500 experts urge Home Office to take ‘public health approach’ to drugs

An open letter urging the UK government to reconsider its proposals for harsher drug penalties, has been signed by 500 public health and criminal justice experts. 

Leading public bodies including the Faculty of Public Health, Police Foundation and the British Medical Association, have expressed ‘serious concerns’ over proposals set out by the Home Office earlier this year to introduce tougher penalties for minor drug offences.

The ‘Swift, Certain, Tough: New Consequences for Drug Possession’ white paper, released in July 2022, sets out the government’s proposals for a three-tier framework for drug possession offences, including cannabis.

Focusing on what it describes as ‘so-called recreational users’, the approach could see repeat offenders risk having their driving licence or passport confiscated by law enforcement. 

In an open letter UK drug reform organisations, Release, and Transform Drug Policy have condemned the proposals which they say go against an ‘overwhelming body of evidence’ and would ‘exacerbate a range of social and health harms’ by criminalising some of the most vulnerable people in society. 

“The Home Office’s own research has stated that the £1.6 billion a year spent on drug law enforcement has little impact on drug availability,” the letter states.

“Punishment and criminalisation of people who use drugs has repeatedly been shown to undermine health and life opportunities of the most vulnerable individuals and communities, fuelling stigma and discrimination, and creating obstacles to proven health and social interventions.”

It also highlights how an increase in punitive policing targeting those who use drugs would require a ‘scaling up’ of policing, including stop and searches which disproportionately impact marginalised and ethnic minority communities, particularly Black people. 

The letter adds: “These proposals will further undermine trust in law enforcement and already-strained community police relations.”

A public health approach to drugs

Instead, the organisation’s urge ministers to develop a ‘genuinely public health centred approach’, informed by emerging evidence internationally and here in the UK.

Fourteen police forces across the UK already operate diversion programmes, which give those caught in possession of drugs such as cannabis and cocaine the chance to undergo education or treatment programmes rather than facing criminalisation.

Durham Police Force, in the north east of England, is thought to be one of the most successful, having stopped targeting cannabis consumers and small-scale growers since 2015 in order to focus its resources elsewhere. 

Meanwhile The Telegraph reported this weekend that The National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing are already drawing up proposals for a nation-wide initiative.

The letter has been supported by 500 organisations and individuals in the fields of public health and criminal justice. These include the Association of Directors of Public Health, Public Health Faculty, NHS Addictions Provider Alliance, College of Mental Health Pharmacy and The Criminal Justice Alliance. You can see the full list here 

Andre Gomes, head of communications at Release, says the support for the letter demonstrates the need for change when it comes to the UK’s approach to drugs. 

“This open letter is, once again, evidence that the Home Office prefers to wage an ideological battle on people who use drugs, rather than listen to hundreds of public health and criminal justice experts,” he told Cannabis Health.

“It’s been fantastic to have so much support for a sorely needed change to the UK’s drug policy system. It goes to show how, in the face of so much global evidence that non-prohibitionist approaches to drug control improve health and economic outcomes, the UK continues to choose to lag behind.

“By choosing a more punitive approach to drug use, those already living in more deprived areas of the country, as well as ethnic minority communities, will continue to suffer at the hands of the Conservatives.”

Earlier this year, calls from Conservative police and crime commissioners (PCCs) for cannabis to be reclassified as a Class A, with harsher penalties for those caught in possession, were supported by the Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

READ MORE: ‘Tone deaf’ calls for cannabis to be Class A only fuel fear, stigma and misinformation

Consultation on the white paper has now closed and the Home Office says it will be publishing its response in due course.

A spokesperson said: “Drugs ruin lives and devastate communities which is why the Government is committed to tackling both the supply and demand for drugs, as set out in the 10-year Drug Strategy.

“Our White Paper on new, tougher penalties for drug possession set out proposals for tackling demand and we have welcomed views on this. We will be publishing our response in due course.”

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