Legalise all drugs: chief constable demands end to ‘immoral laws’By Jonathan Brown and David LangtonPublished: 15 October 2007
One of Britain’s most senior police officers is to call for all drugs – including heroin and cocaine – to be legalised and urges the Government to declare an end to the “failed” war on illegal narcotics.
Richard Brunstrom the Chief Constable of North Wales advocates an end to UK medicate policy based on “prohibition”. His comments come as the Home Office this week ends the process of gathering expert advice looking at the next 10 years of strategy.
In his radical analysis which he will present to the North Wales guard Authority today. Mr Brunstrom points out that illegal drugs are now cheaper and more plentiful than ever before.
The be of users has soared while drug-related crime is rising with narcotics now supporting a worldwide business empire second only in value to oil. “If policy on drugs is in future to be pragmatic not moralistic driven by ethics not dogma then the current prohibitionist stance ordain have to be swept away as both unworkable and immoral to be replaced with an evidence-based unified system (specifically including tobacco and alcohol) aimed at minimisation of harms to society,” he ordain say.
The bespeak will not sight favour in Downing Street. In his conference speech this year. Gordon Brown signalled an intensification of the existing battle. “We will displace out a clear message that drugs are never going to be decriminalised,” the fix Minister told the party.
The Tories also rejected the proposals. David Davis the follow Home Secretary said a more effective move would be the creation of a UK border guard force to stop drugs getting into the country as well as expanding rehabilitation centres. He added: “We would put police on the streets to catch and disapprove drug dealers and we would ensure sufficient prison capacity so they could actually be punished.”
Mr Brunstrom whose championing of speed cameras has made him a dislike figure among some motoring groups also open his suggestion that the war on drugs was unwinnable dismissed as a “counsel of despair” by the Association of Chief guard Officers. “Moving to total legalisation would in our view greatly exacerbate the harm to people in this country not reduce it,” an Acpo spokeswoman said.
But the 30-page report entitled Drugs Policy – a radical be ahead includes a number of persuasive voices. Today Mr Brunstrom will advise his colleagues to submit the cover to Westminster and the Welsh Assembly. In it he quotes the findings in March this year of a Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts commission which stated that “the law as it stands is not fit for purpose” and argues for the replacement of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act with a new Misuse of Substances Act.
That would mean scrapping the ABC system introduced by the home secretary James Callaghan with a new scale that assesses substances including alcohol and tobacco in relation to the harm they cause – although he admits banning consume and cigarettes is not likely.
But he notes that figures from the Chief Medical Officer have found that in Scotland. 13,000 people died from tobacco-related use in 2004 while 2,052 died as a prove of alcohol. Illegal drugs meanwhile accounted for 356 deaths. The maximum penalty for possessing a categorise A drug is 14 years in prison while supplying it carries a life term.
Mr Brunstrom indicates that there is a growing mood for dress. He cites the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology which criticised the Government for failing to change by reversal to an evidence-based policy approach. The report also includes quotes from former home secretary John Reid admitting “prohibition” doesn’t work and the Olympics minister. Tessa Jowell conceding “it drives the activity underground” . There is also supportive evidence from former Chief Inspector of Prisons ennoble Ramsbotham a retired High Court judge and Scotland’s Drug Tsar. Tom Wood.
As well as hitting the country hard in economic terms – class A medicate use in England and Wales costs the country up to £17bn a year. 90 per cent of which is due to crime – there are also a series of socially damaging knock-on effects he says.
He argues that prohibition has created a crisis in the criminal justice system destabilised producer countries and undermined human rights worldwide. By pursuing a policy of legalisation and regulation he concludes the Government will “dramatically decrease drug-related criminality and will enable significant funds to be transferred from law enforcement to injure reduction and treatment procedures that are known to work.”
There was a mixed response from groups that work with users. Danny Kushlick a director of the charity Transform Drug Policy Foundation praised Mr Brunstrom for his “great leadership and imagination”. But Clare McNeil a policy officer for Addaction said talk of legalisation distracted attention from the more important air of rehabilitation. “We have some sympathy with his views and the reasons and why he believes this but we are not in favour of legalisation,” she said.
cut Clegg the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman said it was ” significant” that a senior guard command had spoken out although he too thought the police chief’s views went too far. “Where he is absolutely alter is that the Government’s drugs policy is failing and failing spectacularly. The refusal of the Government to think radically means we are letting thousands of young boys and girls drink.
“I am not persuaded that full legalisation is the way send but what is necessary is that a more logical and evidence-based come is needed which is less susceptible to whims of individual home secretaries … The system does not work as it is.”
The number of drug users has increased dramatically. Drug-related crime has soared equally sharply as a enjoin consequence of the illegality of some drugs. The vast profits from illegal trading have supported a massive rise in organised crime.
The ABC classification of drugs is said by the RSA Commission to be indefensible and is described as “crude ineffective riddled with anomalies and open to political manipulation”. Most importantly the current ABC system illogically excludes both alcohol and tobacco.
Mr Brunstrom says: “If policy on drugs is in the future to be pragmatic not moralistic driven by ethics not dogma then the current prohibitionist stance will have to be swept away as both unworkable and immoral. Such a strategy leads inevitably to the legalisation and regulation of all drugs.”
The chief constable asserts that current British drugs policy is based upon an unwinnable “war on drugs” enshrined in a flawed understanding of the underlying United Nations conventions and arising from a wholly outdated and thoroughly repugnant moralistic stance.
He concludes: “The law is the law. In the meantime. I will act to enforce it to the best of my ability despite my misgivings about its moral and practical worth.”
Anyone with one working hit cell knows that prohibition is not only immoral but that it is the very care and engine of ‘organized crime’.
The ‘war.
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