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UK: It will take more than a video nasty to curb the damage from drug abuse
The Independent Wednesday 22 May 2002 Not even the most dedicated proponent of the "shock" school of drugs control would claim that such an approach will solve the drug problem. The Government's decision to make available to all schools in England a video about the death of the heroin addict Rachel Whitear may result in some young people being turned away from hard drugs, and some lives may be saved as a result. This is not a trivial outcome, but the video will have only a transient effect. If we are serious about limiting the damage from drug abuse, we must do better than video nasties. Intriguingly, this has been recognised by Rachel's courageous parents, who believe such shock tactics can work only alongside a more enlightened approach. At last, our politicians have begun to swing towards such an approach, as witnessed by the thoughtful strategy suggested by the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons. These MPs seem to have taken on the role of freelance policy makers for the Government, and have discharged that function impressively. As the chairman of the committee, Chris Mullin, says: "Our priorities should be realistic education, readily available treatment and harm reduction. Above all, we need to focus on the relatively small minority of drug users who are making a misery of their lives and those of others. The criminal law should be reserved primarily for dealers." This is a welcome substitute for the overblown rhetoric and timid approach that has proved addictive for most British politicians. Now we must see ministers abandon their senseless talk of winning the "war on drugs" and ditch tired, headline-grabbing gimmicks such as the "crackdown" on drug dealers operating within so many metres of a school gate. To be fair, ministers have belatedly begun to recognise that the climate of opinion on drugs has changed. The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has indicated his willingness to reclassify cannabis, for example, and there was the official sanction given to the "Lambeth experiment" of cautions for possession of small quantities of soft drugs. But they must go further. They should downgrade the criminal penalties for ecstasy, encourage testing of drug purity in clubs, provide safe injecting houses with clean needles for addicts across Britain and vastly expand the rehabilitation facilities available on the health service. It was striking to note that Rachel Whitear died while on the waiting list for a treatment programme, as she sought to defeat her addiction. The select committee has as the title of its report The Government's Drugs Policy: Is It Working? Given that this country has the heaviest drug use in Europe, the answer to that has to be an unequivocal "no". Britain has the EU's highest proportion of users of heroin, amphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis, while cocaine use, currently more prevalent only in Spain, is growing fastest in the UK. Out of 7,266 deaths from overdoses of illegal drugs across the EU in 1999, 2,857 were in the UK. The Netherlands, which has an admirably liberal policy, has roughly half the proportion of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine users as the UK. As the select committee points out, evidently we have much to learn from the European experience. This clear-sighted report, which recognises that drugs are mainly a health and social problem and thus puts the emphasis on harm reduction and rehabilitation, should be seized upon by the Government as a way out of Britain's muddled approach to drugs.
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