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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Report amounts to public inquiry which pulls apart the Government's strategy Ian Burrell The Independent Wednesday 22 May 2002 When David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, called for Britain to have an "adult, intelligent debate" on drugs last July he was not anticipating a 10-month inquiry, held in public, into the Government's track record on the subject by one of Parliament's most powerful committees. Published today - under the combative title The Government's Drugs Policy: Is It Working? - the Home Affairs Select Committee's 100-page report pulls apart Labour's strategy and calls for "a major shake-up". Based on evidence from 45 witnesses, ranging from the Home Secretary to radical reformers, drugs workers and families of addicts, it makes 24 recommendations for change. The report was backed by 10 MPs from the 11-member committee, with only Angela Watkinson, a Tory, rejecting its findings. Its main finding are: Legalisation debate Committee: "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. 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. 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." The committee was unconvinced by more radical thinkers, such as the charity Transform, which told it that "drugs prohibition effectively hands the trade over to organised crime". The MPs acknowledged that there were "some attractive arguments" in favour of legalisation but that it would be "a step into the unknown". Supplying to friends Committee: "We recommend that a new offence is created of 'supply for gain', which would be used to prosecute large-scale commercial suppliers. 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." The MPs took a more hardline approach than an earlier Police Foundation report to those who supply drugs to friends. The foundation had said such people should only be charged with possession. The committee said social dealers should "not escape prosecution for this offence" but that an even harsher penalty should be introduced for major drugs criminals operating on a commercial basis. Reclassification Committee: "We believe that drugs policy should primarily be addressed to dealing with the 250,000 problematic drug users. We support ... the Home Secretary's proposal to reclassify cannabis from class B to class C. We ... recommend that ecstasy is reclassified as a class B drug." The recommendation to reclassify cannabis is the final vote of approval sought by Mr Blunkett after his earlier proposal to make possession of the drug a non-arrestable offence. A change to the law is now imminent. But he is fiercely opposed to any softening of the law on ecstasy. Cocaine Committee: "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. We consider that the risks posed by cocaine to the user and to other people merit it remaining a class A drug. 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." MPs were alarmed by the growing prevalence of cocaine and particularly crack, the high-purity crystalline form of the drug. The Home Office minister Robert Ainsworth told the MPs of the "massive damage [crack] is doing to certain communities and inner-city areas". The committee said: "Where crack is concerned we see no prospect for compromise." Heroin Committee: "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. 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. We recommend that a proper evaluation is conducted of diamorphine prescribing for heroin addiction in the UK ... as compared with methadone prescribing regimes. We recommend that the guidance and training provided to practitioners prescribing diamorphine to heroin addicts is strengthened." In the UK there has been a long-established tradition of limited prescribing of diamorphine (clinical heroin) by a small number of licensed doctors. The Home Secretary has already said that he would be prepared for the number of such doctors to increase from 300 to 1,500. Shooting galleries Committee: "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. 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." The Home Office was quick to point out yesterday that the Government had no plans to open shooting galleries. Education and doctors Committee: "We believe that all drugs education material should be based on the premise that any drug use can be harmful, and should be discouraged. 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." The MPs were shocked that medical students received only 30 minutes of drug training in a five-year course. The committee applauded the Government's Safer Clubbing guide but called for education of young people by "credible" people such as recovered addicts. Treatment agencies and the law Committee: "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. We recommend that Section 8 of the Act is amended to ensure that drugs agencies can conduct harm reduction work and provide safe injecting areas for users without fear of being prosecuted. We recommend that the Home Office and Department of Health urgently review the current legal framework on the dispensation of controlled drugs by community pharmacists. We recommend that Drug Abstinence Orders are amended to carry the requirement of access to treatment." Drugs workers have been alarmed at the prospect of being jailed because of drug-taking on their premises, after the conviction in 1999 of two managers of a Cambridge charity hostel that was the scene of heroin use. 'I silently screamed for help, but no one was there' the short walk from his prison cell to the rehabilitation room at HMP Channings Wood, Devon, was running the gauntlet for Brian, a hardened crack, heroin and amphetamine user. Not every inmate nor officer was sympathetic to his drug addiction or the need for rehabilitation. "Some thought it was soft to give us treatment and that addicts should just be banged up," the 34-year-old from Manchester, who was serving a sentence for theft, said. Brian, who was sexually abused in his teens, began taking drugs at the age of 17 and has been in eight different prisons. He welcomed the call to introduce compulsory treatment for all prisoners, something he claims helped him defeat his addiction. But the intensive therapeutic community programme with Addaction, the largest drug and alcohol charity service in Britain, was no soft option, he said. "I will remember that time as the hardest time in my life. I used to break down when I talked about my life. We all lived and breathed the treatment and it was how I recovered. I had been silently screaming out for help before that but I felt there was no one there for me," he said. Emma Vickers, a heroin user at the age of 15, felt neglected by the system in her fight against drugs and says she was particularly let down by her GP. "I applied to go into rehabilitation and was rejected because they thought my habit was not bad enough. I was not a prostitute and I wasn't injecting," said Ms Vickers, 18, from Teesside. She said she did not feel supported by GPs in the early stages of her addiction and believes that more training could have helped her overcome her problem much earlier. "I had problems getting methadone. I was on 25ml and it was not enough but my doctor would not increase it and I went back on heroin. Another GP finally put it up to 50ml which helped me recover." For Faye, 21, a heroin and crack cocaine user who was addicted by the age of 18, the drugs treatment centre she attended in north London was her only refuge and something of a second home. Her parents were heroin addicts and she watched them buy and sell drugs and then became involved in petty theft to fund their habits. Faye welcomed the emphasis on rehabilitation and believes she was lucky to be treated at one of the few specialised clinics for young addicts. Although experts were generally supportive of yesterday's report, there were reservations about some recommendations. Rosie Brocklehurst, of Addaction, said the charity would not endorse the proposal to downgrade ecstasy to class B because not enough research had been undertaken into its impact on health. And she warned that injecting houses for heroin addicts should only be used in conjunction with various therapies and not in isolation. "While we would not endorse every one of the recommendations, we welcome the report which covered most of what is needed most, she said. "We are highly under-resourced but I think the Government is well aware of that and has taken some initiatives on board already to tackle the problem of drugs." Arifa Akbar
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