Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jul 2005
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Telegraph Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author: Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Note: from MAP: Read the entire report here (105 page pdf): 
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2005/07/05/Report.pdf
Cited: Transform Drug Policy Foundation http://www.tdpf.org.uk/

DRUG POLICIES A FAILURE, SAYS REPORT

Government policies to cut the supply of illegal drugs into the
country since the early 1990s have had no significant impact and are
unlikely to improve, says a Downing Street report kept secret until
today.

The findings of a No 10 strategy unit study overseen by Lord Birt, the
former head of the BBC, have been leaked despite efforts by Whitehall.

Part of the study was published on Friday after a request from The
Daily Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act. This contained
an analysis of the drugs problem.

However, a critical assessment of the Government's anti-drugs
strategy, withheld on "public interest" grounds, has now also been
disclosed - though a further study with advice to the Prime Minister
on what to do next remains unpublished.

The leaked report says drug seizure rates would need to rise from
around 25 per cent currently to between 60 and 80 per cent if major
suppliers are to be put out of business. Despite hundreds of millions
of pounds spent on tackling the supply of illegal substances, there
has been no "sustainable disruption" to the drugs market at any level.

For many gangs, government interventions are a "business
cost".

The report paints a bleak picture of efforts to thwart the supply of
drugs and suggests little can be done. There is an "inexhaustible"
supply of drug traffickers, who are "innovative and technologically
sophisticated". The most that has been achieved has been to slow the
fall in the price of heroin and cocaine, which has halved in real
terms in 10 years.

The study, completed two years ago, will revive arguments over the
direction of Government drugs policy and legalisation.

It suggests that far less emphasis needs to be placed on enforcement
and more on reducing demand. It has already influenced Government
thinking in its last Drugs Act, which focused on making people aware
of the dangers of drugs and treating addicts. Danny Kushlick, the
director of Transform, a drugs policy think-tank that favours
legalisation, said the report strengthened the case for reform of the
laws.

The published section of the report says that 280,000 users of heroin
and crack are responsible for 87 per cent of the cost of
drug-motivated crime. Of these, 30,000 of the highest offending heroin
or crack users commit more than half of all drug-motivated crime. The
highest incidence of problematic drug use is to be found in "deprived
urban areas". 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake