Adam Smith Institute

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UK drug policy is decades out of date – Charlotte Bowyer writes for CityAM

Head of Digital Policy for the Adam Smith Institute, Charlotte Bowyer, explains how UK drug policy has failed in CityAM.

After months of delays and political squabbles, the Home Office yesterday released its survey of international approaches to drug control. Examining the policies of 13 countries around the world, it failed to find “any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country’s enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country”.

The report’s conclusions are at odds with 40 years of government policy, which centres upon the belief that harsh criminal penalties deter the (mis)use of drugs. It must have made for uncomfortable reading.

Read the full article here.