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News Release: No embargo

03.07.05

Drugs report from Prime Minister's Strategy Unit reveals Drugs War to be a costly and counterproductive failure

A report partially made available under the Freedom of Information Act and partially leaked to BBC Radio 4 and the Observer newspaper, produced by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, demonstrates that enforcement strategies to eliminate or reduce the trade in heroin and cocaine have failed to halt their production, supply and use. In a powerful and detailed critique, the report demonstrates that the war on drugs is actively counterproductive - causing many of the harms that it is intended to reduce.

The report, presented to cabinet in June 2003, is a detailed guided tour of the failure of supply side drug prohibition to achieve any of its stated goals, concluding:

“The drugs supply market is highly sophisticated, and attempts to intervene have not resulted in sustainable disruption to the market at any level.”

The report states that:

· The cost of crime committed to support an illegal cocaine and or heroin habit amounts to £16 billion a year in the UK (note: this is more than the entire annual Home Office budget).

· Drug production cannot be stopped in developing countries for deep-seated economic and social reasons.

. Trafficking cannot be significantly curtailed. Seizure rates of 60-80% would be required to have an impact and nothing greater than 20% has ever been achieved.

The report further shows that even if supply side interventions were more successful, the result could be increased crime and health harms - as rising drug prices could force addicts to commit more crime to support their habits, and falling drug purity would increase the risks associated with use.

Danny Kushlick , Transform's Director said:

“This report is a thorough indictment of a policy that enjoys broad international and domestic support but cannot withstand basic scrutiny. It demonstrates what drug law reformers have been saying for decades, that the war on drugs has failed and is often actively counterproductive. It stands in sharp distinction to the tough on drugs rhetoric generally expounded by the main political parties.”

“The report is of an exceptional quality, a product some of the best policy minds in the UK , providing a detailed economic and social analysis of the impact of supply side drug enforcement. The report demonstrates that prohibition has enriched organised crime and that the criminalisation of heroin and cocaine has fuelled property crime amongst dependent users. It demonstrates how UK and global support for drug prohibition, is actually creating or exacerbating many of the health and criminal justice problems the policy purports to be addressing.”

“The refusal of the Government to put the entire report into the public domain is only the most recent example of its unwillingness to allow public scrutiny of its commitment to global prohibition. Transform is calling upon the Government and all the major political parties to comment substantively on the implications of this analysis. Transform is also calling on the Government to deliver an evidence-based ‘Impact Assessment' of our continued commitment to global drugs prohibition, at the earliest opportunity. We urge the Government to begin a sincere consideration of alternative polices, including the legalisation and regulation of some or all currently illegal drugs - as recommended by the Home Affairs Select Committee Drug Policy Inquiry in 2002.*”

* “We recommend that the Government initiates a discussion within the [UN] Commission on Narcotic Drugs of alternative ways-including the possibility of legalisation and regulation-to tackle the global drugs dilemma (paragraph 267).” (more info on HASC)

The Strategy Unit drugs report online: http://www.strategy.gov.uk/work_areas/drugs/index.asp

The Observer article : Secret report says war on hard drugs has failed http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1520248,00.html

BBC online report: Policies fail to impact on drugs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4644595.stm

New 06.07.05: