Illegal drugs are now cheaper and purer
globally than at any time over the last 20
years, a report has warned.
The International Centre for i i Science in Drug
Policy said its report suggested the war on
drugs had failed.
The report, published in the British Medical
Journal Open, looked at data from seven
international government-funded drug
surveillance systems.
Its researchers said it was time to consider
drug use a public health issue rather than a
criminal justice issue.
The seven drug surveillance systems the study
looked at had at least 10 years of information
on the price and purity of cannabis, cocaine
and opiates, including heroin.
The report said street prices of drugs had
fallen in real terms between 1990 and 2010,
while their purity and potency had increased.
In Europe, for example, the average price of
opiates and cocaine, adjusted for inflation and
purity, decreased by 74% and 51% respectively
between 1990 and 2010, the Vancouver-based
centre said.
The report also found there had been a
substantial increase in most parts of the world
in the amount of cocaine, heroin and cannabis
seized by law enforcement agencies since
1990.
Most national drug control strategies have
focused on law enforcement to curb supply
despite calls to explore other approaches, such
as decriminalisation and strict legal regulation,
it said.
It concluded: "These findings suggest that
expanding efforts at controlling the global
illegal drug market through law enforcement
are failing."
Co-author Dr Evan Wood, scientific chairman
of the centre, said: "We should look to
implement policies that place community
health and safety at the forefront of our
efforts, and consider drug use a public health
issue rather than a criminal justice issue.
"With the recognition that efforts to reduce
drug supply are unlikely to be successful,
there is a clear need to scale up addiction
treatment and other strategies that can
effectively reduce drug-related harm."
The study comes two days after a senior UK
police officer said class A drugs should be
decriminalised.
On Sunday, Chief Constable Mike Barton, of
Durham Police, said drug addicts should be
"treated and cared for, not criminalised".
The chief constable, who is the intelligence
lead for the Association of Chief Police
Officers, told the Observer he believed
decriminalisation would take away the income
of dealers, destroy their power, and that a
"controlled environment" would be a more
successful way of tackling the issue.
He said prohibition had put billions of pounds
into the hands of criminals and called for an
open debate on the problems caused by drugs.
Mr Barton is among a small number of top
police officers in the UK who have called for a
major review of drugs policy.
'Tackle organised crime'
Danny Kushlick, of the Transform Drug Policy
Foundation, welcomed Mr Barton's comments
and said prohibition of drugs had been a
"miserable failure".
"We desperately need to shift the regime from
a prohibitionist one to one of legal
regulation," he said.
He said criminalising drugs had "gifted one of
the largest commodity trades on earth to
organised crime".
"It's an absolute no brainer for any
government that is thinking responsibly about
how best to regulate these things that they
look after them and don't leave it in the hands
of criminals," Mr Kushlick added.
The Home Office said drugs were illegal
because they were dangerous.
It said the UK's approach on drugs was clear:
"We must help individuals who are dependent
by treatment, while ensuring law enforcement
protects society by stopping the supply and
tackling the organised crime that is associated
with the drugs trade."
No major UK political party supports
decriminalisation of class A drugs, though the
Liberal Democrats said Britain's current
approach was "costly and ineffective".
A Lib Dem spokeswoman said the government
should consider other approaches used
overseas and should "always base drugs policy
on independent scientific advice", but did not
say the party would decriminalise any
currently banned drugs.
Labour said it would not decriminalise any
banned recreational drugs, while the Green
Party wants to make cannabis legal.
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