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UK: Police call for review of Britains ineffective and outdated drug laws

Dan McDougall

The Scotsman

Friday 25 Apr 2003

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THE Scottish Police Federation continued to court controversy at their
annual conference in the Borders last night by labelling the Misuse of
Drugs Act "ineffective and outdated" and calling for an urgent review of
the nation's drug laws.

Rank and file police officers unanimously agreed to petition Westminster
by calling for a Royal Commission to examine the effectiveness of the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the impact drug misuse is continuing to
have on even the smallest communities.

In recent years, police officers across the country have continued to
express concerns that the existing Misuse of Drugs Act, devised more
than 30 years ago, is no longer relevant to the current narcotics plight
facing the nation. Under the act, Britain has some of the harshest
penalties for drug offences in Europe, but has continued to record some
of the highest levels of drug misuse.

According to a Scottish Police Federation spokesman, the call for an
urgent review had been made in response to a growing change in the
outlook of many officers towards the issue of tackling drugs.

He said: "Many officers believe the 33-year-old act is not only
outdated, but dangerous and harmful, both to addicts and to recreational
drug-users, as it focuses on locking up small-time offenders whilst
inadvertently granting the monopoly of drug supply to high-ranking
criminals.

"Anti-drug groups regularly point to the fact that under the act, the
use of illegal substances has widened and more people are currently in
prison because of drugs, or suffering and dying than ever before.

"To many officers, it is clear that outright prohibition under the act
has been staggeringly unsuccessful, although most officers fall short of
outright legalisation. What we are calling for here is a review to
update the act and make it more relevant to the drug problems we are
seeing on the streets everyday."

The most alarming issue for many police officers today is that drug
misuse and the crime often associated with it are increasing not just in
Scotland's cities, but in smaller communities.

According to the latest government figures, police in the Western Isles
arrested 33 people for drug dealing in the past year, compared with ten
in the previous year.

Generally, serious drug offences are rising faster in rural areas of the
country compared with towns and cities, which are traditionally seen as
the centres of drug abuse.

The latest figures also reveal that Scotland-wide, drug dealing arrests
are on the increase - up from 8,645 in 2000 to 10,152 last year, a rise
of 17 per cent. Rural drug crime has risen by 25 per cent, with steeper
rises still across the Highlands and Islands, where the amount of
recorded dealing soared by 35 per cent, from 344 to 465.

Rural Scotland has become increasingly plagued by drugs. Easter Ross and
the north-east have become centres for a rising level of heroin
addiction. Last year, it emerged that the authorities were planning to
introduce random drug testing for Peterhead and Fraserburgh fishermen
amid worries that vessels were being crewed by men high on drugs, posing
a risk to other shipping.

The latest attack on the drugs laws follows a series of well-timed blows
by the Scottish Police Federation on Wednesday, accusing the Executive
of lacking "real commitment" to solving the growing problem of youth
crime.

As Jack McConnell continued to place the battle against juvenile
delinquency at the top of the election agenda, the federation issued a
rebuke to the First Minister, claiming the Executive had consistently
failed to tackle the root of the problem during its first term and
offered "knee-jerk reactions" instead.

Norrie Flowers, the chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, speaking
at the annual conference in Peebles yesterday, claimed that more police
officers on the beat were essential if levels of all crime were to be
cut, particularly morale-sapping petty crime carried out by youngsters.

 

 

 

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