Home Affairs Committee Call For Drug Policy Examination

The Home Affairs Committee has published its first report on drugs in a decade.

After a wide-ranging and in-depth inquiry lasting a year and examining all areas of UK drug policy, the Committee has called for a Royal Commission on the issue.

Whilst it supported a number of steps the Government has taken in its 2010 drug strategy, it believes more needs to be done to comprehensively address the drugs problem in the UK. The report focuses on the need to ‘break the cycle’ of drug addiction, and highlights in particular the need for improved treatment in prisons and wider society, and for early intervention with better education and preventative work.

Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Committee, said: "After a year scrutinising UK drugs policy, it is clear to us that many aspects of it are simply not working and it needs to be fully reviewed. We cannot afford to kick this issue into the long grass. We have recommended that a Royal Commission be set up with an end-date of 2015.

"There is no doubt that we have failed to deal with the dealers and we have not focused on the users. Only with this twin approach will we break the devastating cycle of drug addiction in society. We need to improve drug education in schools, tackle drug use in prisons and meet prison-leavers at the gates with properly funded, effective community rehabilitation.

"Implementation of the Government's policy of recovery is a major concern, in particular the quality and range of treatment provision available. A league table of treatment centre performance should be established, so patients don’t waste time and money on care that is not up to scratch. It is unacceptable that treatments which we know work, such as residential rehabilitation and buprenorphine, are not accessible to more addicts."

He added: "Drugs cost thousands of lives and the taxpayer billions of pounds each year. This is a critical, now or never moment for serious reform. If we do not act now, future generations will be crippled by the social and financial burden of addiction.

"A number of vital areas of drug policy have been dangerously neglected. The number of deaths from ‘legal highs’ is rising sharply and the temporary class drug order is a stopgap rather than a solution. The majority of drugs profits, which exceed $380bn per year, end up in the financial system. Without a tougher approach, making the launderers criminally liable, the UK will remain in the absurd position of permitting the legitimate funding of drugs barons while fighting against them. We need to deal now with prescription drug dependency, or it will reach epidemic proportions, as it has in the US."

(GK)