Time for drug law reform, our kids are trapped in the system.. we must legalise, regulate and educate

Ronnie Cowan, MP for Inverclyde and vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on drugs policy reform, makes a powerful call for a rethink on drugs laws that prosecute young people who might otherwise be helped out of a life of crime

WHEN problematic drug users look for help, it can sometimes be difficult to find.

Family members are often reluctant to step forward in the early stages, hoping they will simply stop using and not wanting to out their loved one, or maybe a friend, as a criminal.

Even in the very early stages, the criminal status gets in the way of recovery. The producer is a criminal, the distributor is a criminal, the supplier is a criminal, the small-time dealer is a criminal.

None of these people wants the users to stop. And the users are powerless to alter the system that is dragging them under.

Kids are drawn into the chain of command. Selling a bit here and there to their mates and slowly being groomed to sell more.

When you are a kid in a deprived estate surrounded by people using, you may be in a position where you can see no way out. You may suffer from a lack of education or a poverty of aspiration. Yet you can sell pills in clubs and make a very tidy living from a young age.

What are you going to do? You are trapped, as much a victim as any user. You have no power over the supply, the usage or the system.

The law enforcement agencies who are charged with halting the production and supply are often required to put themselves in a position of extreme danger.

Working undercover or running informants involves getting close to dangerous people with a lot to lose. The violence used by criminals to protect their share of the drug market is growing year upon year.

Sending people to prison does not rehabilitate them – it is more likely to condemn them to a life of crime and punishment.

And law enforcement agencies are powerless to alter the system that wastes their time, energy, abilities and taxpayers’ money.

Medical professionals and support workers are caught between a criminal justice system that prosecutes and persecutes in equal measures. Funding is often based on producing measurable results, even if these results are not the most appropriate.

Those seeking to help have their hands tied by a legal system constructed around the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The obstacles placed in the way of establishing safe drug consumption rooms being a case in point.

Bad legislation is harming people and stopping the help that they require from being provided. And medics, carers and support workers are powerless to affect the change that is so obvious.

The problematic users, the kids on estates, the law enforcers, the medical professionals, the support workers are all fighting a losing battle because they can’t change the system.

And that’s why – as drugs deaths increase, the crime rate surrounding drugs increases, the violence escalates year in, year out and more and more people suffer – those responsible for the existing system should get on with fixing it.

The only people who can do that are the MPs at Westminster.

The UK Government have the power but they lack the knowledge, the desire or the compassion to legislate for change that would revolutionise healthcare and relieve the burden on the judicial system.

We have allowed this to happen, largely by turning a blind eye to the problem. It is time to apologise to all the victims of the war on drugs and make those changes.

MPs created the system. MPs can fix it. It is time to legalise, regulate, educate and support.

We can’t win the war on drugs but we can win the peace.

Bad legislation is harming people .. MPs created the system. They can fix it RONNIE COWAN