DRUG LAW SHOULD BE REPEALED

From the Director of Liberty

Sir, I very much support Lord Bingham of Cornhill's call for the
legalisation of cannabis use (report, May 24) and the Home Affairs
Select Committee's proposals to liberalise the drug laws. But I would
go further: the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 should be repealed.
Criminalisation has failed; civil regulation is the way forward.

Branding all drug users criminals increases alienation, particularly
among young people. It undermines public support for the criminal
justice system; increases the level of crimes such as robbery,
prostitution and burglary to fund expensive addictions; threatens
privacy; has fed the growth of violent and organised crime; and
labels many honest people as criminals.

Successive governments, clinging to this failed approach, have
resorted to increasingly authoritarian measures. We have seen more
use of intrusive policing (eg, surveillance, telephone interception,
informers); and increasingly draconian sentencing (39 per cent of
women prisoners are serving sentences for drug offences). Now the
Proceeds of Crime Bill will allow the State, via the civil courts, to
confiscate the "drug-related" assets of people not even convicted of
drug offences.

The use of repressive laws to punish individual consumption of
harmful substances is wholly disproportionate. Society accepts that
individuals can choose to take part in dangerous activities, from
drinking and smoking to extreme sports; the same should be true here.

The Government should decriminalise possession, use and supply of all
drugs. A system of civil regulation and control would carefully,
effectively regulate access to the lawful supply of drugs. Supply to
minors, for example, should remain a criminal offence - but over all,
people should be allowed to make their own choices.

Civil regulation and education must offer a better approach to the
prevention of drug harm in a free society than prohibition.

Yours, JOHN WADHAM, Director, Liberty, 21 Tabard Street, SE1 4LA.