Drug policy is working – why do we prefer to think otherwise?
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Drug policy is working – why do we prefer to think otherwise?
Paul Hayes, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
On all sides, our politicians and commentators seem convinced Britain’s drug policy has been a failure.
Party conference season saw Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg rehash his old refrain that we’ve “lost the war on drugs”. Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice still portrays drug addiction as one of the main drivers of worklessness, poverty and social exclusion in our poorest communities. And on October 30, the narrative of failure will be rehearsed yet again when Green MP Caroline Lucas initiates a three-hour debate in parliament calling for an impact assessment of our current drug laws.
But these diagnoses are misleading: for all the problems that remain, the major successes of our drug policy deserve to be acknowledged. Here are some of the headline facts, which can take even informed observers by surprise.
Turning it around
Drug use is much less commo...
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