| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Police in Grosvenor Road | |
| Posted by: | Philip Walsh | |
| Date/Time: | 14/10/11 11:55:00 |
| Home Office Crime and Drug Strategy Directorate May 2006 [Note (July 2010): This a draft of a consultation paper which was not, in fact, approved for publication in 2006. The draft is being released under Freedom of Information legislation.] This is only the part dealing with your favourite drug and and the one many people like to go with it! The whole report if you are interested can be found here; http://www.drugequality.org/files/Review_of_Drugs_Classification_Consultation_Paper.pdf Legal and Socially Accepted Substances Relationships with alcohol and tobacco 6.1 People have used substances that alter mental functioning almost since the beginning of time. Some are, or have become socially acceptable, whilst others have been made illegal. Alcohol and tobacco have a long tradition of social acceptability in the majority of countries across the world (with the obvious exception of Muslim countries in respect of alcohol, whilst tobacco is becoming less acceptable in certain countries). The production, marketing and distribution of these undoubtedly harmful substances tend to operate within a regulated regime of supply. The regulations generally aim to minimise access to children and young people determined by age (16 for tobacco, 18 for alcohol in the UK). 6.2 There are also restrictions on where it is acceptable to consume these products and there are considerable restrictions on advertising their use. Regulations are also imposed to limit strength and potency of these products recognising that access to very high strengths would be even more damaging to public health. 6.3 To many young people the regulation of tobacco and alcohol and the prohibition of drugs presents a dichotomy in terms of harm. They question why substances of considerable harm such as cigarettes and alcohol are able to be consumed relatively easily when possessing a drug like cannabis can lead to prosecution. Alcohol 6.4 Around a quarter of the UK adult population drink above the recommended weekly guidelines, which increases the risk of causing or experiencing alcohol-related harms. The Department of Health have calculated that the cost of alcohol-related harms in England alone is up to £20bn per annum. These harms include: • harms to health; • crime and anti-social behaviour; • loss of productivity in the workplace; and • social harms, such as family breakdown. 6.5 The Department of Health estimate there are over 30,000 hospital admissions annually for alcohol dependence and up to 22,000 premature deaths per annum. Tobacco 6.6 Although tobacco use has decreased in the UK over the last 30 years here are still 106,000 deaths in the UK caused by smoking every year (84,900 in England). Smoking costs the NHS about £1.5bn per year. Main diseases include lung cancer, bronchitis, and heart disease 6.7 Harms from tobacco are predominantly confined to the harms to 17 an individual’s health and to some extent those around the user. The social harms to tobacco use are minimal compared to alcohol. Nicotine can induce strong dependence in individuals where they find extreme difficulty in maintaining abstinence even when the damage to health is clearly apparent. Controls 6.8 There has not, in the UK, been any attempt to impose controls comparable to illicit drugs where it would be an offence to possess and supply alcohol and tobacco. The social acceptability of, for example, alcohol would make such controls unacceptable to the majority who use alcohol responsibly and therefore impractical. But alcohol and tobacco account for more health problems and deaths than illicit drugs. To many young people this presents problems in understanding the rationale behind controlling drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy when their misuse contributes less overall harm to society than widely available drugs such as alcohol and tobacco. 6.9 In terms of death, illegal drugs amounted to 1,388 in 2003 compared to about 20,000 for alcohol and 100,000 for tobacco. 6.10 In view of the harms presented by these substances a classification system could recognise these substances in a way which would stop short of imposing comparable controls. The creation of a system to assess the harmfulness of drugs on a more structured and transparent basis, as presented earlier in this paper could be extended to cover alcohol and tobacco but for comparative and messaging rather than control purposes. Acknowledging the harmfulness of alcohol and tobacco could allow young people to give greater credence to the message that all drugs are harmful and the less overall misuse the better for individuals, their communities and society as a whole. 6.11 This approach would allow for a more logically consistent approach to substance misuse. However most people would not want to see the drugs classification system as a mechanism for regulating legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco. If applied to legal as well as illegal substances, this would conflict with deeply embedded historical tradition and tolerance of consumption of a number of substances that alter mental functioning. Why was this report not published? It certainly does not seem to be due to health concerns does it! |