William’s ‘big question’: If we legalise drugs, what are risks?
PRINCE William publicly raised the contentious question of whether drugs should be legalised on a visit to an addiction charity yesterday.
He asked former addicts for their views on the controversial issue and even debated whether jailing drug users could tackle the ‘root cause’ of their addictions.
William carefully steered clear of voicing an opinion himself. But drugs campaigners said he had gone ‘where angels fear to tread’ merely by mentioning the topic.
Visiting Spitalfields Crypt Trust in Shoreditch, East London, the prince asked the group of exdrug and alcohol addicts: ‘Can I ask you a very massive question – it’s a big one. There’s obviously a lot of pressure growing on areas about legalising drugs. What are your individual opinions on that? I know it’s a big question, but you seem like the key people to actually get a very good idea as what the big dangers here are – what are the feelings?’
Heather Blackburn, 49, from Hackney, East London, who did not disclose what her addiction had been, replied: ‘I think that it would be a good idea but the money is kind of wasted on drug laws, that put people in prison...
‘Most of the people I’ve known in recovery, 95 per cent have massive trauma and terrible stuff happen to them, and [were] using drugs to cope and then you get put in prison you don’t get the facilities and actual help you need. You get punished – which is not going to stop anyone taking drugs.’
Clearly interested, William continued: ‘So there needs to be more of a social element to it?... So prison doesn’t tackle the root cause of why someone is taking drugs?’ Miss Blackburn replied: ‘No, it just punishes.’
Recovering alcoholic Grace Gunn, 19, said: ‘You can’t just say, “drugs are illegal” or “now we can all go and do drugs”, because it doesn’t stop the fact we’re a nation of people hurting, and we can’t undo all that overnight, it takes a long period of time.’
Miss Gunn, who is training to be a midwife, added: ‘There are still drugs in prison, you can’t eliminate that fact that people do get drugs into prison.
‘But I’m a true believer people who end up in these places, we’re damaged people. Whether that’s through trauma or our relationship with parents or family or carer, and I think one thing to start the process, there has to be money in mental health therapy.
‘You can’t have two-year waiting lists for trauma therapy – I’ve been waiting five years.’ At the end of the discussion, the prince told the group: ‘Thank you, it’s a very useful little snapshot.
‘You guys have seen it and it’s affected your lives in ways I can only imagine, so it’s very interesting to hear that from you.
‘Talking to you and being here it feels like a question I had to ask, I appreciate your honesty.’ A royal aide stressed that while William had been careful not to proffer a personal opinion, he was ‘not immune’ to the debate.
‘He has long taken a keen interest in the issue of homelessness and is not immune to the fact that addiction can play a big part in this. If there is a social issue then he believes it is important not to talk about it in the abstract but ask questions of and listen to those who are affected.’
The aide said his question had prompted debate at the meeting, with strong views both for and against legalisation expressed.
But drugs expert Kathy Gyngell, a fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said William had strayed into ‘contentious political territory’.
She said: ‘As far as prison and drugs goes, the jury is out. For some drug addicts, prison does work. The essential thing is that illegal drugs are extremely harmful and legalising them increases use and increases the harm done.
‘All the evidence from the US and elsewhere points in this direction. In particular, it is cruel to make heroin legally available to addicts. That only keeps people addicted. The prince has strayed unwittingly into very contentious and much-manipulated political territory.’
David Raynes, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said William asked the addicts the right question but suggested he had been misled. ‘Drug addicts often say it is wrong to send people to prison for taking drugs. But the idea that people go to prison for taking drugs is a myth. It happens very rarely.
‘People who have taken drugs for their personal use may well go prison if they have committed other serious crimes, or if they are convicted for dealing.’
Transform, a think-tank which campaigns for drug law reform, said William had shown courage.
‘Going where angels fear to tread, the prince is asking the hardest question in an area that has been tragically neglected by our most senior politicians. Legalisation would better protect the most vulnerable people in society by putting government, not gangsters in control of the drug trade.’
Spitalfields Crypt Trust chief executive Steve Coles said: ‘He genuinely wanted to come to listen and learn. I thought it was a very interesting question [about legalising drugs]. I think he’s open, he wants to listen and get that first-hand experience.’
‘Increases the harm done’