WE HAVE LOST THE WAR ON DRUGS

The Old Solutions Just Don't Work

The 'War on Drugs' has failed. Perhaps it is a war that could never have
been won. Crime figures to be released this week will show another leap in
drug-related crime in Britain's major cities, as we report today. In
London, the increase is nearly 30 per cent; in Birmingham 20 per cent with
a 47 per cent rise in the possession of heroin and cocaine. In part the
figures reflect Government's clear-sighted strategy of shifting police
resources from possession of soft drugs to concentrate on Class A
substances. But they also reveal a disaster escalating out of control.

The facts are clear: while the quantity of hard drugs seized by police and
customs rises year on year, officials admit that around 90 per cent of
drugs still reach their destination. Wherever you are in Britain, hard
drugs are readily available and, as drug use has risen, public support for
the drug war has collapsed. When half of all Britons aged 16 to 24 report
using illegal drugs, the law risks becoming an ass.

The dangers of crime associated with drugs are far more serious than the
dangers of drugs themselves. The failure of drugs policy poses a still
greater threat. As demand for drugs increases, Western governments risk
entrenching international crime cartels, driving up profits which are used
to fund a range of illegal activity from people trafficking to prostitution
to terrorism.

This is a government committed to 'evidence-based policy'. Its favourite
question is 'what works?' But policy on drugs is not following this dictum
and most of it is being made in ignorance. There is much we don't know. It
is thought that drug crime is costing up to ?20 billion a year, that
drug-related crime accounts for 50 per cent of all offences and that
possibly 80 per cent of prisoners are heroin or cocaine users.

A first step must be a full audit of drug crime to find out the true cost
to the nation. Ministers should signal that they are ready to radically
rethink drugs policy, including examining seriously the case for further
decriminalisation on a drug-by-drug basis. It is self-defeating to make
criminals out of addicts, even in the emotive cases of heroin and cocaine.

A hard-headed commitment to 'what works' would win public trust and
respect. Those who wish to pursue a futile war on drugs in the face of
clear failure are the ones taking the soft option.