Parliament > HASC > written submissions and oral evidence

Written submissions and oral evidence to the HASC inquiry

The submissions listed below (which can be read in full here) give a unique picture of differing views on the current state and future of UK drug policy from a range of organisations and individuals from across the drugs field. They represent a range of views from advocates of stronger enforcement, to calls for decriminalisation or legalisation and regulation of some or all drugs.

The evidence presented paint a picture of diverse but strongly held views, reflecting the active debate that is under way in the drugs fiel, and also revealing the difficult task the committee had in forming its conclusions and recommendations. The oral evidence sessions listed below offer further detail and discussion from witnesses on key points of interest for the committee.

1. Home Office
2. Action on Hepatitis C
3. Addaction – treatment agency
4. ADFAM – support for families of drug users
5. Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics
6. Association of Chief Police Officers
7. Burton Addiction Centre
8. Rupert Baillie and Adam Brett
9. Bradford Drugs and Alcohol Action Team
10. Mary Brett
11. Bristol Drug Action Team
12. Centre for Addiction Studies
13. Dr Stefano Cannizzaro -general practitioner who established and manages Torbay's Primary Care Addiction Service
14. Christian Institute
15. Church of England Board for Social Responsibility
16. Criminal Justice Association
17. HM Customs and Excise
18. Dance Drugs Alliance
19. Drug Education Forum
20. DrugScope – umbrella support body for UK drug agencies
21. East Riding and Hull Drug Action Teams
22. Edinburgh Drug Action Team
23. Ethnicity and Health Unit, University of Central Lancashire
24. Dr C S J Fazey, University of Liverpool – former UN drug agency employee
25. Dr Clare Gerada – Royal College of General Practice
26. Mary Glover
27. Greater London Authority
28. Green Party
29. G.W. Pharmaceuticals Plc – developing medical cannabis products
30. Health Development Agency
31. Neil Hunt, University of Kent
32. Independent Drug Monitoring Unit
33. Islington Drug and Alcohol Action Team
34. Lancashire Drug Action Team
35. Professor Helen L Leathard
36. Liberty – National Council for Civil Liberties
37. Life Education Centres
38. Local Government Association
39. London Borough of Camden
40. London Drug Policy Forum
41. Sir Keith Morris – former UK ambassador to Colombia, Transform supporter
42. National Children's Bureau
43. National Crime Squad
44. National Drug Prevention Alliance
45. National Schizophrenia Fellowship
46. National Treatment Agency
47. National Union of Teachers
48. Netherlands Drug Policy Foundation
49. Richard Parry
50. Positive Prevention Plus
51. Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs
52. Tony Ralls
53. Tim Rathbone
54. David Raynes – former customs, works with National Drug Prevention Alliance
55. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
56. Release – legal support and advice agency for drug cases
57. Mrs D Kay Roberts
58. Brian Rowland
59. Royal College of Physicians
60. Royal College of Psychiatrists
61. Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
62. Dr Karl Schmidt
63. Daniel Silverstone, The University of Portsmouth
64. Thames Valley Police
65. Mike Trace – former deputy drug tsar
66. Transform
67. Turning Point
68. United Kingdom Harm Reduction Alliance
69. David Warren
70. Francis Wilkinson – former Chief Constable of Gwent, Transform Patron
71. Andrew Winterbottom
72. Jasper Woodcock
73. Home Office – follow up to original submission on request from the committee.

