As a solicitor working in the field of criminal law, I see people charged with offences involving controlled drugs every day. There are many offences, but to name just some:
- Possession with intent to supply
- Being concerned in the supply
- Cultivation
- Driving under the influence of drugs
- Fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on importing/exporting a controlled drug
- Supply (and intent to supply) psychoactive substances
And of course, the one everyone is most familiar with, the offence of simply being in possession of a controlled drug.
The Law
The law on controlled drugs is quite simple and codified in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. I won’t go into it in much detail, but it might be an interesting read for those not already familiar.
For those unfamiliar with the way courts in England & Wales sentence cases, the sentencing bench (whether that’s a bench of magistrates or a District Judge in the Magistrates’ Court, or a Circuit Judge in the Crown Court) are assisted by sentencing guidelines. Drugs offences come under various different headings, but the guidelines helpfully include a search function, and searching “drug” brings many of them up (hopefully this link will assist).
Liberal Democrat Policy
The 2024 manifesto has a section on Crime and Policing, but does not touch on the party’s policy regarding drugs. However, Policy Paper 47 is based entirely around the policy and offers some interesting perspectives and suggestions. Published in 2001, many of the suggestions have now been outstripped by advances in the law, but I believe – and may well be proven wrong – it remains the most complete policy proposal drafted. On speaking to Liberal Democrats over the years it seems to me that many would support the policies contained within.
I’ve included above a link to the policy paper. To name just a few of the suggestions, we have:
- Implementing a policy of non-prosecution for possession, cultivation for own use, and social supply of cannabis. This would not involve repealing the offence but would involve a public policy declaration that it is not in the public interest to prosecute these types of offences.
- Re-classifying cannabis as a Class C drug and permitting medicinal use of cannabis derivatives.
- Ending imprisonment as a punishment for possession of a Class B or Class C drug, where it was for personal use.
All of these suggestions, and the rest, are said to come with many benefits, primarily:
- Reducing the impact of drug-related crime on law-abiding citizens
- Encouraging more “problem” drug users to come forward for treatment, without fear of being stigmatised
- Increasing the resources available for, and the credibility of, drugs education.
My Response
In my view this policy paper, and subsequent suggestions that the Liberal Democrats should be the party of legalisation, is wrong. I do not doubt the motives or beliefs of those who support legislation, but in my view, legalisation takes us down the wrong path.
The statistics are obviously quite old now, but it was suggested in the late 1990s that the number of “hard” drug addicts (i.e., those using Class A drugs, like crack cocaine) had risen to 270,000, and the size of the drugs market in 1998 was estimated at £6.6 billion (then 0.66% of GDP). The suggestion in the paper is that the policy of criminalising drug use – especially for personal use – was disproportionate and when the figures were balanced (62% of spending then went on prosecutions, as opposed to only 25% of education) the policy clearly favoured criminalisation above everything else. This, the paper suggested, was forcing drug-users to hardened criminals for supply and away from possible education and support resources. All of this, in turn, would only drive drug use up.
But let’s look at some more recent statistics. The Office of National Statistics published their 2024 data on drugs misuse. Cannabis use is on the decrease (-0.8%) and whilst the use of ‘magic mushrooms’ increased slightly (+0.3%) the use of nitrous oxide and crack cocaine has also seen a slight decrease.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated a friend, neighbour or colleague was the most common source of illegal drugs (48.9%) rather than the shady, nefarious drug dealers that the 2001 policy hints are lurking behind every corner waiting for any susceptible drug user to pass by.
The data also shows that drug prosecutions are not the majority of prosecution cases, or even a large portion. The data from the Crown Prosecution Service shows from June 2023 to July 2024 they prosecuted 57,373 cases where the Metropolitan Police were the relevant police force. So let’s do a bit of haphazard guess work and just half that figure to 28,686 for June 2023 to December 2024, and January 2024 to June 2024. The Metropolitan Police responded to a Freedom of Information Act request about the number of drug-related charges for possession of a controlled drug of Class B between the period of January 2024 and June 2024. The total?
1,677.
Therefore, the statistics seem to refute the argument that we are aggressively criminalising large swathes of the population who utilise drugs recreationally. As I’ll go on to mention later, the police do not actively seek out those using drugs in the privacy of their own home who are having little to no impact on other people. But more on that later …
Editor’s Note: Come back tomorrow at the same time for Part 2
* Daniel is a party member from Cheadle
3 Comments
This is a really interesting read thus far. We should embrace thoughtful challenge to party policy/prevailing attitudes on anything, and hear them with an open heart. My instinct is that I will end up not agreeing, partly based on my own professional experience and partly based on the stance that if one believes something to be wrong in principle, it doesn’t have to affect a statistically huge number of people to remain wrong in principle, but I will await part 2 with genuine interest.
>” In my view this policy paper, and subsequent suggestions that the Liberal Democrats should be the party of legalisation, is wrong. ”
Interesting point, given the experience with legal drugs, particularly tobacco and alcohol, and the actions taken to reduce usage and to make some misuse anti-social (particularly driving under the influence).
So I think Daniel is suggesting, keeping the law largely as is, but making sensible relaxations to permit the introduction of carrots to encourage positive social and behaviour changes. Tobacco and alcohol are still legal, hence little real opportunity for criminal businesses to step in and satisfy demand…
What stands out from reading your first part on drugs is the enormous amount of police and others time spend on this issue. When our criminal justice system is in crisis, this seems a tremendous waste of public money. Apart from humanitarian and health considerations, reducing drug offences to a minimum would save a lot of money.