KEY ADVISERS ATTACK NEW DRUGS POLICY

Home Office consultation is 'self-congratulatory and disappointing'

The government was at loggerheads with its own advisers last night
over its new drugs policy.

An influential Home Office-backed committee raised serious doubts
about the consultation process behind the 10-year strategy which will
be unveiled in April. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
(ACMD) described the process as 'self-congratulatory and generally
disappointing' and questioned the credibility of much of the evidence
presented to government.

A spokesman for the Home Office said last month that the consultation
process, which is being conducted by the polling agency Mori, had
been 'open' and had included a wide range of views.

But the council said: 'We consider that an opportunity has been
missed to address the public health problem relating to drug misuse
and the balance with law enforcement and the Criminal Justice
System...The consultation would benefit from extending further to the
wider social harm of drug misuse.'

It also said: 'It is of concern that the evidence presented, and the
interpretation given, are not based on rigorous scrutiny. It is not
acknowledged that in many cases the information is uncertain and
sometimes of poor quality.'

Last night politicians said the council's response raised questions
about whether the government was more interested in spinning its
record than tackling the war on drugs.

'The failures of the government's drugs policy are laid bare for all
to see when their own advisory committee condemns the Home Office as
being misleading and self-congratulatory,' said Liberal Democrat
leadership contender Nick Clegg. 'When will the government wake up
and acknowledge something many members of the public know: we are
losing the war on drugs?' Clegg said

Steve Rolles of think tank Transform, which advises the UN on drugs
policy, said: 'The consultation process behind the new strategy has
been woeful.' Last month Transform branded the consultation process a
'sham', saying the government had already made up its mind to
continue with its current strategy.

Concerns about the direction of the government's next drugs strategy
come as senior police officers warn that cannabis now presents a
greater 'long-term' threat to Britain than cocaine. The increasing
strength of high-grade 'skunk' combined with growing evidence of
major criminal involvement in its production was fast becoming an
issue of mounting concern. Hospitals recently revealed that the
number of mental health admissions as a result of cannabis use had
risen by 73 per cent.