In addition, the committee received the following submissions as appendices (read in full here):

1. Home Office (further evidence)
2. Home Office (further evidence)
3. British Medical Association
4. Baroness Greenfield
5. Barry Haslam
6. Detective Chief Inspector Chris Healey
7. Napo – National Association of Probation Officers
8. NHS Alliance
9. Commander Brian Paddick
10. Police Federation of England and Wales
11. Royal College of General Practitioners
12. Turning Point (further evidence)
13. Mary Brett
14. Dr H C Raabe and Dr Linda Stalley
15. Mrs Hope Humphreys
16. Parents and Addicts against Narcotics in the Community
17. Fulton Gillespie
18. The UK Youth Parliament
19. Dr Nicholas Dorn
20. British Medical Association (further evidence)
21. Director of Public Prosecutions
22. Lifeline Project Ltd
23. DrugScope (further evidence)

There were also a number of submissions not published in the report, but that are available in the House of Commons library:
LIST OF UNPRINTED MEMORANDA

HASC inquiry oral evidence sessions

Oral evidence was taken from a number of those who made written submissions, including Transform. This gave the committee the opportunity to question individuals on specifics from there written submissions. Witnesses were grouped together by broad areas of interest, civil servants, reformers, academics, law reform opponents and so on. Click on the dates to read the transcripts of these evidence sessions.

Tuesday 30 October 2001

SUE KILLEN , Director, Drug Strategy, Home Office
VIC HOGG , Head of Communities and Law Enforcement, Drugs Unit
ROSEMARY JENKINS , Acting Head of Drugs and Alcohol Misuse Branch, Department of Health
PAUL HAYES , Chief Executive, National Treatment Agency
KEITH H ELLAWELL , Expert Adviser to the Home Secretary on International Drug Issues and former UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator

Tuesday 6 November 2001

MR DANNY KUSHLIK , Chief Executive, Transform,
MR NICK DAVIES , Journalist
MR ROGER WARREN EVANS , The Angel Declaration
MR ALUN BUFFRY , National Co-ordinator for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance
and MR CONOR MC NICHOLAS , Editor, Muzik Magazine

Tuesday 20 November 2001

DEPUTY ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER ANDY HAYMAN , Metropolitan Police, Chair of ACPO Sub-Committee on Drugs CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT KEVIN MORRIS , President of the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales
M R JONATHON LEDGER , Chair of the Trade Union and Professional Association for Family Court and Probation Staff (Napo)
MR ROGER HOWARD , Chief Executive of DrugScope

Tuesday 27 November 2001

PROFESSOR GERRY STIMSON , Director, Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, Imperial College School of Medicine, and Chair, UK Harm Reduction Alliance
MATTHEW HICKMAN , Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, Imperial College School of Medicine
PROFESSOR JOHN H ENRY , Professor of Accident and Emergency Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine at St Mary's Hospital
PROFESSOR DAVID N UTT , Professor of Psychopharmacology, Dean of Clinical Medicine and Dentistry, Psychopharmacology Unit, University of Bristol.

Tuesday 11 December 2001

MIKE TRACE , Director of Performance, National Treatment Agency, Former Deputy UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator and current Chair of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction

Tuesday 18 December 2001

PROFESSOR JUERGEN REHM , Director and CEO, Addiction Research Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, and Senior Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada
DR GERRIT VAN SANTEN , Amsterdam Municipal Public Health Laboratory

Tuesday 15 January 2002

DR CLAIRE GERADA , Royal College of General Practitioners,
MRS CHRISTINE GLOVER , Royal Pharmaceutical Society Council Member and former President
DR ROB BARNETT , British Medical Association, and DR ANDY THOMPSON , NHS Alliance

Tuesday 22 January 2002

MR DAVID R AYNES , National Drug Prevention Alliance
MR FRED BROUGHTON OBE, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales
MRS MARY BRETT , biology teacher and Head of Health Education, Dr Challoner's Grammar School
BARONESS GREENFIELD CBE, Professor of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, and Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

Tuesday 12 February 2002

MR BOB AINSWORTH , a Member of the House, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Anti-drugs Co-ordination and Organised Crime, Home Office

Tuesday 12 March 2002

MS TINA WILLIAMS , Parents and Addicts Against Narcotics in the Community (PANIC)
MR HYWEL SIMS , Adfam
Mr FULTON GILLESPIE
M RS HOPE HUMPHREYS

Tuesday 19 March 2002

MR RALF LÖFSTEDT , Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden