- The Observer,
- Sunday July 13 2003
The 'War on Drugs' has failed. Perhaps it is a war that could never have been won.
Crime figures to be released this week will show another leap in drug-related crime in Britain's major cities, as we report today. In London, the increase is nearly 30 per cent; in Birmingham 20 per cent with a 47 per cent rise in the possession of heroin and cocaine. In part the figures reflect Government's clear-sighted strategy of shifting police resources from possession of soft drugs to concentrate on Class A substances. But they also reveal a disaster escalating out of control.
The facts are clear: while the quantity of hard drugs seized by police and customs rises year on year, officials admit that around 90 per cent of drugs still reach their destination. Wherever you are in Britain, hard drugs are readily available and, as drug use has risen, public support for the drug war has collapsed. When half of all Britons aged 16 to 24 report using illegal drugs, the law risks becoming an ass.
The dangers of crime associated with drugs are far more serious than the dangers of drugs themselves. The failure of drugs policy poses a still greater threat. As demand for drugs increases, Western governments risk entrenching international crime cartels, driving up profits which are used to fund a range of illegal activity from people trafficking to prostitution to terrorism.
This is a government committed to 'evidence-based policy'. Its favourite question is 'what works?' But policy on drugs is not following this dictum and most of it is being made in ignorance. There is much we don't know. It is thought that drug crime is costing up to £20 billion a year, that drug-related crime accounts for 50 per cent of all offences and that possibly 80 per cent of prisoners are heroin or cocaine users.
A first step must be a full audit of drug crime to find out the true cost to the nation. Ministers should signal that they are ready to radically rethink drugs policy, including examining seriously the case for further decriminalisation on a drug-by-drug basis. It is self-defeating to make criminals out of addicts, even in the emotive cases of heroin and cocaine.
A hard-headed commitment to 'what works' would win public trust and respect. Those who wish to pursue a futile war on drugs in the face of clear failure are the ones taking the soft option.
