Our flawed drugs policy puts the young in danger

12 April 2012

Here's the toss-up: take an illegal drug such as ketamine, cannabis or MDMA. We know their effects and the potential health risks - and you risk two to seven years in prison, a ruined career, a hopeless future.

Or, as an alternative, take a "legal high" - sold on the internet, easily available. It's a gamble. There's no research on the drugs and they could be harmful - but get caught with the pills in your pocket and you'll walk free. Which sounds less risky?

Yesterday we heard that former MI5 chief Baroness Manningham-Buller, a member of an all-party group on drugs policy, will recommend the decriminalisation of cannabis in a speech to a drugs policy conference.This would mean that for taking and possessing the drug, users would not be prosecuted. The group brandishes the example of Portugal where the decriminalisation of drug possession 10 years ago has halved drug abuse in the country.

It's a valiant battle, yet the Home Office made its standpoint on decriminalisation clear last month when the Government's official drugs advisers, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), made a similar suggestion. It said that "drugs are illegal because they are harmful".

This is not only unhelpfully blinkered. It is also inaccurate.

In April last year, a rush ban on mephedrone (or meow-meow) turned what had been a so-called "legal high", widely sold over the internet labelled as plant food, into a Class B drug. Since little scientific research had ever been done on the drug and its harms, it was surely a moral, not a scientific, decision.

Our drugs classification system remains deeply flawed. Penalties bear little relation to the relative harm of substances.

Magic mushrooms were made Class A in 2005, another snap decision, despite it being almost impossible to overdose on them. Cannabis, which doesn't cause death but has shown some links to psychotic disorders, returned to being Class B from Class C in 2009, against scientific advice. Tobacco, however, more harmful than both, is legal.

Tellingly, usage of MDMA - currently a Class A drug, although research ranks it as one of the least harmful club drugs - has dipped since 2002 when "legal highs" became readily available and recreational drug users swapped the risk of a seven-year jail sentence for potentially lethal but legal substances we know nothing about.

Why Baroness Manningham-Buller has not chosen MDMA rather than cannabis as her focus is not clear. But compare the potential harm of the criminal record MDMA carries for possession to the damage it might (or might not) do to your body and it seems the most logical place to start.

Despite its classification, young people continue to take mephedrone - with some studies showing that it is now the most popular illegal club drug. Now that it is controlled, there is little incentive to carry out further research on the substance (a recent ACMD report puts the death toll at 42, yet these were not related only to mephedrone.) But one danger is clear: the maximum five-year jail term for carrying it, with that ruined future.

For those who don't want to take that particular risk, the solution is simple, if terrifying. They head back to those "legal high" websites, find a newly synthesised compound and play guinea pig.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in