UK - Drug laws and bans on legal highs 'do more harm than good'

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edgarshade

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Guardian

Jamie Doward
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 14 May 2011 20.14 BST

With reader comments

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/may/14/drug-laws-bans-legal-highs

The UK's "outdated" drug laws could be doing more harm than good and are failing to recognise that banning some "legal highs" may have negative consequences for public health, according to the leading independent panel set up to analyse drugs policy.

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Misuse of Drugs Act, the UK Drug Policy Commission warns that the exponential rise in "legal highs" and the availability of substances over the internet is making current laws redundant.

A damning report carried out for the commission by thinktank Demos suggests that drug control legislation is no longer "fit for purpose" in the 21st century and should be replaced using consumer protection legislation.

In the longer term, the report suggests, the government should introduce a harmful substances control act that would change how all psychoactive substances, including alcohol and tobacco, are controlled.
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"It might be time to say that those who seek to sell new substances should have to prove their safety, rather than that the government should have to prove otherwise," Howard said. "Controlling new substances through trading standards legislation offers a new vehicle to achieve this."

The report has been cautiously welcomed by police at a time when their budget is under strain. "Police forces and health professionals across England and Wales are only too aware of the problems that a wave of new drugs can bring," said Tim Hollis, the chief constable of Humberside police and the national lead on drugs for the Association of Chief Police Officers. "The idea of trading standards officers having a stronger role in controlling substances is one that is worthy of consideration."
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It's a shame the government won't listen.

Seriously, who is it that wants drugs illegal? What kind of person?

If I were to stereotype I'd go for people 50+ who believe themselves to be middle class and quite possibly religious. Is it accurate to say its mostly these people who want substances banned?

I'd say upwards of 90% of people I've met recognises that banning them causes more harm than good.
 
There is also an editorial in the Observer

Drug laws: 40 years on, only a complete change of approach will do

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/15/observer-editorial-drugs-laws-useless

It is 40 years since Parliament passed the Misuse of Drugs Act, establishing the framework that, with periodic tweaks, is used for controlling substance abuse today. Actual drug use has been going on a lot longer, so it is hardly surprising that one legal instrument has failed to kill the habit.

It is remarkable, however, how utterly the system has failed. Drugs are available to anyone who really wants them. The classification system of substances into degrees of harmfulness – A for the worst, C for the least bad – is ignored by users and dismissed by many scientists. Its only practical use seems to be in determining prison sentences and filling our jails with drug users has had no deterrent effect on use.

Meanwhile, the volume of new products coming to the market is growing at an alarming rate. Laboratories in the far east churn out synthetic variants of natural narcotics or make minor molecular adjustments to old drugs, turning them, from a legal point of view, into new ones. According to a report by the UK Drug Policy Commission, revealed in today's Observer, 40 new substances appeared on the streets last year.
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^ lol at that quote..

How'd they come to that conclusion?

Twats.

There must be something more going on (like the government are actually the top of the drug selling food chain)..
 
rickolasnice said:
^ lol at that quote..

How'd they come to that conclusion?

Twats.

There must be something more going on (like the government are actually the top of the drug selling food chain)..
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I think you give the governments of the world too much credit. I'd imagine it's nothing so sinister, they're just aware that it's political suicide to suggest anything other than 'WAR ON DRUGS' in a political system dominated by the backwards, conservative, middle aged middle class. Never mind the chaos that would result, there would have to be a huge swath of changes in the prison system, the legal system, the police force, the medical system. I think behind closed doors, most politicians probably realize that the war on drugs has failed, but nobody wants to be the first one to step up and suggest that something actually be done about it.
 
It's a shame drug-people are rarely ever politics, perhaps if we were more so things wouldn't be the way they are. We have too much good taste, though :P. Talk about drug policy change is everywhere and I reckon it's inevitable now - it needs to go the right way the first time though, or else it'll be another million years of us complaining about a possibly worse system :/
 
London Evening Standard

Cameron must seize this chance to rethink drugs

With reader comments

Jenni Russell 16 May 2011

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23950377-cameron-must-seize-this-chance-to-rethink-drugs.do

It's very thoughtful of the UK's Drug Policy Commission. Just in case the Government isn't finding life sufficiently interesting, today the organisation is proposing a new area in which it can get involved in rows and recriminations: changing the rules on drugs.

For once, this isn't a dreary rerun of the argument about legalisation. As the UKDPC says, in a report for the think-tank Demos, that division simply polarises people, because there are powerful arguments on both sides. The charity wants to take account of political realities. There is no point in suggesting straight decriminalisation, because more than half the population oppose it, and because no politician would be able to withstand the storm of protest that would result.

Yet muddling along just as we have been doing isn't proving to be good policy, socially, economically or individually. It's 40 years since the Misuse of Drugs Act classified and banned most drugs, with the intention of cutting their use, but drug use is far more widespread than it was then.
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Shifting the sale of carefully evaluated new drugs into the consumer market rather than the criminal one would allow government and trading standards officers to control their sale. Selected vendors would be responsible for quality control and for accurate information about effects. Already the sale of intoxicants such as solvents, alcohol and tobacco, all of which can be hazardous, are regulated by bodies which demand purity of product and controls over who can access them. It is quite illogical that we accept that framework for some kinds of mind-altering substances while refusing to consider it for others.

It's not likely that the Commission's proposals will be acted on by ministers just now. The Coalition has enough external and internal fights on its hands. But arguments like these must start being had by the rest of us. Some police officers have already said the suggestions are worth listening to. As they know, an obstinate public allegiance to a failing policy is no way to respond to the real threats posed by the uncontrolled market for drugs.
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