Subj: UK: Police force urges legalisation



Date: 17 Feb, 2000



Source: Guardian, The  (UK)





Police force urges legalisation

Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor



Cleveland has become the first police force to warn the

government that the war on drugs is not being won and to say

it is time to consider the "only serious alternative - the

legalisation and regulation of some or all drugs".



The report from Cleveland's chief constable, Barry Shaw,

which has been endorsed by the force's Labour-led police

authority, is the first time that senior serving police

officers have declared that Britain's drug laws are not

working and endorsed the call for a royal commission to

reconsider the legal position. The only police figures who

have, up until now, voiced their support for a serious

debate on legalisation have been retired officers.



The most senior officers in the Cleveland force, which

covers the Redcar constituency of Mo Mowlam, the cabinet

minister responsible for drugs police, said they strongly

supported Tony Blair's 10-year strategy to combat drug abuse

because it stressed the need to treat drug users as victims

as much as offenders. But they said that underlying it all

was a prohibition style approach which relied upon bans and

enforcement to restrict availability.



"We have to consider whether this is realistic," said the

report written by Cleveland's former assistant chief

constable, Richard Brunstrom, and endorsed by Mr Shaw.



"There is overwhelming evidence to show that the prohibition

based policy in place in this country since 1971 has not

been effective in controlling the availability of or use of

prescribed drugs.



"If there is indeed a 'war on drugs' it is not being won;

drugs are demonstrably cheaper and more easily available

than ever before. The same picture can be seen in the USA

and elsewhere."



The report added that there was no logic in making alcohol

and nicotine freely available despite very clear evidence of

their harmful effects while the ban on cannabis was being

enforced with severe penalties, despite being seen as less

harmful by many medical scientists.



It said this approach was based on little more than

historical accident and led many young people to level the

charge of hypocrisy, a view which was very difficult to

counter.



The force argued that Britain had yet to learn the lessons

of 1920s alcohol prohibition in the United States, Gandhi's

civil disobedience campaign in India in the 1940s, or from

the campaign against the poll tax in Britain in the 1980s.



"If a sufficiently large, and apparently growing, part of

the population chooses to ignore the law for whatever

reason, then that law becomes unenforceable. A modern

western democracy, based on policing by consent and the rule

of law may find itself powerless to prevent illegal activity

- in this case the importation and use of controlled drugs."



The Cleveland police said there was a strong link between

crime and drugs but added that was a product of prices

remaining high because drugs are illegal. A serious heroin

user needed to find UKP50 in cash each day and so turned to

crime, mainly shoplifting, selling drugs and burglary. The

report noted that nationally about a third of all crime was

geared to the purchase of heroin, cocaine or crack.



The officers insisted that most drug users did not commit

significant amounts of crime and their only offence was to

choose to use a drug which was technically illegal.



"The best example of this is cannabis - the UK has the

highest rate of cannabis use in Europe, higher even than in

the Netherlands which has a tolerance policy."



The Cleveland police policy paper said that overwhelming

health reasons added to the reasons for considering changes

in legalisation. It said the illegal nature of the trade

caused further unnecessary risk to drug users because of

uncertainty over the quality and purity. Heroin might be cut

with additives as wide ranging as chalk dust, quinine,

lactose, boric acid and talcum powder.



"Legalisation and regulation of currently banned drugs has

never been tried properly anywhere in the world so there is

little hard evidence available," it said, adding that the

experiment in Netherlands in tolerating the personal use of

cannabis had resulted in a lower rate of use than in the UK.

Some European cities, such as Geneva, were experimenting

with issuing heroin under prescription to addicts with

results showing some startling reductions in crime.



It concluded by saying that the evidence strongly suggested

that prohibition had not been effective in reducing

availability of, or demand for, controlled drugs, and might

even be counter-productive.



"If prohibition does not work, then either the consequences

of this have to be accepted, or an alternative approach must

be found," said the report. "The most obvious alternative

approach is the legalisation and subsequent regulation of

some or all drugs."



Ken Walker, the chairman of Cleveland police authority,

which endorsed the report, said it was a serious, sensible

and constructive approach. "No one wants to rush into

legalising some or all of the drugs proscribed because there

are so many serious and complex social implications. But we

have to face reality and open up the debate about all the

options."



Battles the law won

1998 drug seizures and offender statistics



• Total number of drug seizures increased by 8% to 149,000;

76% involved cannabis.



• Cannabis seizures increased by 7%, but the quantities

seized dropped by 28%.



• The number of heroin seizures went up by 19%, but quantity

seized fell by 40%.



• Number and quantity of cocaine (including crack) seizures

increased, by 36% and 25% respectively.



• Quantities of ecstasy type drugs went up by 9%; the number

of seizures fell by 7%.



• Drug offenders up by 13% to 127,900; 90% possession cases,

mainly cannabis.



• Cocaine offenders up 32% (excluding crack); a 30% rise in

heroin offenders; and a rise of 13% in cannabis offenders.



• 47% of offenders were cautioned, 23% were fined and 8%

sentenced to immediate custody.