Illegal drugs can be harmless, report says
Illegal drugs can be “harmless” and should no longer be “demonised”, a wide-ranging two-year study concluded today.
The report said Britain’s drug laws were “not fit for purpose” and should be torn up in favour of a system which recognised that drinking and smoking could cause more harm.
The RSA Commission on Illegal Drugs ,set up in January 2005, also called for the main focus of drugs education to be shifted from secondary to primary schools and recommended the introduction of so-called “shooting galleries” – rooms where users can inject drugs.
The report, compiled by a panel of academics, politicians, drugs workers, journalists and a senior police officer, also called for the Home Office to be stripped of its lead role in drugs policy.
It recommended the Misuse of Drugs Act be scrapped in favour of a wider-ranging Misuse of Substances Act, and the current ABC classification system be abandoned in favour of an “index of harms”.
Current laws, the panel claimed, were been “driven by moral panic” with large amounts of money wasted on “futile” efforts to stop supply rather than going after the criminal networks behind the drugs on British streets.
At the heart of the report was a call for an end to what the panel called the “criminal justice bias” of current policy in favour of an approach that would treat addiction as a health and social problem rather than simply a cause of crime.
The report, which aimed to influence a government review of drug strategy next year, also called for jail sentences to be given for only the most serious drugs-related crimes and for addicts to be given jobs and housing as part of treatment.
It also recommended wider access to treatment such as prescription heroin.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who is chair of the Conservative Social Justice Policy Group, described the report as “worryingly complacent” and accused the members of the commission of failing to do their homework.
“I find it most disappointing that the RSA report appears to endorse the failed harm reduction strategy of recent years and to ignore extensive evidence that residential rehab can lead to full recovery from drug addiction.
He said the RSA had not surveyed the views of drug addicts or looked at treatment programmes in such countries as Sweden and Holland, “where levels of drug abuse are much lower than the UK”.
But commission chairman Prof Anthony King of Essex University and: “Current policy is broke and needs to be fixed.”
The report, which is likely to spark fierce controversy, said: “The use of illegal drugs is by no means always harmful any more than alcohol use is always harmful. It called for the concept of drugs to be extended to take in alcohol and tobacco.
“The evidence suggests that a majority of people who use drugs are able to use them without harming themselves or others. They are able, in that sense, to ‘manage’ their drug use … The harmless use of illegal drugs is thus possible, indeed common,” it said.
Describing the drugs trade as a business, the report said illegal drugs had been “demonised” by politicians and the media.
It said a lot of money was wasted trying to achieve the “impossible” goals of completely stopping the importation of illegal drugs, as well as the production, distribution and sale of illegal drugs within the UK.
Describing the Misuse of Drugs Act as unwieldy and inflexible, the report says: “It sends people to prison who should not be there.
“It forces people into treatment who do not need it (while, in effect, denying treatment to people who do need it).”
While the report does not call for decriminalisation, it questions the idea of total prohibition.
“Drugs policy should, like our policy on alcohol and tobacco, seek to regulate use and prevent harm rather than to prohibit use altogether,” the report concludes. The RSA is the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
Press Association
Filed Under: Research
Death By Meth
today I have met my match
piece by piece I was broken down
now I am tormented by failure and wrath
and my will power is no where to be found
the wounds have forever scarred my soul
with the bitter taste of death
because everything I cherished most
fell victim to my addiction to meth
in complete ignorance I made the awful choice
to smoke that demonic pipe regardless of the voice
that so strongly told me not too
but I thought I had the power to overcome
realize once this drug has got you
a slave to misery is what you become
i write every word in agony
i am scared to sleep or rest
because then I must face reality
i chose death by doing meth
family has become memories
just pictures of my past
i am now my worst enemy
my reflection is broken glass
clouds shadow my every breath of life
i cannot find the words to describe
the aches and pains I endure inside
and all I can say is why
oh, how sad it really is
to watch a Godly man be destroyed
Lord have mercy on my kids
three beautiful girls and a handsome boy
to all that I love I leave you with this
please forgive me for my weakness
that real love I will always miss
I give you these words with a hug and a kiss
By: Kerry Dale Hancock Jr
I don’t think I will ever forget the very night I wrote this poem. It was my fourth or fifth day being up without sleep. This was not out of the ordinary for me now it was my routine. Stay up for endless days then sleep then start over. Like other nights this was going to be the night I took my life and ended the horror I created. Right before I wrote this I was in a room with two other people and I was looking at before and after pictures on the Internet of people that have been on meth for awhile. I remember sitting in the chair in front of the computer crouched over the desk with a meth pipe in my hand taking hits. The other two people I was with wanted to inject meth from a needle so I left the room and sat in the next room. It was then on the recliner next to the front door that I wrote this poem and reflected on the demon called meth.
Every word in this poem had so much emotion behind it. I will explain a couple lines that some may not get at first. When I say “my reflection is broken glass” I am referring to another name for meth. Meth holds many names such as speed, glass, go fast and there is more. So what I am really saying is I have become meth. The next line is “clouds shadow my every breath of life.” When you smoke meth it is called blowing clouds and when you are addicted to meth then all you do is snort, smoke, inject or eat meth. Sad but true. What this really means is all I do is smoke meth which means I was addicted.
I could write so much more but this is what I want you to know. If you are addicted to meth or know someone who is then never give up hope and I will tell you why. If you will just find a reason or help that person find a reason then the fight against addiction has started. Here is the trick to making it really easy to do. If you make Jesus Christ your reason one day at a time then I promise it will be a piece of cake. Do not think about being clean and drug free for a year or two or three. Only think about today if you want to make it anywhere. Let God give you His strength each day if you want guaranteed results. If you do it your way you may get somewhere but you will end up nowhere. Become an addict for Jesus so that when you do stumble you will just start over and get back on track doing what you were doing right just like the addict for meth will start their routine over and over.
Lord Jesus thank you for loving us all enough to deliver us from this demon called meth. Give us the wisdom and knowledge to surrender all and allow you to put us in peace and fulfilment in Christ. Lord I ask that you will give us mercy and grace against meth and all its evil doings. I know it is destroying men, woman, children and families across the world. May this distraction be cast aside so that our eyes will focus only on You Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Glory to GOD,
Kerry Dale Hancock Jr
messenger in CHRIST
Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.