Lib Dems vow to abolish prison sentences for drug users
Those caught with drugs intended for personal use will not be sent to prison if the Liberal Democrats win next year's general election.
Nick Clegg's party will pledge that if no other offence has been committed then offenders should be subject to alternative sentences. The party believes that transferring the issue of drug use from the realm of the Home Office to that of the Department of Health would be a better use of resources and would reduce punitive punishments for minor drug use.
Every year, more than 1,000 people in England and Wales are sent to prison for personal drug use. Instead, the Lib Dems advocate the use of civil penalties such as fines to punish offenders.
If someone is found in possession of class A drugs like cocaine, they could face up to seven years in jail. The toughest sentence for class B drugs is five years, for class C drugs its two years. The announcement was not entirely surprising given previous comments made by the Lib Dem leader on the issue.
Back in February, Nick Clegg declared the war on drugs was unwinnable, and a fundamental rethink of current policy was needed.
Speaking on a visit to Colombia, the deputy prime minister said the UK must end the conspiracy of silence surrounding the failure of prohibition, telling the BBC: "If you are anti-drugs you should be pro-reform."
Last year, Clegg called for a Royal Commission on drugs, which was promptly rejected by the Prime Minister. David Cameron's unwillingness to have an independent commission investigate the issue reflects just how weak the case for prohibtion has become in light of reams of evidence from around the world.
Over the last 20 years the price of drugs has dramatically declined, and purity has increased, despite greater levels of interdiction than at any point in history, according to a report released last year by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP).
The ICSDP cites the price declines in Europe of 51 per cent for cocaine and 74 per cent for heroin between the years 1990 and 2010, as evidence of the failure of law enforcement officials to restrict the supply of drugs.
The Lib Dems' proposals echo the Portuguese model, which MPs like Julian Huppert have supported for some time.
In 2001, Portugal decriminalised drugs after a massive spike in drug-related pathologies in the 1990s. Ten years after the reforms were introduced, the number of addicts halved and Portugal's drug usage rates are now among the lowest in the EU.