Links to Key Reports on drug policy reform. Click below for more detail and to read the reports:
Reports on UK Drug Policy
UKDPC: An Analysis of UK Drug Policy (2007)
A detailed and authoritative review, independently commissioned from policy experts Peter Reuter and Alex Stevens, which presents the most up to date available data in an objective and readable format. A useful resource informing the debate over the future of policy (whilst not making specific policy recommendations).
It arrives during a particularly important window of opportunity as the UK's 10-year drug strategy ends and the process of designing a new - hopefully improved - one gets underway.
Download the reprot from the UKDPC website
Pathways to Problems (2006)
This report published by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs takes a comprehensive look at the use of psychoactive drugs - including tobacco and alcohol - by young people in the UK today. It looks at the reason why people use drugs, where people get them from and whether hazardous usage can be prevented.
Read the full report
RSA commission on Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy (2007)
The report suggests that the current policy is based on ‘moral panic’, suggests that most drug use is relatively harmless, that tobacco and alcohol should be included in the drug policy making process and that prohibition cannot stop people using drugs – they are here to stay.
Transform submitted a range of information to the committee for consideration.
Read the report here.
Strategy Unit report (2003)
In June 2003 the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit produced a detailed economic and social analysis of international and domestic drug policy that showed that supply-side enforcement interventions are actively counterproductive.
Phase 1 of the report was partially published in July 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act. The timing of the publication caused controversy as it was released only few hours before the Live 8 concerts were due to take place and it was suggested by some people that this was cynical attempt to 'bury' the report in other news. The full report was leaked a few days later and was the lead story in The Guardian.
Read Transform's briefing / summary on Phase 1
Phase 2 of the report was leaked in March 2006.
Read Transform's briefing / summary on Phase 2
Home Affairs Select Committee, Third Report: THE GOVERNMENT'S DRUGS POLICY: IS IT WORKING? (2002)
Chairman: Mr Chris Mullin MP
The HASC report is the most high level and significant critique of current policy to emerge in recent years. It is also the first detailed parliamentary consideration of decriminalisation and legalisation since the 1971 misuse of drugs act entered the statute books. The range of expert witness evidence taken and the scope and detail of the report and is unprecedented. One of the final recommendations was "that the Government initiates a discussion within the Commission on narcotic drugs of alternative ways - including the possibility of legalsiation and regulation - to Tacklethe global drugs dilemma."
Read the report here
For further information and analysis see the Transform website HASC page
Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse Of Drugs Act 1971 Police Foundation (2000).
Chairman: Viscountess Runciman DBE
The Police Foundation is a independent charitable organisation (no to be confused with the Police Federation) which reports on issues of police concern. This inquiry was set up in August 1997 to review the effectiveness of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It made a detailed analysis of current policy failings and made recommendations for a number rational reforms, including the reclassification of cannabis, ecstasy and LSD, and a focus of spending on health rather than punitive enforcement. It did not examine the possibility of decriminalisation or legalisation in any detail.
Read the report here
Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice: Making sense of Drugs and Crime (c.2003)
This report goes beyond an analysis of the 'drug problem' to indicate how a harm reducing and more principled and effective penal policy on drugs, alcohol and crime could be developed.
Download it here in pdf or word format. (It is located towards the bottom of the page).
Drugs Policy – a radical look ahead?
This paper, written by Richard Brunstrom
(Chief Constable, North Wales Police), was prepared for the North Wales Police Authority
to consider as a response to the HM Government Consultation
Paper, ‘Drugs: our community, your say’, and the forthcoming
Welsh Assembly Government onsultation on the All Wales
Substance Misuse Strategy. It is highly critial of current UK drug policy and calls for a pragmatic approach to drugs "driven by ethics not
dogma".
Download the report here
From War to Work: Drug Treatment, Social Inclusion and Enterprise (2002)
Published by: the Foreign Policy Centre
Written by: Rowena Young. (then Development Director at Kaleidoscope, currently Chief Executive of the School for Social Entrepreneurs.)
“This report looks at how methods of dealing with drugs in South-East Asia can teach us lessons in the "war on drugs" in this country, and suggests training and enterprise as an alternative to the simple treatment model. And how this technique can be used to address the structural issues – unemployment, social exclusion, isolation – that lie behind drug dependency.”
Read a pdf. version of the report here
Drug Classification
Drug classification: making a hash of it? (2006)
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee produced this report as one of three case studies looking at the Government's handling of scientific advice, risk and evidence in policy making. It addresses the relationship between scientific advice and evidence and the classification of illegal drugs. The report concluded that the current ABC classification system was not fit for purpose and found a number of serious flaws in the way in which the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) carried out its business.
Transform submitted both oral and written evidence to the committee, which was included in the final report.
Read the full report (PDF Format)
Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse (Lancet 2007)
This paper has very usefully put legal and illegal drugs on the same harm continuum, and in doing so exposing the contradictions, lack of logic, and false assumption that underpin much drug policy thinking here and around the world.
Read the report here
Evidence Based Cost Effectiveness
New: 01.02.08
Home Office / Treasury - Stocktake of Anti-Drugs Interventions and Cost-Effectiveness (2001)
"This paper meets the request in the review Terms of Reference for a stocktake of existing anti-drugs expenditures and the functions and activities funded by these"
This 35 page report has recently been released following a Freedom of Information request from Transform. It reviews in detail the outcomes for each respective element of the 1998 ten year drug strategy up to 2003 and their Comprehensive Spending Review targets in relation to money spent. FOI requests by Transform for a number of more contemporary cost effectiveness reviews and value for money studies were refused (during 2007) despite the crucial importance of such cost-effectiveness studies to the - now closed- strategy review process.
