Pubdate: Thu, 30 Oct 2014
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Alan Travis, Home affairs editor
Page: 14

ELEVEN COUNTRIES STUDIED, ONE INESCAPABLE CONCLUSION - THE DRUG LAWS DON'T WORK

Home Office Fact-Finders Reveal Long-Delayed Report Legalisation 
Policies Do Not Result in Wider Use

The Home Office comparison of international drug laws, published 
today, represents the first official recognition since the 1971 
Misuse of Drugs Act that there is no direct link between being "tough 
on drugs" and tackling the problem.

The report, which has been signed off by both the Conservative home 
secretary, Theresa May, and the Liberal Democrat crime prevention 
minister, Norman Baker, is based on an in-depth study of drug laws in 
11 countries ranging from the zero-tolerance of Japan to the 
legalisation of Uruguay.

The key finding of the report, written by Home Office civil servants, 
lies in a comparison of Portugal, where personal use is 
decriminalised, and the Czech Republic, where criminal penalties for 
possession were introduced as recently as 2010.

"We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious relationship 
between the toughness of a country's enforcement against drug 
possession, and levels of drug use in that country," it says. "The 
Czech Republic and Portugal have similar approaches to possession, 
where possession of small amounts of any drug does not lead to 
criminal proceedings, but while levels of drug use in Portugal appear 
to be relatively low, reported levels of cannabis use in the Czech 
Republic are among the highest in Europe.

"Indicators of levels of drug use in Sweden, which has one of the 
toughest approaches we saw, point to relatively low levels of use, 
but not markedly lower than countries with different approaches."

Endless coalition wrangling over the report, which has taken more 
than eight months to be published, has ensured that it does not 
include any conclusions.

However, reading the evidence it provides it is hard to escape the 
conclusion that the Home Office civil servants who wrote it seem to 
have been impressed that a health-based rather than a criminal 
justice-based approach is where effective policies lie.

It also, rather remarkably, says that the experiments in legalisation 
now under way in the US states of Washington and Colorado, and in 
Uruguay, should be watched with interest. This is a world away from 
the "war on drugs" rhetoric that has formed the mainstay of the 
political debate on drugs in the past four decades.

The report, Drugs: International Comparators, documents in great 
detail the experience of Portugal, where personal use was 
decriminalised nearly 11 years ago and those arrested for drugs are 
given the choice of going before a health "dissuasion commission" or 
facing a criminal justice process.

"Trend data from Portugal shows how levels of drug use changed in the 
years following decriminalisation in 2001. Although levels of drug 
use rose between 2001 and 2007, use of drugs has since fallen to 
below 2001 levels. It is clear that there has not been a lasting and 
significant increase in drug use in Portugal since 2001," the report says.

At the same time, it notes there have been significant reductions in 
the number of drug users diagnosed with HIV and Aids at a time when 
drug-related deaths have remained stable: "These outcomes cannot be 
attributed to decriminalisation alone, and are likely to have been 
influenced by increases in the use of treatment and harm reduction," 
it says, stressing that it is difficult to disentangle the impact of 
decriminalisation from wider improvements in drug treatment and harm reduction.

Nevertheless, it firmly rejects claims that decriminalisation in 
Portugal has led to a spike in drug use. It goes on to contrast 
Portugal with the Czech Republic, where an evaluation found that 
there was no significant decline in the availability of drugs 
following the implementation of stricter laws in 2010.

On the situation in Colorado, Washington and Uruguay, the Home Office 
says their experimental policies which legalise production, supply 
and recreational use of cannabis have the common aim of disrupting 
organised crime and exercising greater control over the use of cannabis.

"The American states have a marketdriven approach, with lighter 
regulation than Uruguay and fewer limitations on consumption and use. 
Uruguay, which has growing concerns about organised crime, has a 
stronger role for the state, with limitations in size of the market, 
the strains and potency of cannabis, and the quantity that an 
individual can purchase."

The report examines various harm reduction initiatives in 11 
countries, including the use of drug consumption rooms, the 
prescription of heroin under medical supervision, and prison-based 
needle exchange programmes. It found evidence that heroin 
prescribing, including in three UK trials, can be effective.

There is no overall conclusion to the report, but in its last 
paragraph the Home Office authors reflect that the lack of any clear 
correlation between "toughness" of approach and levels of drug use 
demonstrates the complexity of the issue: "Achieving better health 
outcomes for drug users cannot be shown to be a direct result of the 
enforcement approach."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom