Progressive European Party

 

From the Progressive European Party Manifesto 2017

Crime and drugs. 

Synopsis

The link between crime and drugs Placing the supply and use of drugs under public supervision Making accurate knowledge about drugs available to the public Controlling the supply acquisition and use of drugs Treating people whose lives have been shattered by drugs.

Few can now seriously challenge the direct link between rising long-term crime figures and the increasingly ubiquitous use of drugs. Eighty three percent of convicted criminals admit to having used drugs and a very large proportion of crimes are committed while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. For the present purposes alcohol and tobacco are treated no differently from other drugs.

At least two other factors have contributed to this steady rise:

1. The fact that activities which are widespread and commonplace among young people are presently classified as “criminal”. 2. The fact that costly and currently illegal drug-addictions are often supported by petty theft, muggings and other violent crimes.

Progressive policy is based upon four principles which arise, in their turn, from Free-Test methodology. These policy principles are:

Legalise Inform Control Treat

A. Legalisation

Historical evidence suggests that, prior to the introduction of legislation preventing the universal availability of most drugs, the social ills that attended drug-use were, in fact, less severe than the problems which we experience today.

It is certainly much easier to regulate and control a process if there is no need for it to be ‘hidden”. The American experiment with “Prohibition” of alcohol is but one of many social experiments which have repeatedly confirmed this simple and obvious truth. When alcohol was “prohibited” it was simply driven underground. Illicit production flourished. “Speakeasies” proliferated. The trade in alcohol received an enormous stimulus.

The Progressive European Party therefore proposes to legalise (not merely “decriminalise”) the private use of all currently popular drugs and to create a licensing system which will enable the the supply and use of drugs to be supervised effectively and stringently regulated.

Mere “decriminalisation” of small-scale possession of certain drugs, like most half-measures, would be unsatisfactory. It would leave the supply of these substances in the hands of criminal organisations.

Only by bringing drug-use out into the open can we hope to counteract its baneful personal and social effects and to put an end to the power of the criminal fraternities.

B. Information

To make drugs widely available without warning people of the possible dangers attendant on their use would be irresponsible. We therefore propose to launch a comprehensive public drugs-education campaign giving detailed information based upon the best available evidence from medical and social research.

This information will be targeted at schools and prisons and at the institutions of further and higher education - as well as at the general public.

The discredited “scare-campaigns” and ineffectual “just-say-no” campaigns of the past will be avoided.

C. Control

The supply of drugs will be regulated by a licensing system comparable to (but more stringent than) that which presently applies only to alcohol and tobacco. Drugs of addiction (including alcohol and tobacco) will only be available through approved outlets and purchasers will be required to furnish evidence of their age and identity before licensed drugs are released to them. Buyers will be required to sign for each purchase and quantities purchased will be electronically recorded.

Duty or tax will be payable at each stage of the import, manufacture, wholesale and retail of licensed drugs. Such duties and taxes will, however, be set at a level which permits the sale of standardised and unadulterated drugs at prices considerably lower than those that render this trade profitable to criminal organisations. In simple terms, licensed outlets will have no difficulty in undercutting the present prices of “street-drugs”. Economic factors alone will drive “dealers” out of business.

Standards to regulate the relative potency, quality, purity and safety of substances and of their preparations will be strictly monitored and enforced.

Advertising of all such products will be prohibited and all packaging will display appropriate warnings.

Protection of the public from the anti-social consequences of drug use will be strengthened. Legal provisions which currently apply only to those under the influence of alcohol and some other drugs will be extended to cover the use of all other licensed drugs. In some cases, where recorded purchases are excessive, compulsory treatment of chronic addiction will be necessary (see D. below).

D. Treatment

In addition to financing drugs-education and public awareness campaigns, revenues from taxation of the production and sale of licensed substances will be employed to ensure that comprehensive treatment facilities are available in all Territories of the Union of Kingdoms to help those whose drug-use has become problematic.

Patients will be accepted on a voluntary basis or as a result of referral by the courts. The revisions of the Mental Health Act, in respect of persons who may be a danger to themselves or to others, will be extended to apply to those whose chronic use of drugs has placed them in this category.

We believe that this four-pronged approach to the problems associated with non-medical drug-use (Legalise, Inform, Control, Treat) has a better chance of getting our national drug-problem LICT than any of the other presently proposed strategies.

In short, the present failed “war on drugs” will be discontinued and the antiquated system that helps to create an entire criminal caste will be swept away.