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Drug Classification

I am pleased to speak in this packed Chamber to open the debate on the Science and Technology Committee’s report, ““Drug classification: making a hash of it?”” Our report, on the classification of illegal drugs, was part of an over-arching inquiry. Although it stood as a one-off piece, it was also part of a major piece of work that the Committee did on scientific advice and risk and evidence-based policy making in government. We chose to examine drug classification for a variety of reasons, but mainly because the misuse of illegal drugs is a major public health, criminal and social problem. That was confirmed in the recent Reuter-Stevens report for the UK Drug Policy Commission, which concluded:"““The United Kingdom has the highest level of dependent drug use and among the highest levels of recreational drug use in Europe.””" That was a powerful statement to make and it is why everybody in the Chamber takes the issue seriously. The classification system plays a key role in directing Government resources for tackling illegal drugs. About 75 per cent. of the total budget in the area is spent on enforcing drug laws, at the heart of which is the drug classification system. At the heart of our inquiry was a simple question: is the system fit for purpose? As such, we examined in detail the role played by the Government’s scientific advisory committee on the matter, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Given the highly critical nature of our report, the responses from both the Government and the ACMD were extremely disappointing. The Government rejected more than half our conclusions and recommendations, and the response from the ACMD was unnecessarily aggressive. We felt that large elements of our report were totally misunderstood and misrepresented.