SCOTTISH POLICE IN CALL TO LEGALISE ALL DRUGS

The Scottish Daily Mail
Thursday April 13 2006

(extracts taken from article)

POLICE officers are calling for all drugs to be legalised in Scotland.
In a hugely controversial move, an influential group of frontline officers is demanding a radical change in the law.
They say that even Class A drugs such as cocaine and heroin should no longer be illegal.
The call comes from rank and file police in the country’s biggest force who say radical measures are essential to tackle the spiralling drug problem.
Strathclyde Police Federation which represents nearly all 7,700 officers in the area, says all drugs should be licensed for use by addicts.
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The association says millions of pounds are wasted on futile efforts to tackle the issue, with resources diverted from other police duties.
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Inspector Jim Duffy chairman of the federation, said the approach to drug abuse must be transformed in order to cut the death toll.
He said:” We should legalise all drugs currently covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act – everything from class A to C, including heroin, cocaine and speed.
“We are not winning the war against drugs and we need to think about different ways to tackle it. Tell me a village where they are drug-free?”
He added: “Despite the amount of resources and the fantastic work our girls and guys do, we are not making a difference. We don’t have any control at the moment.
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Strathclyde Police Federation plans to table a discussion motion at the body’s forthcoming national conference to garner support from officers across Scotland.

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“So should hard drugs be legalised?
YES
Says Danny Kushlick

Drugs should be made legal and the change should be made now. For too long the Government has sat back and failed to admit its mistakes while illegal drugs are flooding the country.
The only ones to benefit are the dealers cashing in on those who take drugs.
There is increasingly clear evidence that the attempt to eliminate drugs is not only ineffective, but counter-productive. It has created an illegal market that fuels crime and violence from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to small-town Scotland.

Than criminal reach of dealers in this illicit trade extends from money laundering to political corruption, from civil wars to terrorism.

But these problems are not created by the drugs themselves. They are a direct result of prohibition – the international policy that creates this vast illegal market.
Just as it did in 1920s America, prohibition stimulates crime by turning lucrative markets over to gangsters. And prohibition no only creates crime but increases the dangers of drugs themselves.
The first laws to prohibit drugs such as opium and cocaine were passed less than a century ago. They were extended into international anti-drug treaties at t eh urging of prohibition-era America and into UK law under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. For a policy that aims to eliminate drug supply and use, it has failed in spectacular style. Over the past 40 years, illegal drug use has risen by at least 300 per cent.
Attempts to curtail drug supply have been equally ineffective, with drugs now cheaper and more available than ever.

Billions in taxpayers’ money are spent each year on a policy that achieves the exact opposite of its states aim. When high demand for drugs collides with laws that prohibit them, the result is a dramatic rise in drug prices.
The hugely lucrative opportunities that this creates attract the violent criminal entrepreneurs who now control the world’s largest criminal market, worth $300billion a year.
Inflated drug prices mean low income drug users often resort to property crime or prostitution to support their habits. The Government estimates this relatively small population of dependent heroin and cocaine users is now responsible for 54 per cent of robberies, 70-80 per cent of burglaries, 85 per cent of shoplifting and 95 per cent of street prostitution. And prohibition criminalises millions of otherwise law-abiding adults.
This makes it unparalled in its contribution to prison overcrowding and the wider crisis in the criminal justice system.

All drugs, whether legal or illegal, have their dangers. Minimising these dangers will always be a public health challenge. But by turning drug production and supply over to gangsters and dealers peddling dangerous substances of unknown strength and purity, prohibition increases thee risks and maximises harm.
The basic regulatory options are already in place for currently legal drugs. Different drugs will require different regulatory regimes. But we can learn from past successes and failures.
Drug policy is at a turning point, presenting a unique opportunity to plan for the transition from criminal anarchy to government regulation.
This is not a debate that invites fence-sitters and Strathclyde Police Federation has courageously climbed down”.