Britain is in the midst of a drugs crisis – is decriminalisation the answer?

Could MPs’ radical proposals to curb soaring drug deaths work for Britain, asks May Bulman

The issue is costing every taxpayer an estimated £400 a year (PA)

There’s no denying that Britain is in the midst of a drugs crisis. Last year, 4,359 deaths were directly attributed to substance misuse in England and Wales – a 16 per cent increase in 12 months. In Scotland, a staggering 27 per cent rise in drug-related deaths brought the total to its highest level since records began 23 years ago, giving it a higher rate than any other EU country. The statistics speak for themselves.

Now a group of influential cross-party MPs has put the blame with the government’s approach to tackling this as criminal crisis rather than a health issue, warning it is “clearly failing” and requires “radical change”. The Health and Social Care Committee has, following in-depth research, delivered a damning blow to the criminal justice approach to drugs. Instead of piling resources into arresting people in possession of drugs for personal use, they say, ministers should invest more in treatment, and take a new view of the issue as a “public health emergency”.

It is important here to look at countries that have implemented similar strategies. Portugal, which is cited in the report, decriminalised the possession of drugs in 2001 as part of a comprehensive new approach to the issue, which also encompassed improving treatment services and introducing harm reduction interventions, as well as better social support. The country has since seen a dramatic fall in substance-related deaths.

In Frankfurt, there was an official commitment in the early 1990s, as part of a “public health approach”, that a person with a drug addiction would not be taken into the criminal justice system until they had had a medical examination. There was a cultural change that took place among police in thinking about drug addiction not as a crime but as an illness. Drug deaths subsequently fell dramatically, as did drug-related street crime.

Bringing it back to the UK, what are we seeing here? The war on drugs is costing each British taxpayer an estimated £400 a year; imprisoning addicts is doing little to tackle their drug problems – in many cases only exacerbating them; funding for drug treatment services is being slashed; and, as we know, record numbers of people are dying from substance misuse.

As part of a Conservative government banging the drum for law and order, ministers may fear the perception of decriminalisation with their voters. But, with the situation only worsening, is it not time to consider another approach? It wouldn’t be simple to implement, but it may be that, in order to resolve such a drastic problem, radical measures will be needed.