Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jan
2002
Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Times Newspapers
Ltd.
Contact: letters@sunday-times.co.ukWebsite: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/Details:
http://www.mapinc.org/media/439HEROIN USERS
WILL GO FREE AS POLICE FOCUS ON DEALERSPEOPLE caught using
cocaine, heroin and ecstasy will not face court action
under sweeping changes
to drugs policies that are being considered
by police
chiefs.
Under the proposals, thousands of users who are arrested in
possession of
small amounts of hard as well as soft drugs will be referred
for medical
treatment rather than face criminal charges. The change is
expected to be
approved within the next few weeks.
Chief constables
insist they are not decriminalising hard drugs and
emphasise that police will
retain the option of pressing charges. But
addicts and recreational users,
although not drug dealers, will no longer
be treated automatically as
criminals if they agree to register for
treatment, which could involve drugs
prescribed under supervision.
The proposed "intelligent enforcement"
policy was outlined at a meeting of
the "cabinet" of the Association of Chief
Police Officers (ACPO), which
comprises the 43 chief constables of England
and Wales, at a meeting in
London on December 19. Police chiefs say the aim
is to focus resources on
hard drug dealers.
They believe that
"medicalising" instead of "criminalising" the problem is
the only way to cut
the number of hard drug users and the 80% of property
crime that is
drug-related. One chief constable said: "We want to refer
people for
treatment rather than charge them, to concentrate on damage
limitation and
break the cycle between drug use and crime."
Although more than 11,300
people were prosecuted for possessing hard drugs
in 2000, many senior
officers privately accept that the war on drugs is
being lost. Chief
constables feel that sending offenders to prison does
nothing to help them to
kick their habits.
At the same time senior officers want more and tougher
targeting of street
dealers who are supplying class A drugs such as ecstasy,
heroin and
cocaine.They say the policy switch will not require any new
legislation,
only changes in the way the police enforce existing
laws.
Pilot schemes under which arrested drug users are referred to
counsellors
and doctors for treatment are already running in some areas. ACPO
wants to
study ways of greatly increasing their use. Home Office figures show
that
60% of those referred for treatment reduced or stopped their
offending.
One government study indicated that for every UKP 1 spent on
drugs
treatment, UKP 3 was saved on keeping offenders out of the police
and
courts system. The Home Office says the cost of dealing with drugs
offences
in terms of police and court time is UKP 1.2 billion a
year.
Britain has the worst drugs problem in western Europe. Figures
produced
last September indicate that more than 3m people spend a total of
UKP 6.6
billion a year on illegal drugs. There are 3.1m occasional smokers
of
cannabis and 270,000 regular heroin users. More than 430,000 are
estimated
to be occasional users of ecstasy.
The Home Office recently
announced that funding for drug treatment regimes
would rise from I234m this
year to more than I400m in 2003-04. But the
police chiefs' proposals would
require much more funding.
The ACPO move follows a proposal by David
Blunkett, the home secretary, to
reclassify cannabis from a class B to a
class C drug, effectively making
possession of small quantities a
non-arrestable offence.