02/12/2007 00:00:00
UK: Key advisers attack new drugs policy
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Key advisers attack new drugs policy
Home Office consultation is 'self-congratulatory and disappointing'
The government was at loggerheads with its own advisers last night over
its new drugs policy.
An influential Home Office-backed committee raised serious doubts about
the consultation process behind the 10-year strategy which will be
unveiled in April. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)
described the process as 'self-congratulatory and generally
disappointing' and questioned the credibility of much of the evidence
presented to government.
A spokesman for the Home Office said last month that the consultation
process, which is being conducted by the polling agency Mori, had been
'open' and had included a wide range of views.
But the council said: 'We consider that an opportunity has been missed
to address the public health problem relating to drug misuse and the
balance with law enforcement and the Criminal Justice System...The
consultation would benefit from extending further to the wider social
harm of drug misuse.'
It also said: 'It is of concern that the evidence presented, and the
interpretation given, are not based on rigorous scrutiny. It is not
acknowledged that in many cases the information is uncertain and
sometimes of poor quality.'
Last night politicians said the council's response raised questions
about whether the government was more interested in spinning its record
than tackling the war on drugs.
'The failures of the government's drugs policy are laid bare for all to
see when their own advisory committee condemns the Home Office as being
misleading and self-congratulatory,' said Liberal Democrat leadership
contender Nick Clegg. 'When will the government wake up and acknowledge
something many members of the public know: we are losing the war on
drugs?' Clegg said
Steve Rolles of think tank Transform, which advises the UN on drugs
policy, said: 'The consultation process behind the new strategy has been
woeful.' Last month Transform branded the consultation process a 'sham',
saying the government had already made up its mind to continue with its
current strategy.
Concerns about the direction of the government's next drugs strategy
come as senior police officers warn that cannabis now presents a greater
'long-term' threat to Britain than cocaine. The increasing strength of
high-grade 'skunk' combined with growing evidence of major criminal
involvement in its production was fast becoming an issue of mounting
concern. Hospitals recently revealed that the number of mental health
admissions as a result of cannabis use had risen by 73 per cent.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2220563,00.html
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http://astore.amazon.co.uk/webbooks05
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13053
Author:
The Observer via UKCIA
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