HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/drugs/green.party

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 13KB | 174 lines

The Green Party
Policy on Drugs Use
(Adopted Spring Conference 1993)

Background

DU100 Throughout history, psychoactive substances have been used by all societies and are likely to continue to
be used in one form or another.  The extent to which people use drugs depends not only on the availability of such
substances but also on social, economic and environmental factors.

DU101 Drug use - whether experimental, recreational or dependant - can have a damaging effect not only on the
user but also on the user's family and friends.  The illegal drugs market is also having an increasingly harmful
effect on society at large, mainly because of two problems:  crime and HIV.  Powerful criminal organisations are
involved in the drugs market and a significant proportion of acquisitive crime is committed by dependent drug users
to fund drug use. Shared drug use by injection is currently a significant transmission route for HIV, a major threat
to public health.

DU102 In recent years, the 'drugs problem' has been largely equated with the use of illegal drugs.  This has had
the effect of diverting attention away from the dire social and health consequences of legal drugs, principally
alcohol, tobacco and inappropriately prescribed tranqillisers.  Between them, these cause the loss of thousands of
lives every year and much pain and disability for both users and non-users of these drugs.

DU103 The legal drugs, principally tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs, are widely promoted through
advertising, sponsorship and corporate pressure.  As a result, their use is generally accepted by society and efforts
to control usage largely rely on a mixture of taxation, education, restrictions of sale and use to adults or certain
places, and voluntary restraint.

DU104  Under prohibition, illegal drugs are made not only more attractive to some, but also tend to be more
poisonous and expensive. Consequently, users become more unhealthy and more likely to steal or deal.  The cost
of enforcing prohibition is becoming increasingly untenable.

DU105  Raves/pay parties/free festivals and the like have proved an enduring setting in which various drugs are
consumed by many tens of thousands of young people across the country.  Unlicensed and unregulated events, kept
underground by prohibition, are held regularly in overcrowded venues or inappropriate sites that fail to meet health
and fire regulations, at which ventilation and provision of refreshment are inadequate and to which the emergency
services would be unable to gain access if needed.  The popularity of these events and their proliferation in spite
of attempts to suppress them makes the adoption of a more liberal approach coupled with a system of regulation
a matter of the highest urgency.

DU106  Small scale farmers in the underdeveloped South often rely heavily on the hard currency they can receive
from drug crop harvests.  Strategies by rich, drug-importing nations to eradicate drug crops, such as cash
compensation, have proved woefully inadequate and are usually jeopardised by corrupt bureaucracies.  Crop
substitution has also repeatedly failed because of depressed commodity prices for third world exports.


Principles

DU200  Government response to the issue of drug use is inconsistent: neither the legal status of different substances
nor the targetting of government expenditure on information/education are commensurate with the harm different
drugs do to the individual or society.

DU201 Prohibition does not prevent drug use by adults or children and leads to the creation of an illicit market,
an increase in consumption due to pyramid selling and the criminalization and marginalisation of those who use
drugs.  Prohibition is counter-productive; it is more damaging to the drug user, the community and society than
the drug use it seeks to eliminate.

DU202  Social custom, convention and ritual play a vital part in the moderate and responsible use of all drugs.
The development and perpetuation of these customs are inhibited and eroded by prohibition and, to some extent,
by all interventions by government or state agencies.

DU203  The Green Party therefore seeks to open up the whole issue of drug use to the public and regards the
supply of adequate, clear, free and accessible information as vital to the process of both reducing drug use and
minimising harm from drug use.

DU204  Interventions by importing nations, such as support for international drug-crop eradication and
crop-substitution programmes are both economically unfeasible and ecologically damaging.  Measures such as
increased military aid for repressive regimes against drug cultivation, as well as being morally indefensible, run
the risk of fueling political destabilisation.

DU205  In addition to instances of direct complicity in international drug traffic by agencies of importing nations,
there is also an element of hypocrisy in the fact that whilst campaigns against drugs are being waged, rich nations
are simultaneously trying to swamp many poorer countries' markets with the products of their own tobacco,
alcohol and pharmaceutical industries.


Aims

DU300 In keeping with the Green Party's health promoting policies, the Green Party would aim to minimise the
misuse of drugs.

DU301 At the same time, we recognise that drug use will never be entirely eliminated.  Our policies would aim,
therefore, to minimise the social, psychological and physical harm to those who use drugs and to society at large.



Policy

DU400 Tobacco smoking is the principal cause of premature death in the United Kingdom.  In view of the
considerable dangers to the health of both smoker and non-smoker, the Green Party would introduce legislation
prohibiting smoking in all enclosed premises to which the public has access.  Exemption licenses could be applied
for.  The Green Party would also promote, by legislation if necessary, the setting-up of workplace smoking
policies.

