Ex-minister Norman Baker leaks details on Home Secretary’s drug stance
|
Version 0 of 1. Details of how Home Secretary Theresa May overruled proposals from her own officials on the treatment of drug users have been published for the first time by former Home Office minister Norman Baker. Mrs May’s insistence on taking a hard line has given the Liberal Democrats an opening to make drugs policy an issue at next year’s general election, when Nick Clegg will argue that being tough on people who use drugs as opposed to the criminal gangs who supply them does nothing to solve the problem of addiction. The Independent revealed in October that proposals to reform the government’s drugs policy had been “buried” on the Home Secretary’s orders, though the details of the recommendations she suppressed have only now been made public by Mr Baker, who resigned last month. They included a proposal that the UK should try out the method being pioneered in Portugal, where the policy is to “attack the illness, not the patient”. The Home Office report originally concluded that there is no evidence that drug abuse is affected by how “hard” or “soft” government policy is, implying this is an area where being tough on offenders has no effect – but that conclusion was also removed on orders from Mrs May, Mr Baker claims. The document argued there may be a case for prescribing heroin, under supervision, for addicts who fail to move onto methadone. It also argued that prescribing the anti-overdose drug Naloxone for people leaving prison could save lives. While Mrs May’s office refuses to comment on whether parts of the document were suppressed, the recommendations clash with the Home Secretary’s known approach to drugs, which is that the Government must avoid suggesting that drug abuse is not harmful. But Norman Baker said: “Drugs policy should be based on evidence, not dogma. Thanks to this study we finally have evidence of what works.” |