Transform's drugs policy campaign gets a shot in the arm

Governance | Tania Mason | 20 Jul 2010

Transform’s campaign to overhaul UK drugs policy got a boost this week with both the chair of the Bar Council and the editor of the British Medical Journal calling for changes to the current system.

Transform argues that existing policy does more harm than good and that the ‘war on drugs’ has failed miserably.

In a special edition of the British Medical Journal, editor Fiona Godlee has published an article by Transform and endorses its demands that drug use be legally regulated.

And the chair of the Bar Council, Nicholas Green QC, in his most recent report, supported decriminalisation. He wrote: “Drug-related crime costs the economy about £13bn a year. A growing body of comparative evidence suggests that decriminalising personal use can have positive consequences: it can free up huge amounts of police resources, reduce crime and recidivism and improve public health….without any overall increase in drug use.”

He said that as the Bar Council is “apolitical – we act for the prosecution and the defence…we can speak out in favour of an approach which urges policies which work and not those which simply play to the gallery”.

Danny Kushlick, head of external affairs at Transform, said the comments show that fundamental change in policy is now inevitable.

“With a Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister both longstanding supporters of alternative to the war on drugs, at the very least the government must initiate an impact assessment comparing prohibition with decriminalisation and strict legal regulation.”

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