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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Hard drugs cost UK 20bn pounds a year
Martin Bright, home affairs editor The Observer
Sunday 01 Dec 2002 The use of of Class A drugs such as heroin, crack and cocaine costs the nation almost £20 billion a year, according to new research to be published this week. The study estimates that serious addicts account for 99 per cent of the total social and economic costs of drugs. The report will be published to coincide with the release of the Government's Drugs Strategy, which will prioritise the treatment of addicts and the fight against hard drugs. The University of York study estimates the annual economic costs to the health service and the criminal justice and benefits systems at between £3.7bn and £6.8bn. The social costs of crime to victims boost the figure to between £10.9bn and £18.8bn. The research also shows the costs of different types of drug user: recreational users without a habit cost an average £20 a year, while problem drug users cost £11,000. Home Office sources confirmed the strategy would concentrate on problem users, with an emphasis on new Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, which have proved popular with courts and enjoy a 50 per cent success rate. But drug campaign groups last night accused the Government of double-standards by conducting a U-turn on cannabis. Although cannabis will be downgraded to a Class C drug, the new Criminal Justice Bill will extend the power of arrest for possession to all drugs in that category. Roger Howard, chief executive of DrugScope said: 'The Government is sending out mixed messages and diffusing the focus of their drugs strategy. On one hand they publish a study saying 99 per cent of costs come from the most seriously addicted, yet at the same time they widen the power of arrest to a whole new group of drug users using the least harmful drugs. Danny Kushlick, of the Transform Drug Policy Institute, said: 'Drug use does not cause crime per se; it is the illegal markets and inflated prices of street drugs under the policy of prohibition that causes it.'
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