Britain: De-Criminalize Drugs

Daily Telegraph:

Britain's drug policy 'not fit for purpose'

Britain’s drug policy is “not fit for purpose” and is failing to cut addiction or drug-related crime, an influential study will conclude today.

Existing drugs education is often “inconsistent and disorganised”, the study says Current policy is driven by “moral panic” and is ineffective, with huge amounts of money being wasted on “futile” attempts to get drugs off the streets.

The RSA Commission report, which will seek to influence Government policy next year, will prove controversial in some of its findings.

It recommends the introduction of “shooting galleries,” where heroin addicts can go to take drugs and receive supervision and help.

It also says that only the worst drug offenders be jailed and that drug misuse should be treated as a social problem rather than a crime.

Recognising that the report would prove controversial, Prof King insisted that a radical shake up of Britain’s drugs laws is essential. “Current policy is broke and needs to be fixed,” he said.

“The idea of a drugs-free world, or even of a drugs-free Britain, is almost certainly a chimera.” He continued: “The use of illegal drugs is by no means always harmful any more than alcohol use is always harmful.

“The evidence suggests that a majority of people who use drugs are able to use them without harming themselves or others.

“They are able, in that sense, to 'manage’ their drug use... The harmless use of illegal drugs is thus possible, indeed common.”

Calling for the concept of drugs to be extended to take in alcohol and tobacco, the report says: “Unlike most other such substances, however, illegal drugs have been demonised - by politicians, by the media and to some extent by the general public.”