PUTTING PROHIBITION ON TRIAL

by Benjamin Mancroft

The Government's recent Green Paper Tackling Drugs Together is possibly the most serious attempt yet by any European government to find a solution to the drug problem. Whether or not it results in an effective policy remains to be seen.

The one part of the Green Paper that came in for universal criticism was the tiny section at the back entitled Annex D, The Legalisation Debate. The ten paragraphs devoted to this subject were regarded by people on both sides of the debate as factitious and lightweight and marred what was otherwise an honest if inadequate effort to grip this huge social issue.

What is clear is that the Government's bill has still not grasped the extent of the danger posed to society by the criminality surrounding drug use. Although it publicly refuses to acknowledge the extent of the link between drugs and crime, the mass of evidence from research such as that conducted by the Greater Manchester Police, has forced a reluctant Home Office to commission further detailed studies, which may indicate that the sleeping giant is beginning to awake. So far the Home Office has failed to understand that arguably the most destructive aspect of our drug problem is the crime that surrounds it, which crime is a direct result of prohibition, rather than the health and social consequences of drug use.

Even if the Government finds it impossible to accept realities we must not fall into the same trap. It is important therefore to understand that there is no likelihood that this Government will even contemplate the smallest step down the pathway to legalisation, however obvious that route may be to the rest of us. We need therefore to plan our work for the immediate future bearing two factors in mind. First, that drugs are illegal and will remain so for the immediate future, and secondly that we have to work within the existing policy to help our client groups as best we can, whilst at the same time enabling the Government to reach the conclusion that most us reached some time ago - that to use the criminal justice system as a method of reducing drug use causes far more harm than good. It is only when the Government realises this that it will change its policies.

We must also not lose sight of the fact that legalising drugs is not the answer to the 'drug problem', but only the solution to the problem of drug-related crime. Legalisation would also resolve the dilemma facing those responsible and otherwise law-abiding citizens who enjoy smoking cannabis, namely that their relatively harmless way of relaxing could land them in front of the courts, with a resulting criminal record.

The Green Paper outlines the Government's intention to devote increased effort and resources towards reducing the demand for drugs by education and treatment. It is not clear why educating people (with the emphasis on school children) would result in a fall for the demand for drugs when throughout the world we can point to well-documented examples of an increasing knowledge of drugs at all levels of society being closely paralleled by an increase in both the demand and use of drugs. The Government's faith in education as a means of prevention is even more bizarre bearing in mind that in mind that in the foreword to the Green Paper, signed by the Lord President of the Council, three Secretaries of State and the Paymaster General, it states in the very first paragraph that Sdespite the known dangers, drug misuse continues to grow at home and abroad". Why then does the Government suppose that even more knowledge will lead to a reduction?

The only area in which we can point to any success at all is in the field of treatment, although it is important to remember that treatment means health care, and is therefore only appropriate for those drug users who are encountering health problems as a consequence of their drug use. The vast majority of cannabis users, for example, do not encounter any health problems (nor do they go on to use other more dangerous drugs) so to refer them to treatment would be quite wrong. It is somewhat reminiscent of those days when homosexuals were regarded as suffering from some sort of mental illness, and therefore in need of psychiatric care.

The Department of Health has taken some positive steps in the area of health care by setting up its task force under the Rev Dr John Polkinghorne, to examine the efficacy and cost effectiveness of treatment for drug users. The task force is due to report in 1996 and I hope that it will result in a recognition of what constitutes effective treatment, and therefore where to concentrate resources in the future. In theory this will lead to the discontinuation of old-fashioned psychiatric and psycho-social treatments, which are of dubious value, in favour of effective in-patient and out-patient programmes run by properly trained and qualified staff.

If such a study can help in improving treatment, should it not be extended into the areas of education and law enforcement? The Green Paper sets out a strategy for 1995-98. The Government would do well to set up task forces to examine the efficacy and cost effectiveness of education as a means of preventing drug use, and law enforcement as a means of cutting crime and preventing drug use. Only by measuring the effectiveness of prevention and law enforcement by the same benchmarks as treatment will the Government learn the extent to which it is banging its head against a brick wall.

In a world dominated by statistics based on sound research only demonstrable facts will persuade any government that a particular policy is a failure. Although many of us who work in the field (and an increasing number throughout the country) believe that prohibition is a disaster, we still have some way to go in order to prove it. If we want to see a radical change in policy we must collect the necessary evidence to put before the country in 1998, when the period covered by the Green Paper ends, which means careful monitoring of the goals set out.

If we want the Government to abandon prohibition, we must prove, beyond ail reasonable doubt, that it causes more problems than it solves. At the same time we must swing public opinion behind us. We have made great strides in the last few years, but we are not there yet.

Lord Mancroft is a Conservative peer and member of the All Party Drug Misuse Committee as well as a trustee of a number of drugs charities.

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