Britain's drugs laws are driven by "moral panic" and should be replaced by a more flexible approach which recognises that most drug-users harm neither themselves nor those around them, according to a two-year study published in London yesterday.
Drug use should be treated as a health issue, not just as a matter for the police and courts, said a commission formed by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). It described the current Misuse of Drugs Act as "not fit for purpose" and said that it should be scrapped.
"Current policy at best gives mixed messages and at worst is dishonest . . . It is driven more by 'moral panic' than by a practical desire to reduce harm," the commission said in a report.
Prof Anthony King, of Essex University, who chaired the RSA commission, said that the current legal split of drugs into just three classes of increasing harm should be replaced.
"At the moment you have this ridiculous ABC classification, which is very crude, very inflexible," he said. "Drug-users pay no attention do it. We want something that is more elaborate, more subtle, more flexible." But, he said, the commission did not want to decriminalise drug use.
"You should take all of the substances that can cause harm, draw up an index of harms that they do cause . . . and look at them coolly and rationally and decide what policy approach is most appropriate to each of those substances," he said.
"Illegal drugs do cause harm. Our approach is directed at trying to reduce those harms."
The RSA commission called for a new misuse of substances act which would regulate illegal drugs alongside alcohol, tobacco, prescribed medicines and other legal drugs. Drug consumption rooms, or "shooting galleries", should be made available for users.
The bulk of drugs education should be moved to primary schools, it said, adding that the only practical drugs message for secondary pupils was "harm reduction".
The Home Office said that the government's drugs strategy had been a success, with record numbers of people entering and staying in treatment. "However, we are not complacent and we will continue to look to improve our work in this area wherever we can," it said. - (Reuters)