William asks addicts about drug law change

The Duke of Cambridge has entered the debate on whether drugs should be legalised, saying it is a “massive question”. The Duke, visiting a London charity, asked recovering addicts if they believed the law should be changed, calling them “the key people” to give insight on the issue.

THE Duke of Cambridge has entered the debate on whether to legalise drugs in Britain, saying it is now a “massive question” to be faced.

The Duke, who was visiting a charity, asked recovering addicts whether they believed the law on illegal substances should be changed, calling them “the key people” to give insight on the “big dangers” surrounding drug use. Saying it “feels like a question I had to ask”, the Duke acknowledged the “growing pressure” to change the regulation of drugs use in the UK.

Royal aides emphasised that the Duke had been careful not to offer his own opinion, but said he was “not immune” to the debate after working with charities helping those affected by addiction. The Home Office said the Government “has no plans to decriminalise drug misuse”. The Liberal Democrat’s most recent general election manifesto called for the legalisation of cannabis

so that it could be sold in a regulated market. Last year, a report from the Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health suggested that the “war on drugs” had failed. It argued criminalising drugs lead to greater long-term harm by causing users to be excluded from employment and education, as well as exposing them to more drugs in prison.

Yesterday, the Duke spoke as he visited the Spitalfields Crypt Trust (SCT), which for more than 50 years has provided services for alcohol and drug addicts. Sitting in an art room used by the charity based in Shoreditch, London, the Duke spoke to recovering addicts, who had been affected by drugs or alcohol.

“Can I ask you a very massive question – it’s a big one,“he said. “There’s obviously a lot of pressure growing in areas about legalising drugs and things like that. What are your individual opinions on that?”

Heather Blackburn, 49, said she thought the legalisation of drugs was “a good idea”, with the money used to prosecute users better spent on help for those who turned to illegal substances after “massive trauma”.