Coalition of UK police denounce War on Drugs

Today, February 29th – or ‘leap day’ – has marked the launch of LEAP UK: the British chapter of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The organisation’s executive director, Jason Reed, marked the occasion by convening a lively discussion in the House of Commons with a host of law enforcement veterans, as well as policymakers and drug law experts. Speakers gathered from across the political spectrum, and across the world, to make a case for drug policy reform – primarily an end to the War on Drugs, and the prohibitionist policies that accompany it.

Suzanne Sharkey, a former constable and undercover operative of the Northumbria Constabulary, denounced the lack of empathy in contemporary drug policy. “We need solutions based in health and compassion”, Sharkey implored, while disparaging the current approach of criminalising addicts. There is no chance of success, for drug users or society, by continuing to arrest “poor and deprived people with little or no hope”.

James Duffy, the former Chair of the Strathclyde Police Federation, directed his message at concerned parents – many who may think that drug legalisation increases the likelihood of their children using dangerous substances. “Drug dealers decide what they sell to your children”, he asserted, “they choose the drugs’ purity, they choose what to cut it with, and they never check ID”.

The reform of drug policy should appeal to people and policymakers, regardless of their political persuasion. Norman Lamb, an MP for the Liberal Democrats and former Health minister, proclaimed that punishing people for drug use has been ”the most discredited public policy” and quipped that it was “started by the most discredited US president, Richard Nixon”.

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