"Blair declares war": the unhealthy state of British drug policy

ENGLISH :
I have observed the development of British drug policy for the last 30 years and the last 12 months have been the most dismal that I can recall. In this paper, I want to talk about healthy and unhealthy drug policies, and why I think that the Labour government drug policies are decidedly unhealthy. First, let's look back to when we had a 'healthy' policy. There are many things about our past approaches of which we can be proud. People in other countries looked to the UK as a country which had avoided moral panics about drug use, demonising the drug user, overly criminalising the drug user, adopting the rhetoric of the 'war on drugs', and had avoided the politicisation of drugs. Others saw us as a country which had drug policies characterised by being humane, having respect for human rights, being pragmatic, being tolerant, and having a consensus between government and those working in the drug field. We were ahead of many countries in the prescribing of substitute opiate drugs to people who are dependent on them. HIV prevention has been a remarkable success story. And it is a success that has the potential to be repeated with respect to the prevention of HCV and HBV. We also managed to develop effective harm reduction measures associated with the consumption of other drugs. Between 1987 and 1997 we had a public health approach. The aim was to help problem drug users to lead healthier lives, and to limit the damage they might cause to themselves or others. We had a healthy drug policy. We don't have one now. Drug policy has now focused down on the link between drugs and crime. If things are done to drug users, it is because of the effect they have on others. We are witnessing the introduction of a punitive and coercive ethos. There are serious problems ahead for the future relationship between government and all those working in drug treatment and helping agencies, those who represent the treatment and helping agencies, the experts on the advisory councils and expert committees, the professional advisors, those who provide drugs information and analysis, and the researchers who provide evidence for government. We will need to examine carefully what we are prepared to do - and not do. We have lost consensus. We risk losing both a humane vision of how to respond to drug problems, and our respect for human rights. (Extract of the publication)