It is in four parts (scanned pdf documents - 1 meg each)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
National Audit Office - Customs & Excise (1998).
The NAO produced a report entitled "HM Customs & Excise: The Prevention of Drug Smuggling"
To view a press release on this click here.
The document is not available as a pdf, however you can purchase the document, details follow:
Publication date: 15/07/1998
HC 854 1997-1998
ISBN: 0102996989
Purchase paper copy from The Stationery Office (£8.15)
National Audit Office - Drug Treatment & Testing Orders (2004)
The NAO produced a document entitled "The Drug Treatment & Testing Order: early lessons."
To read the full document click here (pdf).
National Audit Office - "Modern Policy Making" (2001)
The NAO's report "Modern Policy-Making: Ensuring Policies Deliver Value for Money" identifies good practice in policy design and implementation by drawing on selected case studies and examples of good practice from departments, local authorities, the private and voluntary sectors.
Read the report here.
'What we don't know keeps hurting us' : Informing America's policy on Illegal Drugs (2001) (America)
By: Committee on Data and Research for Policy on Illegal Drugs, and this briefing was originally for members of Congress and congressional staff only.
"The absence of evidence came to be the focal concern of the committee, as we gradually concluded that the nation possesses little information about the effectiveness of current drug policy, especially of drug law enforcement. Viewing the unending public debate about drug policy, the committee became painfully aware that what we don’t know keeps hurting us. It troubles the committee that we are not able to offer the nation a
conclusive or even suggestive basis for choosing among alternative portfolios of prevention, treatment, and enforcement. Some, believing that present knowledge does support one policy or another, may find this report unpalatable. We hope that Americans will take the report as a call to action to initiate data collection and research that will enable more informed policy making in the years ahead".
Source: free executive summary: http://newton.nap.edu/execsumm_pdf/10021.pdf
Legalisation, Regulation and Control
'After the War on Drugs - Options for Control' (UPDATED 29.03.06)
A major report by Transform examining the key themes in the drug policy reform debate, detailing how legal regulation of drug markets will operate, and providing a roadmap for reform.
Read complete report here(pdf)
A Public Health Approach to Drug Control (2005)
By: British Colombia Health Officers Council
This report was produced by an independent group of public health officials in British Colombia and is a detailed consideration of regulatory options for currently illegal drugs. Thoughtful, detailed and logical analysis.
http://www.keepingthedooropen.com/files/hoc_public_health_approach_to_drug_control.pdf
Effective Drug Control:Toward A New Legal Framework' (2005)
By: The King County Bar Association
This report comes from the drug policy project of the Kings County (Seattle) Bar Association. They have produced an excellent report discussing the same issues from a slightly different perspective. Again this is a detailed and comprehensive review of regulatory options and wider policy considerations (Transform's work is referenced). They have produced a number of other useful drug law policy reports.
http://www.kcba.org/ScriptContent/KCBA/druglaw/pdf/EffectiveDrugControl.pdf
Thinking Seriously About Alternatives to Drug Prohibition
Essay by Ethan Nadelmann looking looking at frameworks for legalistion.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/thinking_seriously_p2.cfm
Critique of Prohibition
Domestic Drug Markets and Prohibition (2006) (Australia)
By: Andrew Macintosh, Deputy Director of the Australia Institute. He gave this paper to Parliament House, Canberra on 3 July 2006.
In it he discusses recent trends in domestic drug markets and what they say about the effectiveness of current drug policies. To do this, he uses three illicit drugs: cannabis, heroin and methamphetamines. He concludes:
"The recent trends in the cannabis, heroin and methamphetamine markets vividly demonstrate the weaknesses in prohibition and the need for reform. Clearly neither demand-side nor supply-side drug law enforcement are an effective way of addressing drug problems....The key however is to redress the imbalance. The majority of resources should not go to drug law enforcement when we know we can get better results from investing in treatment and prevention. Further, drug laws should not be allowed to obstruct harm minimisation initiatives.... The other crucial issue is to ease the punitive pressure on drug users. For mine, the first step in this endeavour should be to adopt a Dutch-style approach, where drug use remains outlawed but police are instructed not to arrest and prosecute users".
For the rest of the paper visit here.
Harm Reduction
Preventing Harm from Psychoactive Substances (2005)
By: The city of Vancouver
This report, the drugs prevention strategy for the city of Vancouver, Canada, also contains calls for regulated drug markets based around a public health model of drug control. Not as detailed as the above on regulatory options but significant in that it is an official municipal drug strategy. It also cites the Transform report. Well worth a look, particularly for those working in Uk local government drug policy.
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/fourpillars/pdf/PrevHarmPsychoSubUse.pdf
The government produced a document entitled "Harm Reduction: Tackling drug use and HIV in the developing world" in 2005.
To read this click here (pdf).
Misc
Overview of comparative legal research into national drug laws of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden and their relation to three international drugs conventions.
Read a pdf. version of the report here
Huge collection of major studies of drugs and drug policy from around the world.
Drugpolicy.org features one of the largest online collections of journal articles, reports, books, testimonies and fact sheets that focus on drugs and drug policy from economic, criminal justice, and public health perspectives.
