THINK TANK: FIGHT SMART IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

A Chief Constable Calls for a Fresh Strategy

A report released last week by the UK Drug Policy Commission made grim
reading: it claimed that traditional methods of fighting an illicit
drugs industry worth an estimated UKP5.3 billion - and that's just in
the UK - are having little effect. Combine that with the fact that we
have Europe's highest proportion of problem drug users within the
adult population and you have a very depressing picture indeed.

Why do the police appear to be having such a limited impact? After
more than 30 years on the front line against drugs, and from my
vantage point as chief constable of Humberside police and chairman of
the Association of Chief Police Officers' drugs committee, I have come
to certain conclusions about what we need to do to improve our drugs
record.

There is no doubt that the illegal drugs trade presents a serious
challenge to policing. In fact, police enforcement methods alone -
drugs raids, stop and search and so on - take us only so far.

That's why I'm in favour of what I call smarter enforcement -
involving more intelligence, more research and more dialogue.

The government has already identified the three central pillars upon
which drug strategy should be constructed: prevention (including drugs
education), enforcement and treatment of addicts. On their own,
however, these strategies have little effect. Combined, they can be
far more potent. That's why ministers need to create a coherent
framework to implement the strategies - and this needs to happen at
the very top level of the government.

It's no good having the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Health
and the Department for Children, Schools and Families each responsible
for a separate section of the strategy, as they are now. All the
different elements must be brought together to ensure that policy is
devised and implemented in a coherent fashion. Health and drug
rehabilitation specialists need to be in constant dialogue with
police, prison officials, customs officers and even schools to ensure
that the drug problem is tackled from every possible angle. More
research must be done to identify the reasons behind drug use in
certain groups and communities - until we know more, we cannot target
our responses effectively.

Crucially, any new initiative needs solid financial support if it is
going to work. It's no good if the government backs such a scheme,
only to withdraw funding after two or three years. One way of freeing
up much-needed cash is to divert funds away from the prosecution of
small-time users - indeed, once young people enter the criminal
justice system, there is strong evidence to suggest that their risk of
descent into serious drug use is greatly increased.

That doesn't mean we should ignore the softer, so-called "gateway"
drugs such as cannabis. I fervently believe that because of its
detrimental effect on mental health - particularly that of young
people - cannabis should be reclassified as a class B drug. When it
comes to smashing the supply chain, we need to target those who are
involved in the manufacturing of cannabis - these days a massive
enterprise that requires significant financial capital and forms the
mainstay of the drug market. By using intelligence to infiltrate
organised crime networks, we can also start to understand the market
better and identify the supply and demand hotspots.

Next, rather than targeting street-level dealers, or those a few rungs
up the ladder, we need to take out the bosses at the top. One way to
really hurt them is to start removing their pension funds - the
houses, cash and expensive cars that they come to rely on when they
retire from the drugs industry. Confiscation is a difficult operation,
requiring extensive governmental and judicial support, but one that
may prove to be a key weapon in the fight against the distribution of
illegal drugs.

We must also be proactive about other challenges that are coming our
way. It is vital to communicate with our counterparts across the world
and learn from their successes and failures. America, for instance,
now has significant levels of methamphetamine abuse. Although this
drug doesn't yet seem to have become a serious problem in the UK, we
are working to preempt its arrival and issuing guidelines to officers
about how to deal with this potential threat.

Finally, it is essential for police to gain the trust of communities
so they will be encouraged to inform on the dealers in their midst.
This can be done only if we have a constant police presence in problem
areas, because nobody will talk if they live in fear of reprisals.
That's where organisations such as Crimestoppers - which encourages
individuals to give evidence anonymously - prove crucial.

Above all, people need to start believing that the police can be
effective in tackling drugs crime.