MR AINSWORTH IS RIGHT: THE WAR HAS FAILED

It is depressing how stale and weary have been the responses to the
suggestion from the former Labour Cabinet minister, Bob Ainsworth,
that many recreational drugs should be decriminalised. The Labour
leader, Ed Miliband, issued a swift denunciation of the former
minister's "irresponsible ideas" saying they did not reflect the view
of the leader, party or public. When the Prime Minister's office was
asked whether Mr Ainsworth's ideas merited consideration, it issued a
one-word answer: No.

Mr Ainsworth is not some naive backbencher. He was the Home Office
minister for drugs policy under Tony Blair, and his time in the job,
he now says after due reflection, suggests that the old, prohibitive
approach cannot succeed. He was immediately backed yesterday by the
former chief constable of Cambridgeshire, Tom Lloyd. It tells us
something about the nature of the public debate about recreational
drugs that men of this level of experience can only say what they
really think after they have left office - or before they gain it:
David Cameron took part in a thoughtful review of drugs policy in
opposition. But such is the hysteria about drugs in Britain that there
is no political space for a reasoned debate by those in authority.
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And yet there is a powerful case for reform. Prohibition forces the
production and supply of drugs into the hands of criminals. If our
drugs policy is to be consistent with the principle of minimising
social harm, there is a strong argument for taking them out of the
hands of the dealers and placing them in the hands of the medical profession.

The decriminalisation of drugs in Portugal shows that harmful drug use
does not necessarily increase when prohibition is dropped, and that
there can be significant savings in the cost of law enforcement and
improvements in public health. Here in the UK, there was no evidence
of an increase in cannabis use when that drug was temporarily
reclassified downwards. What we need is some evidence-based debate
rather than this blustering outrage. The war on drugs does not work,
as Mr Ainsworth says, and so we need some fresh thinking.