BRITAIN'S DRUG POLICY WILL NOT IMPROVE UNTIL WE ARE BOLD ENOUGH TO EXPERIMENT

We Can't Know the Potential Benefits of Innovations Like Portugal's
Unless We Research Them, Says Alex Stevens

For years, the UK government has consistently used a myth to stave
off any bold innovations in our failing drug policy. It has predicted
that liberalisation would inevitably lead to higher rates of drug use
and related harms. The example of Portugal seriously challenges this argument.

The idea that decriminalisation increases drug problems was already
on shaky ground. Several countries and US states have reduced or
eliminated criminal penalties for drug possession. They do not
generally have higher rates of drug use than their neighbours. The
rate of cannabis use in the Netherlands, for example, is lower than
in the UK, even though the Dutch decriminalised the use of cannabis
in 1976. The Portuguese experience again shows that there is no
necessary link between the severity of sanctions and rates of drug
use. There have been some increases reported in drug use by
Portuguese adults since 2001, but these are no greater than those
seen in other southern European countries. More important are rates
of drug use among children, as they are more vulnerable to the
harmful effects of illicit drugs. In Portugal, these rates have
fallen since decriminalisation.

As fewer people were arrested for drug offences, the prison
population fell. So did drug use and HIV among prisoners.

Portugal has also expanded its treatment programmes, including the
use of prescribed methadone. This would have reduced deaths and
infections even without decriminalisation, as it has elsewhere.

There are limits to the ability of decriminalisation to deal with
harm related to illicit drug markets. The policy has not cleared the
dealers off the cobbled streets of Lisbon's Bairro Alto. It cannot
eliminate the violence related to the unregulated economy of drug
supply. Since decriminalisation, Portugal's murder rate has
increased, but it is not known how much of this is linked to the
drugs trade. The answer could be to take the business out of the
hands of violent criminals by handing it to tightly regulated legal
organisations, as has been suggested by the Transform Drug Policy
Foundation and others.

The potential benefits and costs of drug policy innovations will
remain incalculable as long as governments refuse to implement and
research them. The Portuguese began their apparently beneficial
policy only after commissioning research from respected academics. In
the UK last autumn, we saw the removal of the government's leading
scientific adviser, Professor David Nutt, for daring to tell the
truth about its policies on cannabis and ecstasy. Labour and the
Conservatives colluded in this denial of the evidence. They are now
conspiring to block the creation of more effective, evidence-based
policies on alcohol. They have argued against the introduction of a
minimum unit price in Scotland on the basis that it is experimental.
But without experimentation, how can we create more effective policies?

Politicians usually only suggest decriminalisation when they are
either on the verge of retirement or at the fringes of power. As a
young MP, David Cameron himself acknowledged the failures of current
policies. He supported fresh thinking on liberalisation, heroin
prescription and drug consumption rooms. The Portuguese example
suggests he should have the courage of his earlier convictions, now
that he is in a position to enact them.