By Alan Travis, home affairs editor From The Guardian

UK government study finds no evidence that harsh sentencing curbs illegal use and documents success of Portugal’s decriminalisation

There is no evidence that tough enforcement of the drug laws on personal possession leads to lower levels of drug use, according to the UK government’s first evidence-based study.

Examining international drug laws, the groundbreaking Home Office document brings to an end 40 years of almost unbroken official political rhetoric that only harsher penalties can tackle the problem caused by the likes of heroin, cocaine or cannabis.

It is signed off by the Conservative home secretary, Theresa May, and the Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker, and will be published alongside an official expert report calling for a general ban on the sale and trade in legal highs.

Baker said the international comparisons demonstrated that “banging people up and increasing sentences does not stop drug use”. He said the last 40 years had seen a drugs debate in Britain based on the “lazy assumption in the rightwing press that if you have harsher penalties it will reduce drug use, but there is no evidence for that at all”.

Baker added: “If anything the evidence is to the contrary.”

The minister added that wider societal factors, such as a more risk-averse generation of young people, who suffered fewer alcohol problems and were healthier, contributed to the general downward trend in drug use.

It documents in detail the successes of the health-led approach in Portugal combining decriminalisation with other policies, and shows reductions in all types of drug use alongside falls in drug-related HIV and Aids cases.

The Home Office international research paper on the use of illegal drugs, which redeems a Liberal Democrat 2010 election pledge for a royal commission to examine the alternatives to the current drug laws, also leaves the door open on the legalisation experiments in the American states of Washington and Colorado, and in Uruguay.

Medicine Man Denver is the single largest legal medical and recreational marijuana dispensary in Denver, Colorado.

Medicine Man Denver is the single largest legal medical and recreational marijuana dispensary in Denver, Colorado. Photograph: Alamy

It says that “it is too early to know how they will play out but we will monitor the impacts of these new policies in the years to come”.

Regarding legal highs, Baker said the government would look at the feasibility of a blanket ban on new compounds of psychoactive drugs that focused on dealers and the “head shops” that sell tobacco paraphernalia rather than users.

“The head shops could be left with nothing to sell but Rizla papers,” Baker said. “The approach of a general ban had a dramatic effect on their availability when it was introduced in Ireland, but we must ensure that it will work here.”

A ban would apply to head shops and websites. Legal highs are currently banned on a temporary 12-month basis as each new substance arrives on the market. Legislation is possible before the election but not certain.

The new blanket or “generic” ban would not be accompanied by a ban on the possession or use of the new psychoactive substances, which often mimic the effects of traditional drugs. This would remain legal.

It is expected the expert report on legal highs will recommend a threshold for substances to be banned so that those with minimal psychoactive effects such as alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee would not be caught by the proposed new ban.

The report firmly rejects a New Zealand style-approach of regulating head shops and other sales outlets for legal highs.

Publication of both reports has been held up for months as interminable negotiations between the two coalition parties have gone on over every detailed issue.

Baker has repeatedly warned of the dangers of legal highs, citing evidence that some cannabinoids synthesised in chemical labs are 100 times more powerful than traditional strains of cannabis.

The expert report says there were 60 deaths related to new psychoactive substances in 2013 – up from 52 the year before.

It also considers basing future controls of the effect on the brain rather than the current test of their chemical structure.

Frontline health staff are also urged to receive strengthened training to deal with their effects.

Danny Kushlik, of the Transform drugs charity – which campaigns for drug legalisation, said the international report represented a landmark in British drugs policy since the introduction of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act that is still in force today.

“This is a historic moment in the development of UK drug policy. For the first time in over 40 years the Home Office has admitted that enforcing tough drug laws doesn’t necessarily reduce levels of drug use,” said Kushlik.

“It has also acknowledged that decriminalising the possession of drugs doesn’t increase levels of use. Even more, the department in charge of drugs prohibition says it will take account of the experiments in the legal regulation of cannabis in Washington, Colorado and Uruguay.

“Pragmatic reform will only happen if there is crossparty support for change and we can assume now that the Labour party can engage constructively on this previously toxic issue.”

A Home Office spokesperson, responding to the evidence of the international report, said: “This government has absolutely no intention of decriminalising drugs. Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK.

“It is right that we look at drugs policies in other countries and today’s report summarises a number of these international approaches.”

Earlier this year the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, pledged to abolish prison sentences for the possession of drugs for personal use – including class-A substances such as heroin and cocaine. He urged David Cameron to look at issues such as decriminalisation or legalisation of drugs.

IMAGE: The study ends 40 years of political rhetoric that only harsher penalties can tackle the problems caused by heroin, cannabis and cocaine. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

For more on this story go to: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/30/punitive-drug-laws-are-failing-study?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

See also related BBC story

No link between tough penalties and drug use – report

From BBC

There is “no obvious” link between tough laws and levels of illegal drug use, a government report has found.

Liberal Democrat Home Office minister Norman Baker said the report, comparing the UK with other countries, should end “mindless rhetoric” on drugs policy.

He accused the Conservatives of “suppressing” the findings for months.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the research did not offer “specific conclusions” and said he did not “believe in” decriminalising drugs.

Drugs policy was debated in the House of Commons earlier, with Green MP Caroline Lucas urging the government to review “failing” drugs laws.

Under current laws, offenders can be jailed for up to seven years for possessing Class A drugs, and can be jailed for life for producing or supplying drugs.

