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Policy >Transform Briefings
Click on the following links for more details and to read a selection of our briefings:
General
Submission to ‘Drugs: Our Community, Your Say' (Drug Strategy Consultation Paper 2007)
Transform's submission to the government's 2007 drug strategy consultation.
Drug policy 1997-2007 - The evidence un-spun: Overwhelming Failure
This Transform briefing takes a look and the governments drug policy record between 1997-2007. It analyses and deconstructs government claims of success and takes a look at how many of the government's own targets have been acheived.
'Attitudes to Drug Policy and Drug Laws: A review of the international evidence' (2004)
by Dr Russell Newcombe (published on the Transform website with permission)
This unique meta-analysis is the most comprehensive research yet undertaken on the subject, produced by Dr Russell Newcombe, who has been diligently compiling a huge range of studies from the past 15 years.
Piperazines – how to regulate an emerging recreational drug not covered by existing legislation
Transform takes a look at this new 'family' of drugs (commonly sold under the brand name 'p.e.p pills') that has emerged on the market in the last few years. This briefing examines the options available for controlling them with a focus on the experience in New Zealand where the drug has been classified in a new 'class D' category of drugs which can be sold legally under various licensing conditions.
Drug Classification
Transform's submission to the 2006 Science and Technology Select Committee Inquiry ‘Scientific Advice, Risk and Evidence: How Government Handles Them', using the drug classification system as a case study.
Clause 2 of the Drugs Act - an example of how to make bad policy
Transform's submission to the Home Office consultation of clause 2 of the Drugs Act 2005. This clause focuses on threshold amounts and amends Section 5 to create a presumption of intent to supply where the defendant is found to be in possession of a particular amount of controlled drugs, reversing the burden of proof so that the onus is on the defendants to establish they are not dealers.
The Drugs Bill
The Drugs Bill has been passed and is now an Act. This is Transform's detailed clause by clause critique, submitted to the Home Office and Government before the Bill was passed into law.
Number 10 Strategy Unit Drugs Project: Phase 1 Report: “ Understanding the Issues”
A summary briefing on the 2005 drugs report from number 10 Downing Street, including the leaked sections of the report.
The Number 10 Strategy Unit drugs report, phase 2 -"The Birt report"- summary and briefing
For more detail see the first phase above.
Cannabis reclassification revisted
As the Advisory council prepares to look acgain at cannabis reclassification, at the request of the Home Secretary, TDPF has made its consultation briefing available here.
Cannabis reclassification
Examines the political and policing issues around the decision to reclassify cannabis as a Class C drug at the end of January 2004.
Submission to the Home Office Ketamine consultation 2005
Argues that bringing ketamine within the Misuse of drugs Act as a Class C drug would increase health and social disorder related harms
The Magic Roundabout...How to deal with psylocybe mushrooms
Examines the problems with current legislation around 'magic' mushrooms and considers pragmatic ways forward
After the War on Drugs - Options for Control
Transform's major report examining the key themes in the drug policy reform debate, detailing how legal regulation of drug markets would operate, and providing a roadmap and time line for reform. Launched October 2004, last updated February 2006. Downloadable in pdf format (1.3megs)
Why do people take drugs?
Considers motivations for drug use and how are evolving understanding of these motivations can inform the development of effective drug policy
Legalisation: the first hundred years - what happened when drugs were legal and why they were prohibited
Examines the history of prohibition in the 20th century and the lessons for contemporary policy makers
From Soft drink to Hard Drug; A Snapshop History of Coca, Cocaine and Crack
by Mike Jay (Transform's Chair of Trustees)
Drug use and civil rights
Considers the civil rights questions raised by drug prohibition, arguing for a new alternative legal framework.
Effective Drug Policy: Why Journey's End is Legalisation
Explores the dilema faced by supporters of harm reduction and incremental policy change within the framework of prohibition, arguing that legal regulation of drug supply is a neccassary long term goal.
'Options for control: drug supply' seminar briefing (Feb 2004)
Considers the options for legal control of drug productiona and supply (seminar discussion paper).
'Options for control: managing demand' seminar briefing (May 2004)
Considers the political issues and implications for managing demand of moves towards legally regulated drug markets (seminar discussion paper).
Mindsets
Transform briefing comparing the current policy situation with a reform position in terms of morals, health, effectiveness, human rights and producer countries. In tabular format.
Crime
Drugs and crime - the link is prohibition
An introductory briefing exploring the links between prohibition and the creation of crime, and the possibilities for significant reductions in crime at all scales through law reform and regulated drug markets was produced by Transform for a Turning Point conference on drugs and crime (the content reflecting the target audience in the drug treatment community).
Economics
What is the true cost of drug law enforcement? Why we need an audit
The UK is in the middle of a drug policy crisis. Whilst the debate on drug policy issues has developed, there is a dearth of evidence on which to base a true assessment of what works and more crucially, what does not. Transform Drug Policy Foundation is calling on the Government to instigate an audit of the effectiveness of enforcing the drug laws in order to expose expenditure to comprehensive scrutiny and to help in the process of defining success and failure. This briefing outlines the need for such an audit.
Health
Why this...but not this?
Uses a quote from Tony Blair (on alcohol harm reduction) to illustrate the dissonance between the way Government deals with legal and illegal drugs
International
United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna April 2003.
There is a crisis in international drug policy that has emerged from the failure of current UN-led initiatives to reduce global drug production and consumption. The collision of rising drug demand with prohibitionist policies has led to a range of unintended negative consequences that include the creation of crime, the undermining of harm reduction initiatives, human rights violations and environmental damage. This briefing, prepared for the UK delegates to the UN drug summit, examines the impact of current UN policy and makes recommendations for how the UK should tackle the growing crisis. This briefing was also submitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee, and an edited version was published in Statewatch magazine.
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