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UK: Former drugs minister calls for alternatives to drug laws

Dilwar Hussain

Police Professional

Thursday 16 Dec 2010

A former Home Office drugs minister has called for alternatives to the decriminalisation of class A drugs, including heroin and cocaine, insisting that prohibition does not work.

Bob Ainsworth said heroin should be made available to those who need it from legal sources such as doctors and pharmacies.

The former minister who served under Tony Blair said: "What I am saying is that heroin needs to be taken out of the dealers and put into the hands of the medical professionals.

"We need to be bold, we need some serious thinking. The drugs trade is as big and as powerful as it has been across the world."

The Coventry North East MP said prohibition is not working and dealing with criminal networks is costing a lot of money and not helping those who are addicted to drugs.

Mr Ainsworth pointed to the example of cannabis when it was downgraded to Class C. He added that on that occasion, there was no evidence to suggest that cannabis use had increased and that, in fact, it decreased. Legalising and controlling the supply of drugs could have the same effect.

"Politicians and the media need to engage in a genuine and grown up debate about alternatives to prohibition, so that we can build a consensus based on delivering the best outcomes for our children and communities. Prohibition has failed to protect us.

"Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harms to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit," he said.

However, the Government has so far remained opposed to wholesale prescription, legalisation or decriminalisation.

James Brokenshire, crime prevention minister, said: "Drugs are harmful and ruin lives - legalisation is not the answer.

"Decriminalisation is a simplistic solution that fails to recognise the complexity of the problem and ignores the serious harm drug taking poses to the individual.

"Legalisation fails to address the reasons people misuse drugs in the first place or the misery, cost and lost opportunities that dependence causes individuals, their families and the wider community."

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