepreneurs and those in the entertainment and media industries – echoes that recommendation: “It is time for the UK to review its policy, reduce its reliance on an overburdened criminal justice system, and to adopt an evidence based and health focused approach to drug use”.
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