In the wake of the recent drugs classification row, Jeremy Sare, 'a former head of drug legislation and ACMD secretary in the Home Office', writes in the Grauniad that:
Ministers have blundered into this complex arena [of drugs and politics] with a tabloid view of how to "fix a policy", oblivious of pesky irritations like scientific evidence. According to an old hand at the Home Office, the advisory council was "historically the driving force behind the drugs strategy". By 2007, the council was deliberately marginalised by Jacqui Smith and its secretariat pushed out to an area far from influence on drug legislation. [....] Since the publication of the disputed cannabis and ecstasy reports, officials have been "banned from speaking to council members". They are forced to meet officials surreptitiously in bars and restaurants around Westminster. No wonder Nutt and his colleagues are resentful; ministers had created a form of intellectual apartheid.
This is very worrying indeed, and the Tories' silence on this issue is foreboding. Are we likely to have a change of culture with a change of government? I fear not...
UPDATE: On the topic of drugs, Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne has found out (by Parliamentary Question) that the average fine for possessing crack cocaine is cheaper than a parking ticket. He rather sensibly points out that 'fining addicts can boomerang because crime is often their primary source of income, and more fines may mean more crime.'
Ministers have blundered into this complex arena [of drugs and politics] with a tabloid view of how to "fix a policy", oblivious of pesky irritations like scientific evidence. According to an old hand at the Home Office, the advisory council was "historically the driving force behind the drugs strategy". By 2007, the council was deliberately marginalised by Jacqui Smith and its secretariat pushed out to an area far from influence on drug legislation. [....] Since the publication of the disputed cannabis and ecstasy reports, officials have been "banned from speaking to council members". They are forced to meet officials surreptitiously in bars and restaurants around Westminster. No wonder Nutt and his colleagues are resentful; ministers had created a form of intellectual apartheid.
This is very worrying indeed, and the Tories' silence on this issue is foreboding. Are we likely to have a change of culture with a change of government? I fear not...
UPDATE: On the topic of drugs, Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne has found out (by Parliamentary Question) that the average fine for possessing crack cocaine is cheaper than a parking ticket. He rather sensibly points out that 'fining addicts can boomerang because crime is often their primary source of income, and more fines may mean more crime.'
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