MAPS: BRITAIN: "medicalising" instead of "criminalising"

["simon witter" <simon.witter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

      (The Times, London)

      SUNDAY JANUARY 13 2002

      Heroin users will go free as police focus on dealers

      PEOPLE caught using cocaine, heroin and ecstasy will not face court
action under sweeping changes to drugs policies that are being considered by
police chiefs.

      Under the proposals, thousands of users who are arrested in possession
of small amounts of hard as well as soft drugs will be referred for medical
treatment rather than face criminal charges. The change is expected to be
approved within the next few weeks.

      Chief constables insist they are not decriminalising hard drugs and
emphasise that police will retain the option of pressing charges. But
addicts and recreational users, although not drug dealers, will no longer be
treated automatically as criminals if they agree to register for treatment,
which could involve drugs prescribed under supervision.

      The proposed "intelligent enforcement" policy was outlined at a
meeting of the "cabinet" of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO),
which comprises the 43 chief constables of England and Wales, at a meeting
in London on December 19. Police chiefs say the aim is to focus resources on
hard drug dealers.

      They believe that "medicalising" instead of "criminalising" the
problem is the only way to cut the number of hard drug users and the  80% of
property crime that is drug- related. One chief constable said: "We want to
refer people for treatment rather than charge them, to concentrate on damage
limitation and break the cycle between drug use and crime."

      Although more than 11,300 people were prosecuted for possessing hard
drugs in 2000, many senior officers privately accept that the war on drugs
is being lost. Chief constables feel that sending offenders to prison does
nothing to help them to kick their habits.

      At the same time senior officers want more and tougher targeting of
street dealers who are supplying class A drugs such as ecstasy, heroin and
cocaine.They say the policy switch will not require any new legislation,
only changes in the way the police enforce existing laws.

      Pilot schemes under which arrested drug users are referred to
counsellors and doctors for treatment are already running in some areas.
ACPO wants to study ways of greatly increasing their use. Home Office
figures show that 60% of those referred for treatment reduced or stopped
their offending.

      One government study indicated that for every £1 spent on drugs
treatment, £3 was saved on keeping offenders out of the police and courts
system. The Home Office says the cost of dealing with drugs offences in
terms of police and court time is £1.2 billion a year.

      Britain has the worst drugs problem in western Europe. Figures
produced last September indicate that more than 3m people spend a total of
£6.6 billion a year on illegal drugs. There are 3.1m occasional smokers of
cannabis and 270,000 regular heroin users. More than 430,000 are estimated
to be occasional users of ecstasy.

      The Home Office recently announced that funding for drug treatment
regimes would rise from Ï234m this year to more than Ï400m in 2003-04. But
the police chiefs' proposals would require much more funding.

      The ACPO move follows a proposal by David Blunkett, the home
secretary, to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug,
effectively making possession of small quantities a non-arrestable offence.





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