ITV News - ITV REPORT 30 October 2014 at 2:04am
Tough drug laws have 'no impact on use' Government study finds
Photo: PA
Treating drug possession as a health problem rather than a criminal matter has no impact on levels of substance misuse, an official Government study has found.
The "toughness" of enforcement does not persuade drug users to take less, according to the Home Office report.
The Home Office looked at a variety of different countries in the wide-ranging study to see how they dealt with illegal drugs.
Credit: PA
The study looked at Portugal's drug laws, where possession of drugs is treated as a health matter rather a criminal issue, and saw no increase in use.
It also looked at the Czech Republic after drugs were criminalised, only to cause a rise in the crime rate.
The Government is to also monitor results in Uruguay and some US states that have recently legalised possession of cannabis, the report says.
However, the Home Office has already said it has "absolutely no intention" of relaxing drug laws.
Lib Dem Home office minister Norman Baker Credit: PA
Liberal Democrat Home Office Minister Norman Baker said its findings show that the Government needs to be "brave enough" to change UK drug laws.
"The Liberal Democrats believe drugs policy should be based on evidence, not dogma or the desire to sound tough. If you are anti-drugs you should be pro-reform.
For too long successive governments have been unwilling to look at the evidence. This comprehensive report shows that other ways of tackling drug addiction and supply can save lives and cut crime.
It’s time for a radical change in British drugs policy. The fact is we should spend more time and effort cracking down on the Mr Bigs' and criminal gangs who traffic drugs than users and addicts who should be helped to recover, not put behind bars.– NORMAN BAKER"
Legal high shops would be a thing of the past if the blanket ban comes in. Credit: PA
Ministers are also expected to reveal plans for a blanket ban on brain altering drugs in a bid to crackdown on so-called "legal highs".
A separate drugs report wants to look at the Irish model, after legislation was introduced four years ago that bans the sale of all "psychoactive" substances and then exempts some, such as alcohol and tobacco.
Currently, when a legal high is outlawed, illegal-drug chemists are getting around the law by tweaking the chemical compound and creating a new substance.
"From today we will start looking into the feasibility of a blanket ban on new psychoactive substances across the whole of the UK, clamping down on the suppliers and head shops rather than the users.
This approach had a dramatic impact on the availability of 'legal' highs when introduced in Ireland, but we must ensure it would work here too. – NORMAN BAKER"