LEGALISE ALL DRUGS: CHIEF CONSTABLE DEMANDS END TO 'IMMORAL LAWS'

One of Britain's most senior police officers is to call for all drugs
- - including heroin and cocaine - to be legalised and urges the
Government to declare an end to the "failed" war on illegal narcotics.

Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales, advocates an
end to UK drug policy based on "prohibition". His comments come as
the Home Office this week ends the process of gathering expert advice
looking at the next 10 years of strategy.

In his radical analysis, which he will present to the North Wales
Police Authority today, Mr Brunstrom points out that illegal drugs
are now cheaper and more plentiful than ever before.

The number of users has soared while drug-related crime is rising
with narcotics now supporting a worldwide business empire second only
in value to oil. "If policy on drugs is in future to be pragmatic not
moralistic, driven by ethics not dogma, then the current
prohibitionist stance will have to be swept away as both unworkable
and immoral, to be replaced with an evidence-based unified system
(specifically including tobacco and alcohol) aimed at minimisation of
harms to society," he will say.

The demand will not find favour in Downing Street. In his conference
speech this year, Gordon Brown signalled an intensification of the
existing battle. "We will send out a clear message that drugs are
never going to be decriminalised," the Prime Minister told the party.

The Tories also rejected the proposals. David Davis, the shadow Home
Secretary, said a more effective move would be the creation of a UK
border police force to stop drugs getting into the country as well as
expanding rehabilitation centres. He added: "We would put police on
the streets to catch and deter drug dealers and we would ensure
sufficient prison capacity so they could actually be punished."

Mr Brunstrom, whose championing of speed cameras has made him a hate
figure among some motoring groups, also found his suggestion that the
war on drugs was unwinnable dismissed as a "counsel of despair" by
the Association of Chief Police Officers. "Moving to total
legalisation would, in our view, greatly exacerbate the harm to
people in this country, not reduce it," an Acpo spokeswoman said.

But the 30-page report, entitled Drugs Policy - a radical look ahead,
includes a number of persuasive voices. Today Mr Brunstrom will urge
his colleagues to submit the paper to Westminster and the Welsh
Assembly. In it, he quotes the findings in March this year of a Royal
Society for the Encouragement of Arts commission, which stated that
"the law as it stands is not fit for purpose" and argues for the
replacement of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act with a new Misuse of
Substances Act.

That would mean scrapping the ABC system introduced by the home
secretary James Callaghan with a new scale that assesses substances,
including alcohol and tobacco, in relation to the harm they cause -
although he admits banning booze and cigarettes is not likely.

But he notes that figures from the Chief Medical Officer have found
that, in Scotland, 13,000 people died from tobacco-related use in
2004 while 2,052 died as a result of alcohol. Illegal drugs,
meanwhile, accounted for 356 deaths. The maximum penalty for
possessing a class A drug is 14 years in prison while supplying it
carries a life term.

Mr Brunstrom indicates that there is a growing mood for change. He
cites the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and
Technology, which criticised the Government for failing to switch to
an evidence-based policy approach. The report also includes quotes
from former home secretary John Reid, admitting "prohibition" doesn't
work, and the Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, conceding "it drives
the activity underground" . There is also supportive evidence from
former Chief Inspector of Prisons Lord Ramsbotham, a retired High
Court judge, and Scotland's Drug Tsar, Tom Wood.

As well as hitting the country hard in economic terms - class A drug
use in England and Wales costs the country up to UKP17bn a year, 90
per cent of which is due to crime - there are also a series of
socially damaging knock-on effects, he says.

He argues that prohibition has created a crisis in the criminal
justice system, destabilised producer countries and undermined human
rights worldwide. By pursuing a policy of legalisation and
regulation, he concludes, the Government will "dramatically reduce
drug-related criminality and will enable significant funds to be
transferred from law enforcement to harm reduction and treatment
procedures that are known to work."

There was a mixed response from groups that work with users. Danny
Kushlick, a director of the charity Transform Drug Policy Foundation,
praised Mr Brunstrom for his "great leadership and imagination". But
Clare McNeil, a policy officer for Addaction, said talk of
legalisation distracted attention from the more important issue of
rehabilitation. "We have some sympathy with his views and the reasons
and why he believes this but we are not in favour of legalisation," she said.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said it was
"significant" that a senior police officer had spoken out although he
too thought the police chief's views went too far. "Where he is
absolutely right is that the Government's drugs policy is failing and
failing spectacularly. The refusal of the Government to think
radically means we are letting thousands of young boys and girls down.

"I am not persuaded that full legalisation is the way forward but
what is necessary is that a more logical and evidence-based approach
is needed which is less susceptible to whims of individual home
secretaries ... The system does not work as it is."

The Chief Constable's Verdict

* British drugs policy has been based upon prohibition for the last
several decades - but this system has not worked well. Illegal drugs
are in plentiful supply and have become consistently cheaper in real
terms over the years.

* The number of drug users has increased dramatically. Drug-related
crime has soared equally sharply as a direct consequence of the
illegality of some drugs. The vast profits from illegal trading have
supported a massive rise in organised crime.

* The ABC classification of drugs is said by the RSA Commission to be
indefensible and is described as "crude, ineffective, riddled with
anomalies and open to political manipulation". Most importantly, the
current ABC system illogically excludes both alcohol and tobacco.

* Mr Brunstrom says: "If policy on drugs is in the future to be
pragmatic not moralistic, driven by ethics not dogma, then the
current prohibitionist stance will have to be swept away as both
unworkable and immoral. Such a strategy leads inevitably to the
legalisation and regulation of all drugs."

* The chief constable asserts that current British drugs policy is
based upon an unwinnable "war on drugs" enshrined in a flawed
understanding of the underlying United Nations conventions, and
arising from a wholly outdated and thoroughly repugnant moralistic stance.

* He concludes: "The law is the law. In the meantime, I will continue
to enforce it to the best of my ability despite my misgivings about
its moral and practical worth."