UKCIA letter in reponse to Strategy Unit drug report

Dear Mr Goggins

On the 1st of July 2005, the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit released part of a previously confidential report on drugs, entitled “SU Drugs Project Phase 1 report: Understanding the issues” via its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

This report appears to be a damning indictment of the current Government’s policy with regard to illegal drugs; suggesting that it is ineffective in its aims and these aims are in themselves likely to be harmful to both users and the rest of the UK population.

The report’s conclusions included:

• Over 3 million people in the UK use illegal drugs every year.
• Over the past 30 years the rate of illegal drug use, especially ‘hard’ drugs, has risen dramatically despite the continuing ‘war on drugs’ Governmental policies of prohibition.
• Heroin and crack users commit £16bn worth of crime a year to feed their habits. The total cost of harm arising from drug use per year is £25bn.
• Despite intensive efforts, only up to 20% of drugs are seized. There is ample supply of drugs as evidenced by falling costs per unit in the UK.
• Profits for drug traffickers are high enough that seizures can be written off as a cost of business rather than a deterrent to trade.
• For a real effect the seizure figure would need to be more than 60%. Not only is this seemingly impossible to achieve but it may have negative effects; namely:
  • Drug prices would go up necessitating that determined users commit higher levels of crime to maintain their habit, as evidenced in the Australian heroin drought.
  • Dealers would decrease the purity of their product, making their usage even more unpredictable and dangerous.

In the two years since this information was presented to members of the Government it seems that firstly, despite the implications for exacerbating the current levels of harm suffered by both drug users and non-drug users, the report was subject to a cover-up. Unlike other Strategy Unit reports, the contents were not released to the public. During this period large amounts of tax-payers money continued, and indeed are continuing, to be injected into what the report suggests is a useless and dangerous policy, causing huge amounts of health, financial, and social harm. Even when challenged under the Freedom of Information Act, the Government only released less than half of the report. The rest was subsequently leaked to the press, and upon reading it, it becomes apparent that there was nothing prejudicial to security or public affairs in it. Most of the information is already available or easy to conclude from elsewhere. The only thing that this full publication seems to undermine is the legitimacy of the Government’s aims in their current drugs policy, and that aside, any claimed success in executing them. In a democratic society, this information should form the basis of a consultation regarding an urgent change of policy rather than a cover-up.

With the above in mind, in your role as the minister with responsibility for drug strategy, I would appreciate it if you could respond on the following points and any other of relevance:

1. Do you agree that on the face of it this report shows the current policy of drug prohibition in the UK to be ineffective and potentially harmful to society?
2. Having seen this research, does the Government intend to seriously consider radically changing its illegal drugs policy to avoid the unworkable and dangerous consequences the report suggests the current regime has – for example a legalised, regulated regime of controllable usage? If not, an explanation as to why would be appreciated.
3. Given the clear absence of new information that would adversely affect security or public affairs, and the importance of its conclusions, why was the report withheld and to this day remains officially classified?
4. When will it be officially published publicly, and will the second part “Diagnosis and Recommendations” by published alongside?