- Bitter fruit of neo-liberalism
ritain's drug laws are a nonsense. They have been B developed around an ethes of anilation rather
than prevention. The message 'tough on crime -tough on the causes of crime rings hollow as our towns and cities are patched up with short-term fixes
To make us feel safer, our councils - in partnership with the police and others - are spending increasingly lavish sums on enforcement initiatives like CCTV cameras. These measures are designed to further penalise people rather than tackle the causes of drug related crime.
Millions upon millions of pounds have been spent in Britain over the past few years to tackle the 'war on drugs' but most initiatives have failed to seriously tackle the problems that accompany hard drugs, like crack cocaine and heroin.
New Labour recently agreed to reclassify cannabis as a class C drug. A move in the right direction, this partial decriminalisation could have helped stop the police from harassing our black and working class communities. Instead an aggravated factors' clause has been built in. After someone is caught with cannabis three times, police can still charge them.
Relaxing the drugs laws will not stop police harassment when police numbers are rising and new powers to stop and search are introduced. Cramming more and younger people into privatised, overcrowded prisons will not reduce crime. It will only help to recreate the cycle.
Cannabis is by far the most widely used drug in Britain today. Its legalisation would take it out of the hands of the dealers and massively reduce police intervention. The millions spent nationally on policing cannabis each year could immediately be redirected to build up health, fitness and recreational facilities in the most poverty-stricken areas.
We have to accept the use of hugely popular recreational drugs like ecstasy as a reality and challenge the myths surrounding ecstasy-related deaths. The legalisation of drugs like ecstasy and the introduction of testing and harm reduction measures would enable people to take the drugs they choose safety.
Addiction to crack cocaine and heroin does not exist in a vacuum. It is directly linked to the poverty and unemployment caused by years of Tory and New Labour neglect.
Official figures show that only a small minority of people are involved with hard drugs. Yet the crime and anti social behaviour associated with it has devastating effects on whole communities.
The legalisation of heroin - made available under medical supervision and via prescription and accompanied by a serious detox and rehabilitation package - would provide a lifeline to thousands of addicts. But until significant money is spent on really regenerating our communities - on community facilities, jobs and decent housing - heroin, alcohol and prescribed drug dependency and the destruction it breeds won't go away.
It's not enough to take illegal drugs out of the hands of the barons just to hand them over to big business. The alcohol. tobacco and pharmaceutical industries are rubbing their hands at the profits they can exploit from this ready-made underground market. Any move to legalise drugs has to be linked to the drugs industry being driven by need not profit.
With an understanding of the differences between the drugs commonly used in Britain today and a litle imagination we could really begin to tackle the issues, to prevent crime and increase choices. As it is we will be left to watch new generations fight a losing battle against addiction. Permanently