TOUGH TALK IS CHEAP, BUT TACKLING DRUGS COSTS MONEY

For years, the debate on drugs has raged around us. We've had
politicians from both the main parties calling for "tougher" measures
and a "war on drugs".

But the reality is that drugs policy in this country has been an
abject failure. While politicians posture with tough rhetoric, the
number of people taking drugs and becoming addicted remains at
disturbingly high levels. And the associated crime causes mayhem in
many of our towns and cities.

We desperately need to move this stale debate forward by focusing
policy both on more effective ways of getting across the dangers of
drug use, and on reducing the harm that drugs cause to individuals and
our communities.

A cursory look at the latest figures might give supporters of the "war
on drugs" some hope. There was a slight drop in the number of people
who took drugs last year. But that's mainly due to a decline in the
number of young people smoking cannabis. What those figures don't show
is that the number of young people taking hard drugs, like heroin and
cocaine, has remained the same for the last eight years. The
Government estimates that up to 150,000 young people aged 11 to 15
took Class A drugs last year.

Just like every other parent, I fear the harm that drugs could do.
Every caring parent warns their child about the dangers of drug use.
But we also have that real sense of anxiety about the extent to which
we can protect them.

In reality, most children know that drugs are harmful and will refuse
them when offered. But, shockingly, 17 per cent of children aged 11-15
say it would be easy to get hold of cocaine or crack and 11 per cent
said it would be easy to obtain heroin.

This raises serious concern that some dealers are targeting school
children in the hope that they will profit from them in the long-term.
That's why we want to allow courts to impose tougher penalties on
dealers who sell drugs near children.

Education is of course key to ensuring our children are aware of the
dangers of drugs. The Government sensibly set up a campaign called
FRANK to provide advice and support to children and their parents. But
despite the project being a real success, short-sighted Ministers have
now cut the budget by 40 per cent.

We are never going to tackle this problem if we're not prepared to
provide the resources needed. If anyone is in any doubt of the need to
tackle this problem, then they should look at the figures that came
out this week that showed that there are now over 11,000 children
under-16 receiving treatment for dependency on drink and drugs.

While all drug use can be harmful, I am particularly concerned by the
impact that people addicted to "hard" drugs are having on our society.

There are now over 300,000 problem drug users in England who cost the
health service and criminal justice system billions of pounds.

These addicts are not only causing misery to the victims of crimes
committed to feed the habit. They are also destroying their own lives
and trapping new generations in poverty and ill-health.

The Liberal Democrat approach is to get tough with the dealers,
particularly those who pray on children and teenagers. When it comes
to drug users, we want to see resources targeted towards treatment
rather than criminalising them.

Of course, people should be punished if they've committed wider
offences. But we have to break the cycle of people committing crime to
fund their habits.

Funding for treatment and rehabilitation services has increased over
the last decade, but it remains a fraction of the costs that drug
misuse causes. For every one pound invested in treatment, we save ten
pounds across the life of a drug user.

We can't however pretend that treatment programmes alone will solve
this problem. There is a clear link between poverty and problematic
drug use. Unemployed people are seven times more likely to use hard
drugs than people in work. We need to develop projects that integrate
treatment with efforts to find work so that users have an incentive to
remain drug free.

My plea is for politicians to move on from cheap accusations about
opponents being soft on drugs.

It's much easier for politicians to produce sound bites rather than
advocating policies that actually work.

If we change the way we deal with drugs, then we can reduce crime,
improve health and provide our children with a safe and stable
environment in which to develop