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03/07/03 In response to the Tory drug strategy Danny Kushlick said: "The strategy has completely missed the point. Treatment is not the issue. The major problem for drug misusers, be they young or old, is prohibition. A strategy that continues to operate within the confines of the failed policy of prohibition is doomed to repeat the same mistakes as every other so-called 'new' policy." "This strategy puts forward nothing to tackle the underlying causes of misuse - which are mainly poverty and lack of opportunity. Added to this, only a small proportion of problematic users want to give up at any one time. We need a policy that addresses the majority who continue to use despite the treatment opportunities on offer." "Cost
is not the issue here either. The Home Office's own research shows that
the current prohibition based policy costs somewhere between £10
and £17 billion a year. The money is there if only it were spent
on the right services. The vast majority of government expenditure currently
goes on enforcement. And despite the rhetoric, all the evidence shows
that we cannot reduce supply one iota. Street prices continue to fall
and purity increases. Unfortunately both Tories and Labour are too cowardly
too admit that the drug war was lost a long time ago and that we need
to rethink our policy from the ground up. Only a government controlled
drugs market will enable us to begin to tackle the root causes of drug
misuse." |
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