UK 'war on drugs' not working, says coalition of celebrities and politicians

[edgarshade]

Guardian

Thursday 6 June 2013 15.26 BST

With reader comments

Celebrities, entrepreneurs and politicians have called on the government to end the so-called war on drugs and urgently review the UK's laws. The open letter published in the Times included Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, musician Sting and comedian Russell Brand among nearly 20 signatories pushing for change. The letter claims that the £3bn spent on drug policy "does little to address the root causes of addiction and pointlessly criminalises people". The initiative, led by Green MP Caroline Lucas, has attracted cross-party backing from Labour MP Keith Vaz, Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith and Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert. The letter comes as politicians debate a home affairs select committee report that warns that government action is needed "now, more than ever" to consider all the alternatives for drug policy.

It reads: "Worldwide there is growing recognition that the 'war on drugs' has failed – having cost billions of dollars and caused tens of thousands of deaths. "In the UK, scientists, politicians, lawyers and police increasingly agree that we need to review existing policy, which costs taxpayers £3 billion a year but does little to address the root causes of addiction and pointlessly criminalises people."

More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jun/06/war-on-drugs-branson-sting-russell-brand

 

[poledriver]

Some decent comments on there.

@dancthegreat - According to the Australian National Drug Research Institute (2003): "The research into the global burden of disease attributable to drugs found, that in 2000, tobacco use was responsible for 4.9 million deaths worldwide, equating to 71 percent of all drug-related deaths. Around 1.8 million deaths were attributable to the use of alcohol (26 percent of all drug-related deaths), and illicit drugs (heroin, cocaine and amphetamines) caused approximately 223,000 deaths (only 3 percent of all drug-related deaths)." Marijuana doesn't get a mention.
Researchers led by Professor David Nutt, a former chief drugs adviser to the British government, asked drug-harm experts to rank 20 drugs (legal and illegal) on 16 measures of harm to the user and to wider society, such as damage to health, drug dependency, economic costs and crime. Alcohol scored 72 out of a possible 100, far more damaging than heroin (55) or crack cocaine (54). It is the most harmful to others by a wide margin, and is ranked fourth behind heroin, crack, and methamphetamine (crystal meth) for harm to the individual.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_cause_most_harm