DU401  The Green Party would introduce a complete ban on the promotion of tobacco and alcohol products,
including sponsorship, advertising (direct or indirect) and product placement for remuneration or reward.

DU402  The effect on consumption of taxation on the sale of tobacco and alcohol would be subject to continued
review and, where appropriate, these legal drugs would be taxed at a higher rate than at present.  In addition, both
the net profits of tobacco companies and companies producing alcohol for consumption, and the dividends paid
to shareholders of these companies would attract a significantly higher rate of taxation than at present.  The tax
levied on alcohol products would be in proportion to the amount of alcohol in the finished product.

DU403  To facilitate the responsible drinking of alcohol by both adults and young people, the Green Party would
encourage the option of serving alcohol in smaller measures and require suppliers to provide accurate information
about the unit alcohol content.

DU404 Penalties for driving whilst under the influence of alcohol or other drugs likely to adversely affect the
ability to drive would be increased and the permitted blood/alcohol ratio of drivers would be reduced.

DU405 Small-scale possession of drugs for personal use would be decriminalized.  The starting-point would be
advice to policing authorities to caution rather than prosecute for offences of drug possession for personal use and
to refer offenders to healthcare services.  Subsequently, Regulations would be brought forward removing criminal
sanctions for simple possession of controlled drugs for personal use.  The recommended sentences for small-scale
supply would be non-custodial options.  The cultivation of the plant genus Cannabis would no longer in itself be
a criminal offence, nor would the possession of pipes made for use in connection with the smoking of opium.

DU406 Policing authorities would be encouraged to focus detection resources on major drug trafficking operations.
Unauthorized production, importation and marketing of all drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971)
would remain criminal offences. Fines, confiscation of assets and prison sentences would continue to be imposed
for serious drug trafficking offences.

DU407  The Green Party would seek to establish independent committees to oversee the structure of regulation
for raves/pay parties/free festivals.  These committees would ideally be made up of representatives of the promoters
and attenders themselves, the local authority, the Police Authority and the Local Health Authority.  The local
authority would be responsible for ensuring such events meet the necessary regulations and issuing licenses.  The
Police Authority would have responsiblility for ensuring adequate coverage by emergency services and for the
training and regulation of 'bouncers' or others policing the event.  The Local Health Authority would provide
unbiased information and guidance on health and drug use in connection with such events.

DU408  The Green Party would facilitate the establishment of a licenced non-statutory service providing analysis
of any drug regardless of source.  This service would be available for a small fee both to organisations and to
members of the public and would be confidential, although statistical information from results would be published
periodically.

DU409 General information and health education relating to all drugs, both legal and illegal, would be improved
with separate approaches to three target groups: young people, those who use drugs and the general public.  The
Green Party would encourage counselling and advice on drugs to be available to everyone and especially to
children and young people by the provision of non-stautory services in schools, youth projects and via street
outreach.  These services would be free and confidential.

DU410 The Green Party would provide an additional health service budget to fund an increase in the range and
number of facilities, both residential and non-residential, for people with drug-related problems.  Such facilities
would be available on the NHS to all who needed them. Local government support for individually-inspired
enterprises such as self-help groups would be encouraged.

DU411  In particular, each Local Health Authority would be provided with sufficient resources to establish
appropriate drug use clinics and needle exchange schemes and to ensure the provision of needle sterilization
facilities for use by prisoners.  Related health programmes would also be resourced.

DU412  Resources, including greater support and training, would be made available to LHAs for certain medical
practitioners to provide long-term (maintenance) prescriptions of drugs to people, including those in prison, who
are unable or unwilling to stop, with the aim of reducing the harmful consequences - including health and social
problems (especially the spread of HIV), pyramid-selling and acquisitive crime.  For this purpose, Regulations
would be brought forward ending, where appropriate, the prohibition on the prescribing and dispensing of certain
drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act.  Evaluation would be a built-in component of this harm-minimisation
strategy.

DU413 A proportion of the fines and assets of convicted drug traffickers would be used to fund research into drug
use and reducing drug-related harm, to supplement the additional health service budget referred to above and
resource the substitution of water-based glues etc., in place of solvent-based products currently misused.

DU414 The Green Party would publicise the fact that as long as there are wide differences in living standards
between the nations of the world, there will always be an incentive for the poorer countries to produce drug crops
if a ready market exists for them in richer countries.

DU415  Support for international drug-crop eradication and substitution programmes would be ended.

DU416  Poor countries for whose economic survival the cultivation of drug crops (legal or illegal) is critical will
be identified.  The Green Party would launch a series of initiatives which would offer realistic alternative trading
arrangements in more ecologically and socially-benign commodities with the communities that are directly
involved.  Such 'Trade Substitution Initiatives' would be small-scale in nature, with minimal bureaucratic
intervention and would aim to provide genuine opportunities for individual farming communities to move away
from drug-centred economic activity.