Home Affairs
Committee
House of Commons
"The
Government's Drugs Policy: Is it working?"
Report
published
The Home Affairs Select Committee has called for a major
shake-up of the
Government's drugs policy, concentrating on education and
harm reduction
for users rather than criminal sanctions.
In its long
awaited report, supported by all but one member, the Committee
has
recommended that cannabis be reclassified as a class C drug and ecstasy
as
class B. It also recommends the creation of a new offence of "supply for
gain" in order that the distinction between so-called social supply and
dealing is clearly reflected in the available penalties. The Committee
says the main focus should be on the 250,000 "problematic users" -- mainly
heroin addicts -- whose habit causes most damage to themselves and others.
It recommends a trial programme of carefully supervised heroin prescription
to addicts along the lines of those under way in The Netherlands and
Switzerland.
The Committee also recommends a pilot programme of
safe-injecting rooms in
order to get chronic heroin users off the street and
into a more orderly
environment. This would require amendments to the Misuse
of Drugs Act 1971
allowing drugs agencies to work with users and to allow
pharmacists to
supply drug users with goods that reduce
risk.
However, the Committee firmly rejected calls for legalisation and
regulation. It said: "We acknowledge there are some attractive arguments.
However, those who urge this step upon us are...asking us to gamble the
undoubted potential gains against the inevitability of a significant
increase in the number of users, especially among the very young". The
Committee declined to recommend decriminalisation on the same
grounds.
Chairman, Chris Mullin MP said:
"All drug use is to a greater
or lesser extent harmful and should be
discouraged. However, we have to face
the fact that, whether we like it or
not, large numbers of young people take
drugs. As far as users are
concerned, our priorities should be realistic
education, readily available
treatment and harm reduction. Above all, we
need to focus on that
relatively small minority of drug users who are making
a misery of their
own lives and those of others. The criminal law should be
reserved
primarily for dealers. Government policy is already moving in that
direction and I hope this report will encourage ministers to go
further".
David Cameron MP, Conservative member of the Committee said:
"Drugs policy
in this country has been failing for decades. Drug abuse has
increased
massively, the number of drug-related deaths has risen
substantially and
drug-related crime accounts for up to half of all
acquisitive crime. I hope
that our report will encourage fresh thinking and
a new approach. We need
to get away from entrenched positions and try to
reduce the harm that drugs
do both to users and society at
large."
Liberal Democrat member of the Committee Bob Russell MP said:
"The inquiry
confirmed that the overwhelming majority of the population does
not take
illegal drugs, and never has done. Even among young people it was
reassuring that most of them do not take drugs.
"I recognise,
however, that there is a minority which uses harmful drugs
for self-abuse of
their bodies and minds. Balanced laws and regulations
need to take account
of such use and misuse. The overall cost to society,
specifically to the
National Health Service and the consequences of
criminal activity, caused by
the current levels of drug abuse has to be
addressed. The only acceptable
use of drugs is for medical purposes."
SUMMARY OF KEY CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. We believe
that drugs policy should primarily be addressed to
dealing with the 250,000
problematic drug users (paragraph 38).
2.
While acknowledging that there may come a day when the balance may
tip in
favour of legalising and regulating some types of presently illegal
drugs,
we decline to recommend this drastic step (paragraph
66).
3. We accept that to decriminalise
possession of drugs for personal
use would send the wrong message to the
majority of young people...and that
it would inevitably lead to an increase
in drug abuse. We, therefore,
reject decriminalisation (paragraph
74).
4. We are not persuaded that an intent
to supply should be presumed on
the basis of amounts of drugs found; we
therefore recommend that the
offences of simple possession and possession
with intent to supply should
be retained without alteration (paragraph
77).
5. We recommend that a new offence is
created of "supply for gain",
which would be used to prosecute large scale
commercial suppliers
(paragraph 83).
6.
We support...the Home Secretary's proposal to reclassify cannabis
from Class
B to Class C (paragraph 121).
7.
We...recommend that ecstasy is reclassified as a Class B drug
(paragraph
135).
8. We recommend that the number of
treatment places for cocaine users
is substantially increased. We recommend
that resources are channelled into
researching and piloting innovative
treatment interventions for cocaine
users (paragraph
140).
9. We consider that the risks posed
by cocaine to the user and to
other people merit it remaining a Class A drug
(paragraph 141).
