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Drug laws 'need major overhaul' Drug laws 'need major overhaul'
(about 2 hours later)
Drug laws in Britain are not working and a radical fresh approach is needed, a major report is due to say. Drug laws in Britain are expected to be criticised as being "not fit for purpose", according to a major report.
The Royal Society of Arts has spent two years examining the impact of current policy as well as alternatives. The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) says illicit substances can be "harmless", while drinking and smoking can cause as many problems.
It will say policy is driven by moral panic, not a desire to reduce harm, and will suggest policy-making should be up to drug teams and local authorities. It says the law has been "driven by moral panic", and suggests policy-making should be left to drug teams and local authorities.
The Home Office, currently in charge of policy, says it does not accept all the report's recommendations. The Home Office says it does not accept all of the report's recommendations.
The report entitled Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy, due to be published later, comes ahead of a major government review of the country's drugs strategy next year. 'Political manipulation'
'Fewer criminal sanctions' Professor Anthony King of Essex University, who chaired the Commission on Illegal Drugs, said: "Current policy is broke and needs to be fixed."
The report will be highly critical of current drugs policy, suggesting the wrong people are in jail, the wrong people are in treatment and money is wasted trying to hit "inappropriate" targets. The report entitled Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy, comes ahead of a major government review of the country's drugs strategy next year.
Current drug campaigns do not work, nor does drug testing at the point of arrest and both should be abandoned, it will add. The RSA's panel recommends scrapping the Misuse of Drugs Act and replacing it with a broader Misuse of Substances Act, and replacing the existing ABC classification system with an "index of harms".
It will argue policy should be about reducing harm rather than the level of crime. The idea of a drugs-free world, or even of a drugs-free Britain, is almost certainly a chimera RSA report
And if drug taking does not harm anyone, then criminal sanctions should not be applied, the report will say. This would extend the definition of drugs to include alcohol and tobacco - as well as illegal substances, which the report says have been "demonised".
It also calls for so-called "shooting galleries" to be introduced where users can inject drugs as well as wider access to prescription heroin.
The report suggests the wrong people are in jail and in treatment, while money is wasted trying to hit "inappropriate" targets.
The system is "crude, ineffective, riddled with anomalies and open to political manipulation", it adds.
The report argues that current drug campaigns do not work, nor does drug testing at the point of arrest and both should be abandoned.
It says policy should be about reducing harm and pursuing the criminal gangs behind the drugs trade rather than the level of crime.
And if drug taking does not harm anyone, then criminal sanctions should not be applied, the report continues.
Another of its recommendations is to pass the power to shape policy from the Home Office to local authorities and drug teams.Another of its recommendations is to pass the power to shape policy from the Home Office to local authorities and drug teams.
'Worryingly complacent'
The report says: "The idea of a drugs-free world, or even of a drugs-free Britain, is almost certainly a chimera."
It continues: "The use of illegal drugs is by no means always harmful any more than alcohol use is always harmful.
"The evidence suggests that a majority of people who use drugs are able to use them without harming themselves or others.
"The harmless use of illegal drugs is thus possible, indeed common."
It says drugs education is "inconsistent, irrelevant, disorganised" and "delivered by people without adequate training", and its main focus should shift from secondary to primary schools.
The Home Office has estimated that the social cost of drug abuse alone to the country is between £10bn and £17bn a year.The Home Office has estimated that the social cost of drug abuse alone to the country is between £10bn and £17bn a year.
It said its strategy has led to a 16% fall in drugs crime and more people able to access treatment.
Martin Barnes from the charity Drugscope said drug use needed to be addressed as a wider social problem.
He added: "There's really far too great an emphasis on it being a problem solely associated with crime.
"It's about public health, it's about poor mental health, it's about homelessness."
The RSA has spent two years examining the impact of current policy as well as alternatives.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said the report was "worryingly complacent".
He added: "The RSA has also failed to do its homework by not surveying the views of drug addicts - who want recovery and drug-free lives - not managed dependency on methadone."