Series: Drugs Uncovered: Part 3 Of 17

TIME TO BE ADULT ABOUT DRUGS

Millions Of Britons Make The Law An Ass

Britain is becoming more sophisticated about drugs. Not only do 13 million
Britons admit having taken an illegal drug at some time in their life - as
our Drugs Uncovered magazine reveals today - but our assessment of the
health risks has become more mature. Our poll respondents were more likely
to judge tobacco high-risk than ecstasy. They also think alcohol more
dangerous than cannabis.

These are remarkable findings. They reflect a collective judgment of risk
that in turn reflects the nation's collective experience. The possession of
largely non-addictive drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy may still be
punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years, allegedly reflecting
the risk they pose to society and the individual. However, the population
at large no longer believes those risks to be severe.

Five million Britons admit smoking cannabis. Medical research now confirms
what they believe; cannabis is safe unless used extravagantly and
addictively. Even then it is less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol. At
the other end of the scale, medical evidence and experience alike are
united in the view that heroin and crack cocaine have powerful addictive
qualities and are physically and mentally destructive. You stay away from
them; and most drug users do.

In between cannabis and heroin lies a range of soft, broadly non-addictive,
drugs where once again people's judgment of risk is more level-headed than
the law - although here social mores run well ahead of the medical
evidence. Up to a million young people regularly use ecstasy - and deaths
are astonishingly rare. The same is true of cocaine. The risk for the
future is that we may discover that such drugs accelerate physical
complaints, notably heart conditions, and cause mental problems in later
life. So far the jury is out. What we do know, however, tends to support
the view that these drugs, as long as they are pure, are largely
non-addictive and relatively harmless if used sensibly. The old belief that
there is a predictable and linear relationship between using so-called soft
drugs and progressing inevitably to hard drugs has proved unfounded.

Crime cartels
In every Western country drug use has grown exponentially over the past 30
years. Western populations simply do not accept the legitimacy of the war
on all drugs - just as the American public did not accept the legitimacy of
prohibition in the 1920s and '30s. As demand steadily grows, this
indiscriminate war serves only to entrench international crime cartels and
create a vast offshore network of money laundering now used effectively by
international terrorists and tax avoiders.

Meanwhile, drugs available on the street are of varying quality and
sometimes dangerous for the user. The wide varieties of toxicity of drugs
that our own reporter was able to buy highlights the way this underground
business abuses its consumers - sometimes with deadly results. And because
drug use is overwhelmingly the preserve of the young - more than half of
Britons between 16 and 24 report drug use in our poll - it is children that
are most at risk.

Equally serious, millions of young Britons now grow to adulthood holding
the law in contempt. Good law reflects our social preferences; the current
law does not. That so many continue to use drugs while risking such high
penalties is testimony to the needs they satisfy; it is also evidence of
how inadequate a deterrent the current law is.

Britain needs a comprehensive overhaul of its drug laws. In a free society,
responsible adults should be permitted to exercise their liberty but this
still needs to be balanced with the risks to them and the society around
them. Over drug use this poses uniquely difficult trade-offs and judgments
- - not least because so many who make choices about drugs are the young
approaching adulthood.

For them, society's obligation to educate about risks, to prohibit
life-threatening temptation and to offer assistance out of addiction is
even more acute.

Young people at risk
The Government is moving; officials and Ministers with experience of
cannabis in their youth are already considering its decriminalisation while
taking a more intelligent approach to heroin addiction, as we also reveal
today. We believe they should go further. The moment has come for
legalisation of the distribution and consumption of cannabis.

We would not extend this legalisation across the gamut of non-addictive
drugs yet because we are not confident that the medical risks are fully
understood - and because young people with their lives ahead of them are
most at risk as the heaviest users . We propose instead that possession of
drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine be decriminalised. That is a halfway
house, with supply still unlawful. But it is an appropriate one, which
might be revised in 10 or 20 years' time. We do not believe ecstasy and
cocaine use to be so menacing that it merits punitive prison sentences and
a criminal record. However, we should retain the current legal penalties
against drugs whose addictive powers and impact remain a threat to life.
The war against heroin should remain a war. With proper focus and public
support, it has a chance of being won because it is seen as legitimate.

This is far from a blanket endorsement of drug use. Cannabis should only be
distributed under licence; it should not be advertised; it should be taxed;
its intensity should be strictly monitored and displayed. The framework
would be a tougher variant of the regime for alcohol and tobacco use.

For the range of drugs only decriminalised the penalties against
trafficking would remain - but decriminalisation would permit much closer
regulation of content to ensure it was not harmful. This should still be
accompanied by a significant education programme about potential risks.

The focus on prohibition should be on heroin and crack cocaine. However, we
should also adopt a more enlightened - and much more adequately financed -
approach to managing the problem. Recovery from heroin addiction should be
nationally managed and supervised in a network of recuperation centres.

We believe that these recommendations reflect the centre of gravity of
national opinion. Moreover, they would bring the law into line with the way
we actually behave and they offer a much more exact calculus of the true
risks of drugs. This prospectus would free police time, raise revenue, make
drugs less unsafely impure, and continue to ban those that are truly
dangerous. Above all, it would make Britain a more mature country in which
to live. Now we need politicians brave enough to act.