The Home Office report compared the UK’s approach to drug misuse with that of 13 other countries.

After examining a range of approaches, from zero-tolerance to decriminalisation, it concluded drug use was influenced by factors “more complex and nuanced than legislation and enforcement alone”.

But it found there had been a “considerable” improvement in the health of drug users in Portugal since the country made drug possession a health issue rather than a criminal one in 2001.

The Home Office said these outcomes could not be attributed to decriminalisation alone.

But Mr Baker believes treating drug use as a health matter would be more effective, “rather than presuming locking people up is the answer”.

‘No-one chooses to be an addict’

Alex, a recovering heroin and crack addict from London

The majority of my family either suffer from addiction or have died as a consequence of it. I have buried two friends this year.

Addiction is a progressive illness. I started smoking cannabis when I was 18 or 19 at university.

I was abstinent in the army, but used alcohol in cross-addiction for about six years. I served in Iraq and was blown up in Basra. Post-Iraq, I worked in contract security and would use when I got back to the UK.

I’m 38. I got clean at 30 and go to 12-step fellowship meetings nearly every day.

I don’t believe for one moment that the current laws deter any addict from using, to assume they do makes the assumption that addicts have control and choice.

The views of the Home Office are out of touch and most probably based in ignorance of what addiction is. No-one I know chose to become an addict.

The fact the Home Office is responsible for drug policy, including treatment, is alarming and probably why the UK is blighted with addiction.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg accused the Conservatives of a “totally misplaced, outdated, backward-looking view”.

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Prime Minister David Cameron: “I don’t believe in decriminalising drugs that are illegal today”

While Mr Baker said: “We’ve had what I would call mindless rhetoric over the last 40 years which has tended to say there is only one solution and anyone who offers any alternative must by definition be ‘soft on drugs’.”

He said the Conservatives had suppressed publication of the report because of the “inconvenient truths” it contained.

But Tory MP Michael Ellis, a member of the Home Affairs Committee, said the Lib Dems had “hijacked” it for political gain.

“Their frankly pro-drugs policy is dangerous and irresponsible,” he added.

Mr Cameron said: “Under this government drug use is falling and I think that’s because we have followed an evidence-based approach.

“We have been focusing on education and prevention and treatment – that is the right approach to take.”

He said the report was “interesting”, but added: “It doesn’t draw specific conclusions.

“I don’t think anyone can read that report and say it definitely justifies this approach or that approach.”

The report said it would be “inappropriate” to compare the success of drug policies in different countries because data collection and many other factors differ between each one.

But it said “some observations can be made” and it was “not clear” decriminalisation has an impact on levels of drug use.

“Looking across different countries, there is no apparent correlation between the ‘toughness’ of a country’s approach and the prevalence of adult drug use,” it stated.

Nick Barton, of charity Action on Addiction, said: “Today’s report once again highlights the need for addiction to be treated as a health condition, rather than a criminal justice one.”

He said jailing drug users was “rarely a solution”.

Danny Kushlick, the founder of the group Transform, which has been campaigning for the legal regulation of drugs in the UK for almost 20 years, said the report was an important step.

“For the first time in over 40 years the Home Office has admitted that enforcing tough drug laws doesn’t necessarily reduce levels of drug use,” he said.

Contrasting approaches

The Home Office looked at methods used to control drug use in various countries

9 have sanctioned “drug consumption rooms”, including Canada, Denmark and Switzerland

8 are trialling the treatment of addicts with pure heroin rather than methadone, including Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK

4 have special “drug courts”, where people pleading guilty to drug offences can opt for treatment rather than prison, including the US

1 has set up “dissuasion commissions” – Portugal

Analysis

Danny Shaw, BBC home affairs correspondent

The divisions within the coalition could not be more sharply exposed.

The official Home Office position is that its drug strategy is working.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat minister with responsibility for drugs, says “radical” change is needed.

Mr Baker’s claims have been fuelled by his department’s own report, which finds no link between how tough a country is on drugs and how many people use them.

It’s an important finding, but the study also makes clear that drug policy is highly complex – approaches which may work abroad can’t necessarily be implanted into the UK.

Analysis

Matthew Price, Europe correspondent, BBC News

Back in the 1990s Portugal was struggling with a heroin epidemic of almost epic proportions. One person in every 100 was a heroin addict.

Not everyone agreed with the approach that was adopted to try and end the problem. In fact, many on the right wing of politics were appalled when prosecutions for people using drugs were ended.

They didn’t like the idea that addiction would be treated as a health issue, rather than a criminal one, that addicts would be given treatment and healthcare to help them overcome their addiction. Those voices have been silenced now.

Fifteen years later, and the number of people hooked on heroin has been halved, and there have been good results in terms of Aids infection, hepatitis infection and the like.

Back in the 1990s “we feared that Portugal could turn into a paradise for drug users”, says Dr Jaoa Goulao, Portugal’s national co-ordinator on drugs and drug addiction.

Thanks to the policy, that didn’t happen, he says.

A separate Home Office report has called for a blanket ban on all brain-altering drugs in a bid to tackle legal highs.

Currently, when a legal high is made illegal, manufacturers are avoiding the law by tweaking the chemical compound and creating a new substance.

The government will consider legislation introduced in Ireland four years ago that bans the sale of all “psychoactive” substances but exempts some, such as alcohol and tobacco.

For more on this story and video go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29824764