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MN: UK: Going Dutch?
Economist, The (UK)
Saturday 15 Jan 2000 Message-ID: Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 16:05:56 +0000 To: shug@shuggie.demon.co.uk From: shug Subject: MN: UK: Going Dutch? MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Turnpike (32) Version 3.05 ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Pubdate: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 Source: Economist, The (UK) Contact: letters@economist.com Website: http://www.economist.com/ GOING DUTCH? A Police Foundation report is about to recommend major changes to Britain's drugs law. The government should respond without delay. The committee has concluded that the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act is arbitrary and inconsistent, and imposes heavy demands on the criminal justice system to little public benefit. Its most controversial recommendation is that possession of cannabis should never attract a prison sentence, but should instead be subject to fines or other penalties. At present possession of cannabis can be punished by up to seven years in jail. The latest Home Office figures on sentencing indicate that about 500 people were imprisoned in 1997 for possession of cannabis. The report is also expected to call for a significant relaxation in the prohibition of the use of drugs such as cannabis for medical reasons. And it believes there should be a revision of the fuzzy border between supply and possession. Under two grammes of cannabis, it suggests that possession should be treated as a minor civil offence. Above two grammes, there could be a charge of supply, but the committee is expected to stress that the law should distinguish between social and commercial supply. Tony Blair, and Jack Straw, believe that the time is not ripe for radical reform. Other ministers, such as Clare Short, the secretary for overseas development, believe privately the law is "barking mad". A measure of its current hawkish position was the home secretary's outright rejection of a recent report by a House of Lords select committee, which recommended that marijuana should be made available for medical purposes. Public opinion appears, however, to be moving in favour of fundamental change. A recent MORI poll found that 80% want the laws against cannabis relaxed, and only 17% believe that possession of cannabis should be illegal as at present. But there is little evidence that the government's policy is making inroads into drug-related crime. At least a third of crime in urban areas is drug-related, and nearly half of all house burglaries and thefts from cars are committed by drug users. Britain continues to have a worse record for illicit drug use than any of its European neighbours. A study of all 15 EU countries by the European Monitoring Centre for drugs found that three times as many young Britons aged 15-16 said they had experimented with Ecstasy as French or Germans. Young Britons were also much more likely to have used hallucinogens and amphetamines and to have abused solvents. The theory that a more permissive approach to soft drugs leads many to experiment with hard drugs has not been borne out in the Netherlands. That country has a lower prevalence of hard-drug addicts per head (1.6 per 1,000) than France (2.4), Britain (2.6), Italy (3.0), and Switzerland (5.0). If young adults wish to use soft drugs, argue the Dutch officials, it is better that they are not exposed to the criminal sub-culture surrounding hard drugs. Hence the famous coffee shops of Amsterdam. The Dutch Aid-prevention programme, with its distribution of free needles and extensive treatment programmes, also compares well with those of other countries. Nearly 40% of Aids victims across Europe are intravenous drug users, compared with just over 10% in the Netherlands. (END) Shug The UK Cannabis Information website http://www.ukcia.org
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