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Many
thanks to Duncan Cameron, from Parents
Against Lethal Addictive Drugs (PALAD) for the below information
and permission to use it.
Parents
Against Lethal Addictive Drugs began as an informal group of parents
concerned about the drug problems faced by their children. After reading
Government reports they were shocked to find that the harm caused by
illegal drugs is far outweighed by the harm caused by legal drugs, notably
alcohol and tobacco. After further research, they came to the opinion
that the current drug laws are doing far more harm than good, not least
because they appear to encourage the use of the most harmful drugs and
discourage any use of other less harmful drugs. Cannabis is, whilst
certainly not harmless, considerably safer for most people than alcohol
or tobacco. PALAD have called for cannabis to be legalised and regulated.
It is apparent that whatever the drug laws are based on it cannot be
on the relative harm of the use of a substance. PALAD want to expose
this finding to the public and challenge the Government to respond appropriately.
Duncan
contacted UKCIA expressing his concern that the Advisory
Council on the Misuse of Drugs - the Government's "statutory
independent advisory body" on the subject of drugs - was failing
to follow the Governmental Code of Practise for Scientific Committees
or Government-issued guidelines on risk assessment, risk management,
health policy and good regulation. He provided a summary of his concerns
below:
-
The ACMD has a statutory duty under section 1 of the Misuse
of Drugs Act 1971 to provide Government with risk assessments
and regulatory advice concerning the traditional drugs alcohol,
tobacco and caffeine. There is no exclusion clause for these
drugs in section 1 of the MDA.
- The
independence of the ACMD's scientific advice is compromised
by Government pressure for them to exclude traditional drugs
from their advice, contradicting the requirement for independence
in the Code of Practise for Scientific Committees. The ACMD
use the word 'drugs' to refer to illegal drugs only, contradicting
the use of the word in the MDA.
- Risk
assessments by the ACMD/Government are biased by risk familiarity,
a known factor that influences risk perception. The familiar
risks associated with traditional drugs have been underestimated
and the unfamiliar risks from non-traditional drugs overestimated,
with respective regulations proportionately biased.
- Risk
management/regulatory advice from the ACMD fails to distinguish
between the voluntary risk of self-harm, managed through education,
and the risk of imposing harm on others, managed through legislation.
This contradicts the Government's risk management guidelines
(the Strategy Unit's Risk: improving government capability
to handle risks and uncertainty) and health policies to encourage
individual responsibility through informed choice (Saving
lives: Our healthier nation, the Wanless report Securing good
health for the whole population [2004] and the Strategy Unit's
Personal responsibility and changing behaviour).
- The
ACMD's regulatory advice does not comply with the Better Regulation
Task Force's Principles of Good Regulation, which include
the principles of Consistency, Targeting and Proportionality.
The ACMD's advice:
- is
not consistent with existing regulations for traditional
drugs;
-
is not targeted only at the problem, harmful drug use,
but at all drug use; and
-
is not proportional to risk (drug dealers may supply a
drug that warns it kills, tobacco, but face punishment
if they sell safer alternatives like cannabis).
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Duncan
submitted a comprehensive
report to the Committee
on Standards in Public Life. His aim is to force the Government
to be "transparent about the reasons for prohibition: there is
no evidence that illegal drugs are more harmful than legal drugs but
UN Drug Conventions require the UK to prohibit their trade. Once the
public appreciates these facts public opinion may change faster."
PALAD
would welcome any feedback about this report and their general approach.
Please provide feedback via email to info@palad.org.uk.
UKCIA will await the response to this report and PALAD's further work
with great interest.
Other
relevant links:
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