10. We recommend that more
treatment places are created for crack users
and that resources be
channelled into researching and piloting more
effective treatments. We
further recommend that in the meantime efforts are
redoubled to extinguish
supply of crack cocaine (paragraph 147).
11. We
recommend that the Government substantially increases the
funding for
treatment for heroin addicts and ensure that methadone
treatments and
complementary therapies are universally available to those
who need them
(paragraph 160).
12. We recommend that
appropriate treatment forms a mandatory part of
custodial sentences and that
offenders have access to consistent treatment
approaches within the prison
estate as well as outside it. This should
include strictly supervised
methadone treatment in the first instance
(paragraph
169).
13. We recommend that a proper evaluation
is conducted of diamorphine
prescribing for heroin addiction in the UK...as
compared with methadone
prescribing regimes (paragraph
178).
14. We recommend that the guidance and
training provided to
practitioners prescribing diamorphine to heroin addicts
is strengthened
(paragraph 179).
15. We
recommend that an evaluated pilot programme of safe injecting
houses for
heroin users is established without delay and that if...this is
successful,
the programme is extended across the country (paragraph
186).
16. We conclude that the Dutch and Swiss
evidence provides a strong
basis on which to conduct a pilot here in Britain
of highly structured
heroin prescribing to addicts. We recommend that a
pilot along the lines of
the Swiss or Dutch model is conducted in the UK.
Should such a pilot
generate the positive results which one would
expect...we recommend that
such a system should supersede the little-used
"British system" of
licencing (paragraph
190).
17. We believe that all drugs education
material should be based on the
premise that any drug use can be harmful,
and should be discouraged
(paragraph
201).
18. We conclude that General Practitioners
are, for the most part,
inadequately trained to deal with drug misuse. We
recommend that training
in substance misuse is embedded in the undergraduate
medical curriculum and
postgraduate General Practice curriculum...We
recommend that the Department
of Health funds more training courses in
substance misuse for existing
General Practitioners (paragraph
218).
19. We recommend that a target is added to
the National Strategy
explicitly aimed at harm reduction and public health
(paragraph 245).
20. We recommend that the
Government reviews Section 9A of the Misuse
of Drugs Act 1971, with a view
to repealing it, to allow for the provision
of drugs paraphernalia which
reduces the harm caused by drugs (paragraph
252).
21. We recommend that Section 8 of the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is
amended to ensure that drugs agencies can
conduct harm reduction work and
provide safe injecting areas for users
without fear of being prosecuted
(paragraph
257).
22. We recommend that the Home Office and
the Department of Health
urgently review the current legal framework on the
dispensation of
controlled drugs by community pharmacists (paragraph
260).
23. We recommend that Drug Abstinence
Orders are amended to carry the
requirement of access to treatment
(paragraph 264).
24. We recommend that the
Government initiates a discussion within the
Commission on Narcotic Drugs of
alternative ways -- including the
possibility of legalisation and regulation
-- to tackle the global drugs
dilemma (paragraph 267).
Note to
Editors
Details of this inquiry were set out in press notice no. 1.
Home Affairs
Committee membership and links to the text of Committee
reports, minutes of
evidence and press notices can be accessed through the
Internet at
Parliament's website above. Also available on the Committee's
Internet site
are past reports and uncorrected transcripts of evidence given
by Ministers.
Home Affairs Committee
The Home Affairs Committee is
appointed by the House of Commons to examine
the expenditure, administration
and policy of the Home Office and the Lord
Chancellor's Department, and
their associated public bodies; and the
administration and expenditure of
the Attorney General's Office, the
Treasury Solicitor's Department, the
Crown Prosecution Service and the
Serious Fraud
Office.
Membership
Chairman: Mr Chris Mullin MP (Labour, Sunderland
South)
Mr David Cameron MP (Conservative, Witney)
Mrs Janet Dean MP
(Labour, Burton)
Mr Humfrey Malins MP (Conservative, Woking)
Bridget
Prentice MP (Labour, Lewisham East)
Mr Gwyn Prosser MP (Labour, Dover)
Bob
Russell MP (Liberal Democrat, Colchester)
Mr Marsha Singh MP (Labour,
Bradford West)
Angela Watkinson MP (Conservative, Upminster)
Mr Tom Watson
MP (Labour, West Bromwich East)
David Winnick MP (Labour, Walsall
North)