I ALWAYS REMEMBER JOHN GRIEVE
, the
Metropolitan Police Commander who was a
moving force behind one of the early drug
strategies, passionately calling for an end to the
war on drugs because: ‘A war on drugs is a war on
our own young people.’
Although his argument was a moral one, he
backed it up with the practical argument that it
was impossible to prevent drugs being available,
citing as an example the large-scale heroin
problem in post-war East Berlin despite the fact
that the city was surrounded by a somewhat
notorious wall and four occupying armies.
It might be a cliché, but necessity has always been the mother of invention.
In 2005, I was part of a team that undertook a study into prison drug
markets which found a wide range of ways of getting drugs into prison,
including:
• concealed in mail and parcels
• thrown over the prison wall in oranges and dead pigeons
• brought in by visitors
• brought in by prisoners themselves, usually concealed in their anus, and
• occasionally, allegedly, smuggled in by corrupt prison staff.
There is currently widespread concern about the increased availability of legal
highs – especially synthetic cannabinoids – in most prisons, revealed by a series
of prison inspection reports and a briefing by the prison drug treatment
provider, RAPt. Admission to both prison health care and local accident and
emergency departments, assaults on fellow prisoners and staff and self-harm
are all common consequences.
This made me wonder whether prison drug smuggling approaches have
evolved over the last decade.
It appears they have. A recent Freedom of Information request by the Press
Association revealed that there were 33 recorded incidents of drones being
discovered in English and Welsh prisons in 2015 (up from two in 2014).
Drones are now very cheap and very low risk for the operator and if you’re
wondering how prisoners manage to get to the ‘payload’ before prison staff,
prison inspectors have also pointed out how the easy access to illicit mobile
phones makes planning deliveries a relatively straightforward matter.
Adherents of the war on drugs are coming up with their own responses –
more searches, new machinery to screen incoming post and people, even
training eagles to intercept drones (yes, really).
I know what John Grieve would say, though. He would say we should focus
on providing advice, information and treatment, and encourage drug-using
prisoners to look for a better life on release.
Further reading: HMIP (2015) Changing patterns of substance misuse in adult
prisons and service responses; RAPt (2015) Tackling the issue of new psychoactive
substances in prisons; Penfold, Turnbull &Webster (2005) Tackling prison drug
markets: an exploratory qualitative study. Home Office online report 39/05.
Russell Webster is a consultant and researcher specialising in alcohol, drugs,
crime and payment by results and runs a blog which aims to keep readers up to
date on these issues at
Over 50 jobs currently online:
10 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| April 2016
THERE IS NO PERFECT TEMPLATE FOR REFORM
. Different countries have
had vastly different experiences. Culture, fashion, demographics and
economics all play a part – arguably a bigger part – than state
enforcement. But the international trend is moving away from the
crudest form of ban-and-punish regime. Most cannabis users do little
harm to themselves or others, except by funding organised crime, a
function of illegality. Many who might otherwise dabble unscathed
end up harmed by the consequences of prohibition: street products of
unpredictable strength; career-ending convictions for minor offences;
retail contact with gangsters.
Guardian
editorial, 8 March
WHETHER YOU SUPPORT CANNABIS DECRIMINALISATION OR NOT
,
it’s clear that the Lib Dems have limited ability to actually influence
government policy. They have eight MPs now. Eight. Less than one
seventh of the number they had in 2010… The Lib Dems had a chance
to stand up for young people and they blew it. It’s insulting they think
this ‘cool dad’ act might be enough to turn things around.
Abi Wilkinson,
Guardian
, 9 March
THE BIG DOPE LOBBY
and its many suckers and dupes constantly
attack me for pointing out the dangers of the drug they want to
legalise… When will the twin lies that there is a ‘war on drugs’ and that
taking cannabis is a harmless, peaceable recreation, be exposed for the
dangerous falsehoods they are?
Peter Hitchens,
Mail on Sunday
, 27 March
THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS DRINKING IN THIS COUNTRY
is getting
increasingly bizarre. On the one hand you have that laugh-a-minute
health chief who says she can’t even look at a glass of wine without
ruminating on the increased risk of breast cancer, on the other you
have our motley crew of lads and ladettes drinking themselves into
oblivion in city centres… And then there are the rest of us, the vast
majority who like a glass of wine or three but tend not to run amok or
pick fights on aircraft and yet are still constantly berated for a
nighttime snifter.
Virginia Blackburn,
Express
, 10 March
GOVERNMENTS WORLDWIDE NEED TO LEARN
one crucial lesson from
the emergence of NPS. Their emergence is directly related to global
prohibition and the war on drugs we have been fighting for over 100
years, a war that has had few successes.
Karenza Moore,
Independent
, 4 March
The news,
and the
skews,
in the
national
media
MEDIA SAVVY
BEHIND THE STATS
PUT ONTHE SPOT
Launching his new monthly
Behind the stats
column for DDN,
Russell Webster
looks at the
inventive business of getting drugs into prison
opinion
