This week in the UK a report on how War On Drugs-type enforcement stacks up to more humane approaches to drug use in different countries was finally released, after months of attempted suppression by the ruling Conservative government.
What the report found was that harsh enforcement tactics and long sentences for possession of drugs for personal use don't decrease levels of drug use in the population and that decriminalizing the possession of drugs doesn’t increase levels of use.
The report, which has been signed off by both the Conservative home secretary, Theresa May, and the Liberal Democrat crime prevention minister, Norman Baker, is based on an in-depth study of drug laws in 11 countries ranging from the zero-tolerance of Japan to the legalisation of Uruguay....
“We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country’s enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country,” it says. “The Czech Republic and Portugal have similar approaches to possession, where possession of small amounts of any drug does not lead to criminal proceedings, but while levels of drug use in Portugal appear to be relatively low, reported levels of cannabis use in the Czech Republic are among the highest in Europe.
“Indicators of levels of drug use in Sweden, which has one of the toughest approaches we saw, point to relatively low levels of use, but not markedly lower than countries with different approaches.”
Countries studied included Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand,
Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and Uruguay.
Political wrangling over the release of the report kept conclusions from being stated in it. (The international comparative study was commissioned instead of the royal commission that the Liberal Democrats, coalition partners with the ruling Conservatives, had pushed for.)
However, reading the evidence it provides, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Home Office civil servants who wrote it seem to have been impressed that a health-based rather than a criminal justice-based approach is where effective policies lie....
[I]t firmly rejects claims that decriminalisation in Portugal has led to a spike in drug use. It goes on to contrast Portugal with the Czech Republic, where an evaluation found that there was no significant decline in the availability of drugs following an earlier implementation of stricter laws, prior to decriminalisation....
The report examines various harm reduction initiatives in 11 countries, including the use of drug consumption rooms, the prescription of heroin under medical supervision, and prison-based needle exchange programmes. In particular it found evidence that heroin prescribing, including in three limited trials in Britain, can be effective.
Not only is the harsh current approach to drug use ineffective, it's actually
counter-productive.
Baker [the Liberal Democrat Home Office drugs minister] said the international comparisons demonstrated that “banging people up and increasing sentences does not stop drug use”. He said the last 40 years had seen a drugs debate in Britain based on the “lazy assumption in the rightwing press that if you have harsher penalties it will reduce drug use, but there is no evidence for that at all”.
Baker added: “If anything the evidence is to the contrary.”
The report isn't likely to change drug policy in the UK -- Conservatives accused the Liberal Democrats of "political posturing and being pro-drugs" for pushing for the study and acknowledging its findings -- but it is a hopeful sign that the War On Drugs rhetoric and policies are being increasingly challenged at official levels, and that evidence for discarding them is becoming more and more difficult for the Drug Warriors to suppress and ignore. Maybe one day it will even be acted on in a comprehensive way.
The report is here -- Drugs: International Comparators (PDF)