I take issue with your editorial on the Commons health and social care committee report on current UK drug policy (The evidence cannot be ignored: drug policy needs rethinking, 24 October). The headline rightly highlights the weight of research in favour of decriminalisation of possession for personal use, especially the significantly reduced drug-related mortality that has followed decriminalisation in other countries when coupled with the provision of safe injecting facilities and holistic treatment services that foreground harm reduction and public health rather than law enforcement.
The accuracy and logic of the editorial is, however, flawed by intimating that “a more tolerant drug policy environment could legitimise use and boost demand”. For proof of the contrary, look no further than Spain, where possession for personal use has never been a criminal matter, or at Portugal post-decriminalisation in 2001, where legitimacy and demand have remained unchanged.
Young people in the UK experience the most dangerous drug environment in Europe because we have championed prohibition and driven drug supply into the hands of increasingly violent criminals. The legal regulation of drug supply must follow decriminalisation of possession. Criminal gangs have no concern about the age or vulnerability of their clients, or the content of what they are pushing.
Ask any parent (like me) who has lost a child to illicit drug overdose and they will tell you that drug policies are killing our children as much as the drugs themselves. While the government continues consulting, reporting and keeping “an open mind”, as you advocate, thousands of our young people are dying.
Pat Hudson
Emeritus professor of history, Cardiff University
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