BRANSON BACKS DRUGS POLICY CHANGE

Sir Richard Branson and Dame Judi Dench have called for the
Government to consider decriminalising drugs as its current policy
was condemned as a failure.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, whose members include former
United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, warned that major policy
reforms were needed to help reduce the prison population and stop
wasting millions of pounds.

Dame Judi backed calls for the "immediate decriminalisation of drug
possession" should a policy review show it has failed while Sir
Richard said a new approach was needed.

"One that takes the power out of the hands of organised crime and
treats people with addiction problems like patients, not criminals," he said.

Dame Judi urged David Cameron to carry out "a swift and transparent
review of the effectiveness of current drug policies".

The Oscar-winning actress was one of more than 30 high-profile
figures, including Sir Richard, who signed an open letter to the
Prime Minister, saying: "Should such a review of the evidence
demonstrate the failure of the current position we would call for the
immediate decriminalisation of drug possession."

Nearly 80,000 people in the UK were convicted or cautioned for
possessing an illegal drug in the last year alone and "most were
young, black or poor", the letter published by campaign group Release said.

The intervention of high-profile public figures, backed by many
others including Sting, actor Julie Christie and former defence
minister Bob Ainsworth, comes as a report by the Global Commission on
Drug Policy said action was needed "urgently" and "policies need to
change now".

"There are signs of inertia in the drug policy debate in some parts
of the world as policymakers understand that current policies and
strategies are failing but do not know what to do instead," the report said.

The commission called for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to help
create "a truly co-ordinated and coherent global drug strategy that
balances the need to stifle drug supply and fight organised crime
with the need to provide health services, social care, and economic
development to affected individuals and communities".