Misuse of Drugs Act

Janet Daby Excerpts

Thursday 17th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Withington (Jeff Smith) for securing this significant debate. Fifty years of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, according to the charity Transform, are 50 years of failure, and I agree. It is time we took a public health approach to drugs policy that puts people before prejudice, and it is time we had review and reform of the Act.

I will speak first about the prejudices before I speak about the public health approach. Professor Robert Reiner, a retired lecturer at the London School of Economics who I had the privilege to learn under, has spoken about the over-policing and under-protection of black young men for decades, and for decades very little has actually happened to improve their plight. They have been stigmatised by officers; they have experienced stop and search, often for suspected drugs. They have experienced inequality of strip searches that lacks adequate monitoring. They have experienced inequality of due care and concern while in a police cell. They are less likely to be given a warning and more likely to be given a caution. They are often released from custody in the early hours of the morning and have to walk miles to return home. They experience inequality of sentencing and often receive a harsh sentence.

Hon. Members may be wondering where I am getting this information from. Most of it comes from my constituents. The impact on children is especially heartbreaking. I have heard stories of boys as young as 12 from the black community being groomed and exploited by gangs to sell drugs and to carry knives. These boys may have been doing well at school and had dreams for their future. Once they are caught in the net of drug dealers, it is almost impossible for them to leave without their lives being harmed. The stories I have been told are of older men offering to buy them trainers and give them money, and offering them a place to hang out in their homes. When they cannot be coerced, manipulated or bribed, they are often threatened: “We know where you live. We know your family, your sister.” It becomes sinister and then they are made a slave to crimes, but that is not their sin: they are powerless to their masters, and we must remember that they are children.

Where are the Government in this? Where is the policy? Where is the national campaign message? Where are the messages to children, parents, carers and teachers? Where is the advice and the support? Who is it safe for children to confide in, and where should they go without being stigmatised, criminalised or threatened by the very officials who are meant to protect them? The Government keep children who are exploited by gangs between a rock and a hard place, and that should not be so.

Like me, many will remember the “Grange Hill” campaign and song “Just Say No”. It was a national incentive, and what followed was people saying no to alcohol and drugs. I know that times have changed, but we need strong campaigns and to remember that young people—boys—are victims, not criminals. They, their families and carers and the public need the Government to step up and protect vulnerable young people, no matter the colour of their skin tone.

On the public health approach, addiction is an illness. How many of us choose to be ill? People have deep-rooted issues that they need help with. It has never made sense to criminalise people for harming themselves. Of course, everyone should face the consequences of their actions if they commit a violent crime, but criminalising people for drug possession or supply and applying punitive prison sentences are not the answer. Criminalising people for drugs is also an inadequate use of public funds. Instead of building prisons, we should be investing in youth centres, women’s centres, hospitals, community outreach centres, advice centres and preventive initiatives.

A focus on rehabilitation in countries such as Norway has resulted in them having among the lowest incarceration and reoffending numbers in the world. We need to learn from other countries that are doing better than us. We need a transformational policy, and it is time that we review and reform this Act.