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Green Party MP for Brighton
Pavilion Caroline Lucas tells
David Gilliver
why she wants the
government to acknowledge that
‘current policy is flawed’
‘As an MP for a city with such high levels of drug-related harm, it would be
negligent of me not to ask whether we could be doing things differently,’
says
Caroline Lucas. ‘As well as identifying the national policies that get in the way.’
A member of the Green Party since 1986, she became one of the party’s first
MEPs in 1999 and was made party leader in 2008, before being elected the UK’s
first ever Green MP – ‘a privilege’, she says – for the constituency of Brighton
Pavilion in 2010.
She’s currently enthused about a Private Members’ Bill she’s about to present
calling for the railways to brought back into public hands as franchises expire –
‘potentially saving the Treasury more than a billion pounds a year’, she says – but
she’s long been interested in drug policy as well, sparked by a sense of injustice at
seeing people ‘pointlessly criminalised’ and by frustration at what she considers
to be doomed policies. ‘On an intellectual level it’s clear that current policies are
failing,’ she says. ‘But I’ve also seen first-hand the terrible effects that’s having.’
Brighton is famous for many things, but the grimmest was always the
number of drug-related fatalities in the city, earning it an unenviable reputation
as ‘drug-death capital of the UK’. Recent signs are encouraging, however. From
50 drug-related deaths in 2009, the number fell to 35 the following year, and,
according to the
Independent drugs commission for Brighton & Hove
report from
earlier this year (
DDN
, May, page 5), the indications are that ‘the trend is being
continued through 2011 and 2012’.
Problem drug use is still clearly a major issue in the city, but does she think
it’s fair to say that the situation is improving? ‘Levels of drug-related harm and
deaths in Brighton and Hove are still worryingly high, but good progress is
being made,’ she says. ‘In the last few years we’ve seen, for example, a 17 per
cent increase in numbers of people leaving treatment successfully, compared to
the 7 per cent national average.’
Some of these improvements can be attributed to ‘different approaches
being taken locally, in particular through intelligent commissioning,’ she says.
‘And we are saving more lives thanks to initiatives like making naloxone more
widely available.’
In terms of different approaches taken locally, while the Brighton and Hove
drug commission’s report included 20 recommendations – among them increased
training in naloxone administration, better data collection on drug use trends and
improving services for those with a dual diagnosis – the one the national media
inevitably seized on was the call to establish consumption rooms. Or rather, to
quote the actual wording of the document, to ‘convene a working group to
explore the feasibility of implementing a form of consumption room, targeting
those who are hard to reach and not engaged in treatment, as part of the range
of drug services in the city’.
16 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| August 2013
Profile |
Caroline Lucas
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Does she find that a frustration – are the press dictating the terms of the
debate? ‘It would have been great for all of the drugs commission’s
recommendations to have received the attention they deserved, but the press
stories were always going to be about drug consumption rooms, and that at
least put the report in the public eye,’ she states. ‘But I do think some of the
popular press make it very difficult to have a nuanced debate about drugs
policy. It’s clear that mainstream politicians won’t go near certain solutions – no
matter how evidence-based they are – because they’re worried about the
headlines in the
Daily Mail
.’
Nonetheless, decriminalisation is an increasingly mainstream topic of
discussion in the media these days, something that was unthinkable a few
years ago. ‘We’re not there yet – the immediate goal is the impact assessment,’
she says, referring to the call for a comprehensive review of the 1971 Misuse of
Drugs Act (
DDN
, June 2011, page 5). According to the petition she’s created on
the government’s e-petition website, ‘nobody is checking whether Britain's
current approach is value for money or money wasted’.
It’s primarily about ‘getting the government to at least acknowledge that
current policy is flawed,’ she stresses. ‘However, I don’t think decriminalisation
in the future is out of the question, by any means. Some societies that you
might think of as socially conservative – Portugal and Switzerland, for example
– have introduced decriminalisation, or other policies based on health not
crime, and seen positive results. If you believe in evidence-based policy-making
and want to reduce drug-related harm, this is the logical first step.’
*****
She recently coordinated an open letter to the
Times
which, along with urging the
government to agree to an independent review of the Act, exhorted the coalition
to join ‘the global effort towards an alternative strategy based on evidence’. How
confident is she that messages like that are going to be taken on board?
‘I’d like to think that there’s a point at which ministers have to change
course, just because the evidence is so compelling,’ she states. ‘But it’s difficult
to say when. Certainly we’re making the case very strongly, and in terms that
should appeal to ministers – our arguments are all about reducing the harms
caused by drug addiction and using taxpayers’ money more effectively.’
On that note, does she feel that moving drug and alcohol treatment to local
authorities, overseen by Public Health England, was the right thing to do? ‘It’s
vital that everyone gets the drug and alcohol treatment they need,’ she says. ‘I
think this is undermined by the fragmentation of the NHS, and there’s a risk
that services will be poorly integrated and people will fall between the gaps. I
just hope that – as in Brighton and Hove – local authorities will continue to
make drug and health services a priority.’
The UN’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26
June saw her donning a Richard Nixon mask outside the Houses of Parliament
(
DDN
, July, page 4), as one of those protesting to ‘reclaim’ the date as part of
the
Support. Don’t Punish
day of action. What made her decide to back the
campaign?
‘Because the whole “war on drugs” approach is colossally damaging,’ she says.
‘It has meant the mass imprisonment of people who use drugs. It has allowed the
international trade in illegal drugs to thrive. And, after decades, it has completely
failed to reduce drug-related harm. Governments need to adopt approaches
based on evidence, which deal with addiction as a health issue.’
DDN