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New research shows public bear the brunt of drug policy failure(and 108 MEPs agree)

20/12/02

The recently published research from York University [1] (commissioned by the Home Office) shows that it is victims of crime that make up the bulk of the economic and social costs of Class A drug use.

Of the estimated £10.1 billion to £17.4 billion attributed to the costs of Class A drug use in the UK, 70% (between £6.8 billion and £12.3 billion) is paid by victims of crime.

At the same time 108 MEPs have signed a petition calling for the legal regulation and control of prohibited drugs. [2]

Danny Kushlick, Director of TDPI said: “This is the first time that evidence has been collected to back up what many have been saying for years - that the UK drug strategy creates a lot of crime and that the public pick up the tab. The Government spends between £2 billion and £3 billion a year on reactive criminal justice expenditure on drugs. The public, meanwhile, spend between 3 and four times as much again on the corollary damage produced.”

He concluded: “108 MEPs from all round the EU have called on the UN to make changes to its drug conventions in recognition of the negative consequences of blanket prohibition. It is to be hoped that the UK Government takes note of the York data and the call from MEPs and will now begin research into why such high levels of property crime are committed by Class A users. It is also hoped that the Government follows the advice of this year’s Home Affairs Select Committee report into UK drug policy and raises these concerns at UN level. [3]”
ENDS

Notes for editors

[1]
Home Office Research Study 249
The economic and social costs of Class A drug use in England and Wales, 2000
Christine Godfrey, Gail Eaton, Cynthia McDougall and Anthony Culyer
University of York

Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate
July 2002
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors249.pdf

[2]
DRUGS: 108 MEPs ASK FOR LEGAL CONTROL

Bruxelles, 18 December 2002

108 MEPs from 7 Political groups and 13 Member States - among whom 2 EP
Vice-Presidents and 6 EP Committee Presidents - have tabled today a draft
recommendation to ask for the Reform of the UN Conventions on Drugs. The
collection of signature among citizens is starting.

CAPPATO:"THE RADICAL ANTIPROHIBITIONIST CAMPAIGN IN VIEW OF THE MEETING OF
THE UN ON APRIL 2003 IN VIENNA START"
Declaration by Marco CAPPATO, Radical MEP of the Lista Bonino,
"Parliamentarians for Antiprohibitionist Action" co-ordinator promoter of
the initiative:

"The 108 MEPs have denounced that prohibitionism is the cause of harm
because it is an obstacle to prevention, only leads to blind repression and
causes rising profits to organised crime. The positive results offered by
decriminalisation policies and medical heroin prescription programmes are
underlined in the recommendation signed by the 108 MEPs. The text of the
recommendation, as a petition, can be signed by citizens at the
webpage http://www.radicalparty.org/lia_paa_appeal/ ."

Proposal for a recommendation to the Council on the reform of the UN
Conventions on drugs:

The European Parliament (...)

1. Maintains that the drug prohibition policy stemming from the UN
Conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988 is the actual cause of the increasing
damage which the production, trafficking, sale and consumption of illegal
substances inflict on entire sections of society, the economy as well as
public institutions, thus undermining health, freedom and individuals'
lives,

2. Urges the Council and the Member States to consider the positive results
obtained through the implementation of policies in several countries, which
involve harm and risk reduction (in particular through the administration
of substitute substances), the decriminalisation of the consumption of
certain substances, the partial decriminalisation of the sale of cannabis
and its derivatives, and the medically controlled distribution of heroin,

3. Calls on the Council and the Member States to take action in order to
make the fight against organized crime and drugs trafficking more
effective, establishing a system for the legal control and regulation of
the production, sale and consumption of substances which are currently
illegal;

4. Calls on the Council and the Member States to initiate a process of
revision of the UN Conventions on the occasion of the April 2003 Vienna
mid-term review conference on UN drugs policies, in order to repeal or
amend the 1961 and 1971 Conventions, with the aim of re-classifying
substances and providing for other uses of drugs than only for medical and
scientific purposes to be legal, and to repeal the 1988 Convention."
------------------------------------

[3]
Third Report from the Home Affairs Committee, Session 2001-2002, HC 318
(paragraph 267) “We recommend that the Government initiates a discussion within the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of alternative ways – including the possibility of legalisation and regulation – to tackle the global drugs dilemma.”