Drug laws are outdated and in need of reform, the Home Affairs Committee has found.
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and Misuse of Drugs regulations need to be updated to support greater use of public health based drug interventions, while also ensuring an appropriate criminal justice response to illicit drugs including national standards for diversion schemes for low level offending.
In a report published today, the Committee calls for a new legislative and funding framework that enables practical, risk-reducing interventions such as establishing a pilot drug consumption facility and drug testing at festivals. It further calls from a move away from an abstinence-only approach towards harm reduction with improved cross-working between police, health and social services.
The Committee found that law enforcement should continue to do all it can to stamp out the illicit trade of controlled drugs, but will need to be bolstered by a stronger public health response that helps people escape drug addiction and related criminality. The total cost of drugs to society is estimated to be £19 billion, more than twice the value of the illicit drug trade.
The Government’s 10-Year Drugs Strategy rightly emphasises a change in focus towards a public health approach to combatting drugs, the Committee finds.
However, without a significant expansion in the range and availability of health-based interventions it is unlikely to have the transformative impact needed to tackle rising drug-related deaths and related harms.
Home Affairs Committee chair, Dame Diana Johnson, said:
“Drugs continue to cause significant harm to individuals and society. The governmental response must be able to deal with the complex harms drugs can cause and whilst the drug strategy is moving in the right direction, it requires much more meaningful action to tackle the broad range of drug-related problems.
“The criminal justice system will need to continue to do all it can to break up the criminal gangs that drive the trade in illicit drugs. However, it must also recognise that many children and young people involved need to be supported to escape not punished for their involvement.
“Fundamentally, we need to have the right interventions in place to help people break free from the terrible cycles of addiction and criminality that drug addiction can cause. Simply attempting to remove drugs from people’s live hasn’t worked. They need the right support to let them deal with addiction, but also psychosocial support and interventions that deal with the underlying trauma that may have led them to drugs in the first place.
“Over the course of the inquiry, we have seen a number of positive, locally-developed schemes make a real difference to those suffering from addiction and the wider communities. The Government should learn from the success as it develops best practice that can be implemented nation-wide.”
