“Transform presents the most clear-headed, rational approach to the issue of drugs.  It cuts through the fear and prejudice by using evidence-based arguments. ”

-- Mary Ann Sieghart, Assistant Editor, The Times

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Transform: Spreading the word

• Events - Release conference, All party group on drug misuse
• Upcoming Events - Drugscope national conference, Law in Action

3. UK News

• Alcohol
• Wesminster Hall debate of drug classification
• Heroin prescription
• Drug strategy consultation
• Profile of new ministers re. drug reform
• Tobacco regulation
• Obituary - Rufus Harris
• NGO profile - PALAD

4. International News

• UNODC publications and world anti drugs day
• Canada: "Put gangs out of business: Legalise drugs"
• Europe: MEPS show their progressive colours
• Andes: new documents consider licit and illicit coca production
• Some surprising countries consider cannabis law reform
• USA: mayors speak out against the drug war
• USA: Lawmakers urge for removal of tobacco ads from women's magazines

5. What you can do

• Donate
• Internet activity
• Volunteer

1. Introduction

June has been an eventful month in the UK; with the handover of the reigns from Tony to Gordon things may well change. Gordon promises a radical change in policy but the only things he has suggested have been anything but. We have some optimism that dialogue will change from moral-panic driven posturing to a more rational, economic analysis of the costs and benefits of different approaches, but there remains an uneasy feeling that the next drug strategy will look very much like the last one. As always, Transform will be leading the call for a substantive debate on the legal regulation of drugs, as an alternative to prohibition and chaotic illegal markets. Will Brown be listening? Perhaps, it would be hard to imagine a government less engaged than Blair's. When things are that bad, they can indeed, only get better.

This month also saw some potentially significant moves on tobacco and alcohol policy, strongly supported by Transform; we hope to see more and better regulation of already legal drugs soon, a ban on all alcohol sponsorship of sports would be a good starting point. For too long industry business interests have been put before public health. It's a depressing reality that government just can't seem to get it right on any drug policy, legal or illegal. Still, at least things are moving in the right direction regards alcohol and tobacco. A good thing too. Only when legal drugs are regulated properly can we expect the arguments for legally regulating currently illegal drugs to gain more traction.

2. Transform - Spreading the word

Release conference

Transform attended the recent Release conference in London. One of the more reform oriented of the annual drug conference calendar this proved to be as informative and stimulating as ever, all the more so because the event celebrated Releases 40th anniversary at the forefront of the drugs field. Along with speakers from Release, past and present, the line up of distinguished speakers included the columnist Simon Jenkins, speaking passionately about the need for drug law reform and Simon Hughes MP speaking about some of the more troubling developments in criminal justice enforcement and drug policy over the past decade. Drink and Drug news provide a useful summary of the event here. Transform had an exhibitors stall at the event and also asked several questions from the floor. Steve asked Simon Hughes where the Lib Dems were going with their drug policy. It was developed in 2002 (with some input from Transform) and is in many respects very forward looking, acknowledging the failure of the current punitive approach and rationally considering many progressive policy developments, including an audit of the effectiveness of enforcement expenditure, de-penalising personal use of drugs, and legalising and regulating cannabis. Hughes acknowledged that the party had been reluctant to campaign on the policy for political reasons, but hinted that this situation might change soon, as the party were keen to distinguish themselves from Labour and the Conservatives on key issues such as this, and also reinforce their liberal credentials. We will have to wait and see….

All party group on drug misuse

Danny attended the APG on Drug Misuse to hear Susie Harries and Steve Rossell from the RSA Commission on illegal drugs.  Susie and Steve spoke and then took questions from a mix of parliamentarians and NGO representatives.  Danny and David Cobbold both asked why the Commission had not gone further in calling for legalisation and regulation. It became very clear that there had been a split in the Commission and that a compromise had been reached.  A similar story to other major commissions of the past decade. A shame really, as until they have the courage to cross the imagined line in the sand, commissions such as this will all basically be saying the same thing: Prohibition doesn't work very well, so we recommend, er, prohibition with a bit of harm reduction thrown in to minimise the harm caused by prohibition.

RSA event

Danny attended an event organised by the RSA on stigma and social exclusion.

Danny will talk at the Drugscope National Conference on the 13th July

This gathering of drug professionals are looking for inspiration for the future of their field. Danny will present Transform's position in the debate and urge others to get involved in the roadmap for regulation

Radio discussion - Law in Action – BBC Radio 4

Transform will take part in an upcoming analysis and debate on the Misuse of Drugs Act. The date is not yet confirmed but will be some time this month. Check the website for details and an announcement.

3. UK News

Alcohol

The regulation of alcohol has been in the news this month with the unveiling of the government's new Alcohol Strategy . This has been coupled with the removal of alcohol advertising from children's replica sports kits. Progress of sorts, Transform has commented on why this isn't enough , and the Alcohol Strategy shortcomings .

Wesminister Hall Debate of drug classification

The follow up debate to the Select Committee on Science and Technology paper titled “ Drug Classification: Making a Hash of it? ” took place in Westminister Hall. Steve attended it on behalf of Transform and provides an account on the Transform blog . He was concerned with the lack of real debate surrounding the findings in the report produced by the Committee – namely that the A,B,C drug classification system is unscientific, outdated, riddled with anomalies and 'not fit for purpose'.

Heroin Prescription

The prescription of heroin was yet again in the news, being reported as if it was a completely radical idea. It was again reported as call to ‘legalise heroin', despite the fact that heroin is already a legal drug to prescribe and has been prescribed to addicts for decades here (albeit to very restricted numbers) and around the world. So the call should be clarified as a expansion of an existing legal framework. The chief police constable of Tayside, John Vine, joins a large number of advocates for an increase in prescription of heroin to long term chaotic users who have failed on other programmes. He believes this will reduce the £13-16 billion in offending committed by a relatively small population of dependent users, raising money to support their illicit habit. We welcome debate on this topic, and look forward to some action being taken by the new Brown administration.

Blog discussion on heroin prescribing

Drug strategy consultation

The consultation on the new strategy document was expected earlier in June but looks to have been delayed until later in July for undisclosed reasons, although we can speculate that it may have something to do with the new premier. Transform will be producing a guide on how to make submissions to such consultations and will be making our submission publicly available as soon as possible.

Profile of new ministers re: drug law

As a new set of ministers take control of government we investigate their voting history to identify their stance on drugs.

• Gordon Brown

He has never voted on drugs bills , and is keeping his cards close to his chest. Read Martin Barnes investigation in the DrugScope blog. However, it seems from a comment in the New Statesman, that Gordon Brown is against drug legalisation.

• Jacqui Smith - Home Secretary

Jacqui Smith, the newly appointed Home Secretary, has remained relatively quiet on drug policy, making an appearance only twice in a possible five house rulings . Because of this it is hard to predict where she personally stands on the matter.

She voted in support of the current crime reduction, education, prevention, treatment and policy. This seemed a party stand rather than a personal stand as not one of the 80.5% Labour voters voted against, whilst all 82.8% of Tory voted nay.

She was absent from the approval of the Drugs (Sentencing and Commission of Inquiry) Bill . This would investigate whether the reclassification of cannabis to Class C should be revoked. This bill also included the creation of a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years' imprisonment for anyone convicted for a third time of supplying Class A drugs.

She was absent from the bill to allow cannabis resin to be used medicinally, and from the bill that changed cannabis from Class B to Class C.

• Vernon Coaker – under-Secretary of State

Mr Coaker remains in his position at the Home Office. There is no evidence to suggest that he will stop presenting failures as success, even in the face of increasing pressure and evidence from a number of independent organisations. Transform has critiqued some of his public pronouncements here.

• Alan Johnson – Health Secretary

Mr Johnson voted similarly to Mrs Smith, but also voted for the reclassification of cannabis from Class B to Class C.

Regarding smoking:

• he voted as a rebel, wanting private clubs to be exempt from the smoking ban.
• He voted as a rebel, wanting no exemption for “circumstances where the ‘ appropriate national authority' (eg local government) could create regulated exceptions to the smoke-free law for ‘any premises where a person has his home, or is living whether permanently or temporarily (including hotels, care homes, and prisons and other places where a person may be detained)'”.

This is confusing to say the least, offering no conclusive evidence on where he stands with regards to regulation.

•   John Mann – Chair of the Drugs Manifesto Group

Author of “ The Real Deal: Drugs policy that works ”, a Fabian production, Mann is keen to reform drug classification, and also to reduce drug related crime through coerced treatment. He wishes to include alcohol and tobacco within the ABC classification system and move some of the drugs into other categories.

• Gerry Sutcliffe – Licensing Minister

Responsible for licensing, sport, gambling and the national lottery, as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and will report to James Purnell.

Interestingly, prior to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Sutcliffe was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Criminal Justice & Offender Management at the Ministry of Justice. Even more interestingly he used to be National Pubwatch's president . National Pubwatch is funded by a number of companies in the alcohol industry.

Tobacco Regulation

As the ban on smoking in public spaces becomes law there is also an announcement, apparently less controversial, that the legal age of tobacco purchase will rise from 16 to 18 in October.

Obituary

Rufus Harris , 1946-2007, co-founder of Release. (In the Independent).

NGO profile

Parents Against Lethal Addictive Drugs

Originating as an informal group of parents, PALAD have become a national voluntary organisation. They call for a rational, evidence-based approach to drugs policy, recommending the regulation of all drugs.

They are concerned that the education their children receive is confusing, with legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco being presented as a healthier choice than illegal drugs, even though in many cases this is not true.

The PALAD website is a veritable treasure trove of information and analysis with a lot of in depth legal analysis and argument that you will not find anywhere else. Highly recommended.

PALAD believe “a fair and rational drugs policy would”:

•  INTEGRATE illegal and legal drug policies since all drug use may cause harm.

•  DISCRIMINATE instead between reasonably safe use, use harmful to user and use harmful to others.

•  TOLERATE reasonably safe use.

•  EDUCATE against harm to users.

•  LEGISLATE only against harm to others.

•  ELIMINATE unjustifiable barriers to fair trade. “

4. International News

UNODC publications, and world anti drugs day

The annual UNODC celebration of failure took place again this month. As usual it was systematically ignored by the British media who, we suspect, saw it for the spin and fluff that it is.

International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

Some useful critiques however did emerge, notably from the Trans National Institute:

Transnational Institution criticise the ‘success' cited in the UNODC World Drug Report

Transform also released a critical press release which you can read here

One of the points we flagged up was the ongoing scandal of China's mass execution of drug offenders on World Anti-Drugs day, and the continuing silence on this issue from the UN drug agencies. The Harm Reduction Coalition has organised an emailing campaign to protest about China's brutality

This month also saw the release of the UNODC annual report, and the world drugs report that as ever struggles to dress up its catastrophic failure of the UN drug strategy as success.

UNODC 2007 annual report

UNODC world drugs report

Canada: ‘Put Gangs out of business: Legalise drugs'

An op-ed from Canada making the point that the really tough approach to drug dealers would be to take the market away from the altogether.

Europe: MEPS show their progressive colours

1 in 5 MEPs support decriminalisation of cannabis

Andes: new documents consider licit and illicit coca production

“ ONDCP's announcement indicates that the Morales administration's policy of limited coca production for licit uses, in conjunction with cooperative coca reduction, may be delivering better results than forced eradication in containing coca production in Bolivia.”

Read the complete paper from the Washington Office on Latin America

The Transnational Institute have also produced a useful document questioning the efficacy of coca fumigation and eradication efforts

Read the paper here

Some surprising countries consider cannabis law reform

Antigua and Barbuda : Antigua Labour Party to consider decriminalisation of cannabis

Indonsesia: The Indonesian government have apparently been advised by the N ational Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the Indonesian Institute on Drug Abuse to consider the possibility of legalising marijuana .

USA: mayors speak out against the drug war

Mayor of Newark calls for a change in drug policy, plus United States Conference of Mayors call for a public health approach.

USA: Lawmakers urge for removal of tobacco ads from women's magazines

On the legal drug front there seems to be increasing pressure for better regulation of alcohol and tobacco marketing, both here and in the USA.

5. What you can do

Donate

Transform is going from strength to strength but we need support so please help support the cause with a donation using our secure online giving page .

We're always striving to improve our blog and would appreciate feedback on how to take it forward, ideas for stories and participation in the discussion forums.

The website homepage is undergoing some changes this month so please keep a lookout and let us know what you think.

Volunteers play a major role in Transform's work. Currently volunteers are doing research, web site design, working on the forthcoming UK Drugs Strategy Review Consultation and contributing to the blog. We have a number of new volunteers who we are currently talking to and hopefully we can report back next month on some exciting new projects they are undertaking.

We are currently very keen to recruit a volunteer to help with our fundraising. Ideally the person will be able to be work at our Bristol office, but some work could be undertaken from home. The volunteer would be working with our new Business Manager, John Moore, and it would be a great opportunity for anyone who wanted to work in this field but whose attempts to get employment have always failed through lack of experience. We know there is a lot of potential funding out there for Transform, if you can help us get out there and get it.

We are also looking for office volunteers to help with admin and research and home based volunteers able to do research. In particular people with a second language who research other countries and could link us in with local NGOs and other agencies.

If you're interested please get in touch with John ( john@tdpf.org.uk or 0117 941 5310)