UK DRUGS LAWS IN NEED OF RADICAL SHAKE-UP, SAYS REPORT

Drugs laws in the UK should be radically overhauled and brought into
line with those in Holland and Italy, according to a report published
today by the country's leading drugs charity.

DrugScope claims that the frequently-used argument that UK laws could
not be relaxed without breaching international treaties is flawed.

The report compares penalties for minor drug offences in Britain with
those in six other European countries, and concludes that the
government could fundamentally alter legislation without breaking
United Nations conventions. In the report, European Drugs Laws: The
Room for Manoeuvre, the charity urges ministers to punish all minor
drug offences with civil penalties, such as fines, rather than
imprisonment.

It compares policies in the UK with France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Holland, and Sweden, and says the government could, and should,
abolish the use of jail sentences for drug possession and small-scale
supply.

In Italy, possession is prohibited but is not a criminal offence.
Instead, it is dealt with using civil punishments such as suspension
of a person's driving licence.

In Spain, the same offence is punished only if it occurs in public,
when it is usually penalised with a fine. In the Netherlands, while
cannabis possession is still a criminal offence which carries a
one-month prison sentence and a fine of UKP 1500, the authorities
have chosen not to enforce the law since 1976.

Although David Blunkett, home secretary, already has called for an
"adult, intelligent debate" about drugs laws, yesterday's report
received a largely lukewarm response from experts and other charities.

Neil McKeganey, professor of drug misuse research at Glasgow
University, said the British government would be better advised to
wait to see the effects of the liberalisation in other countries.

"Unless we can say categorically that liberalisation leads to a
reduction in drug use, and breaks the link between trafficking and
serious hard crime, then I cannot see a strong argument for it.

"That is not to say we should not have a full, public debate and be
prepared to adopt radical alternatives."

Maxie Richards, an anti-drugs campaigner, said it would be a
disastrous move. "If we relax our attitude towards drugs, especially
cannabis, we give the wrong messages to children. Cannabis is
harmful. People smoking it run the risk of becoming schizophrenic,
and there are many young people in psychiatric hospitals because of
cannabis."

However, Roger Howard, the chief executive of DrugScope, said the
government had to decide whether allowing otherwise law-abiding
citizens to get caught up in the criminal justice system for
possessing drugs such as cannabis was a proportionate response in the
twenty-first century.

"For many years, a major impediment to drug reform has been the
belief that UN conventions restrict any change.

"This study dispels the view that we are tied rigidly by the UN
conventions and shows we have considerable flexibility to radically
modernise our drugs laws.

"We believe that civil penalties could run alongside the current UK
system and probably in due course displace the criminal responses to
certain drug offences."

The Commons home affairs select committee has announced that in the
autumn it will,aunch a major inquiry into the possible effects of the
decriminalisation of hard and soft drugs.

Meanwhile, health boards in Scotland will receive an extra UKP 3m
over the next three years to tackle drug misuse, as part of the
executive's UKP 28m package for drugs announced in the budget in June.