Policy > Published Articles > Interview with Transform Director

Police Review, August 2001
Interview with Transform Director Danny Kushlick

You are the director of an organisation called Transform - can you tell us a
little bit about this organisation?

Transform is the UK's leading campaign for the legalisation, control and regulation of all drugs. We believe that prohibition is one the greatest social policy disasters of the last thirty years and that, while legalisation is not a cure-all, it will return the drug misuse remit fundamentally to the health and social agenda and leave criminal justice workers to get on with more appropriate activities.

How and why did you become involved in Transform?

In the early 90's I was working as drugs counsellor in prisons and with people on probation. It became very clear to me that all my clients were poor, had been abused, been in care and usually had at least one drug dependent parent. It was these factors that needed to be dealt with and their drug use was a symptom, not a cause. The criminal justice system is not an appropriate arena in which to deal with these issues.

What do you believe would be an effective drugs policy for the UK?

An effective drug policy would: reduce drug-related crime, reduce drug-related harm, increase community safety, safeguard human rights, control and regulate the drugs trade, enable the trade to be taxed, encourage community inclusion in drug policy formation and facilitate best practice in drugs education.

If cannabis was decriminalised, do you believe this would open the
floodgates for other harder drugs to be decriminalised?

Firstly, what is a hard drug? Are tobacco, tranquillisers and alcohol hard or soft? If a dangerous drug is being used by hundreds of thousands of people, the only way of reducing the associated harms is to manage its production, supply and use through legal methods. This is about intelligently examining what works and what doesn't work in drug policy.

Police in Lambeth have recently begun a pilot where Cannabis use will be
viewed more tolerantly by local officers. Are you surprised by this approach
and do you support it?

The policy will do nothing to reduce crime even if officers focus on Class A dealers instead. Home Office research shows that dealing is so lucrative that dealers who are busted are replaced within days and that the property crime associated with fundraising to support a habit continues regardless. We are not surprised that some senior officers are increasingly disenchanted with enforcing the law as it stands but we would prefer to see an outright call for legalisation.

If you had five minutes with Tony Blair to discuss drug laws in the UK, what
would you say to him?

When Mr Blair talks about drugs, he invariably tells us how terrified he is for his children. I would ask him whether his concern extends to the children whose mothers are on the game to support a habit, the children orphaned by parents who died as a result of using contaminated street gear, the child labourers involved in drug production in Colombia?

How do you relax?

With great difficulty, I'm a high energy person. However, I'm studying the Alexander Technique which helps to reduce extraneous tension. It's the study of thinking in relation to movement.

Are there any questions you wished we had asked you?

"Would you please write a regular column for Police Review for £500 per issue?"