Government urged to join in ‘commonsense and undogmatic’ debate on drugs policy

Speaking at a major national conference in London hosted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, she said the inquiry - which reported last March - had made its contribution to a more rational debate by bringing forward recommendations to make the drug laws fairer, more realistically enforceable and more effective. These sought to ensure that law enforcement would target the most dangerous drugs and drug-associated activities, while supporting improvements in drug education, prevention and treatment.

The Inquiry, established by the Police Foundation, reported last March. It prompted calls from commentators across the political spectrum for a more mature and responsible debate about drugs. But Lady Runciman expressed disappointment and surprise that the Government had yet to publish its considered response nearly ten months after the report was published.

Lady Runciman said: ‘Our proposals are firmly located in the commonsense and undogmatic middle ground between unrealistic legalisation on one side and an unwinnable “war against drugs” on the other. That is also the territory on which any rational debate must be conducted and where constructive change is possible. Only the government appears as yet unready or unwilling to take part in this debate.’

Lady Runciman added that the immediate reaction from Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, had been to reject proposals for cannabis and Ecstasy to be reclassified within the drugs legislation. But he had also promised that the remaining recommendations would receive serious consideration. The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee had since asked the Home Secretary to provide it with a detailed response to the Inquiry’s recommendation by the beginning of November last year.

She said: ‘If the response which we await still follows the early indications from the Home Secretary, it will be no more than an exercise in cherry-picking while ignoring the coherent rationale on which all our proposals are based and which requires the reclassifications we have proposed. It is a rationale that aligns the force of law with the relative harm of different drugs and the relative danger of the activities involving them in the light of current knowledge and experience. At the same time it reduces the social and economic costs of the law itself.’

The all-day conference, being held at the Royal Society, is unusual in bringing together experts from medicine, pharmacology and treatment of drug addiction with senior figures from the legal professions, police, policy-making and research. In addition to Lady Runciman, the keynote speakers include Dr Robert Kendell, former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, who chaired the joint working party on drug problems, established by the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists which reported last March. Main speakers also include Roger Howard, Chief Executive of the leading national voluntary organisation, Drugscope, and Prof. Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow.

In addition to extending the national debate on drugs, the conference marks the launch of a £1 million research programme by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. This will examine the impact of drug and alcohol use on communities, families and young people, with a view to extending the evidence base for future policy-making.