United Kingdom

4108 readers

172 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

tom@feddit.uk

GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk

frankPodmore@slrpnk.net

UK drug advisers recommended decriminalising possession in 2016, leak reveals (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by 0x815@feddit.de to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The report sent to the then home secretary by the former chair of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs highlighted a number of serious concerns around criminalising drug use. It is the only ACMD report not to have been published.

It said there was “little consistent international evidence that the criminalisation for possession of drugs for personal use is effective in reducing drug use”, that the UK was not required to criminalise drug use under its treaty obligations, and that criminalisation harmed people’s educational and employment prospects.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 4 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

This month, the UK government unveiled plans to jail people for up to two years for possessing laughing gas unless it was being used legitimately in catering or medicine.

“Their behaviour demonstrates a desire to deny any expert evidence that would reveal their persisting criminalisation approach to be illogical, inhuman and ineffective,” he added.

If the recommendation had been published at the time, it would have informed lawmaking and public debate – accelerating much-needed reforms and reducing the catastrophic impacts of the UK’s failed drug laws.”

Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which campaigns for reform, said: “It would be commendable if the UK government were now to accept and act on this advice.”

MPs on the home affairs select committee this year questioned the minister for policing, Chris Philp, over the report but he refused to be drawn on its contents.

Nevertheless, a first-tier tribunal in January dismissed the Home Office’s confidentiality argument, but accepted that drug policy reform discussions were “live at the relevant time”, thus protecting the report from disclosure.

The original article contains 687 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!