APCC leads respond to London Drugs Commission report

Responding to the independent London Drugs Commission’s report into the effectiveness of the UK’s drug laws, focusing on cannabis, APCC joint leads on Addictions and Substance Misuse, PCCs Joy Allen and David Sidwick said:

“While we recognise that this is an issue where some PCCs may take different views, as the APCC’s Addictions and Substance Misuse leads, we disagree with the Commission’s recommendation that possessing a small amount of cannabis should be decriminalised. We will now be consulting further with our PCC colleagues to discuss and develop our approach.

As this report recognises, cannabis is a harmful drug that has serious adverse effects on its users. It also rightly concludes that legalisation, as we have recently seen in other jurisdictions, would increase the availability of this harmful drug and could significantly amplify the health and mental health risks.

We believe that decriminalisation could carry similar risks by making people more likely to use cannabis. In addition, under these proposals, cannabis would continue to be supplied by drug markets that are run by criminals, bring violence and anti-social behaviour to our communities, and exploit the vulnerable, including children and young people. Furthermore, these recommendations would create confusion and result in increasing subjectivity by officers determining what ‘a small amount’ is defined as, or knowing the difference between ‘natural’ cannabis and ‘synthetic’ cannabis.

We have previously argued for a more robust approach to policing the possession of cannabis and other drugs, but not a narrowly punitive one. The focus should be on referring people who are using harmful drugs onto education and support programmes, that can reduce their risks of future harm and requiring them to attend. This approach is in line with the three pillar approach combining enforcement, treatment and prevention to tackle illegal drug use, which has rightly been at the core of government policy.”

Notes:

• Joy Allen is joint APCC lead on Addictions and Substance Misuse and PCC for Durham
• David Sidwick is joint APCC lead on Addictions and Substance Misuse and PCC for Dorset
• You can read the London Drugs Commission’s report here.