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COMPARISON:
...Deaths
...Addictiveness
...Health
...Crime
...Number of users
BACKGROUND:
...UN
...Misuse Drugs Act:
......'drugs' definition
......'misuse' definition
......medicinal use, stress
...ACMD
...Risky activities
...Police discretion
...CPS discretion
...Jury rights & duty
...Human rights
...Health policy
...Education policy
...Trade policy
...Modernisation
...Prohibition
......Convictions
...Civil disobedience
...Concerns
.......Gateway
.......Driving
.......Increased usage
...Prejudice
...Political parties
NORTH WALES
ACTION:
...Leaflets
...Letters published
...Letters guide
...Letters templates
...Letters to MPs etc

Policy:

• The Government's Updated Drugs Strategy 2002 says "it is vital that the Government's message to young people is open, honest and credible. Drug laws must accurately reflect the relative harms of different drugs if they are to persuade young people in particular of the dangers of misusing drugs".
  www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/NationalStrategy/1038840683/Updated_Drug_Strategy_2002.pdf
• The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report The classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 says "the provision of accurate and objective advice on the health effects of all drugs, and where to access treatment, must be a key part of our drug strategy."
  www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/Communities/HO_drugsadvice.pdf
• The Health Advisory Service's Substance of Young Needs - review 2001 says "The specific aims of drug education are to make informed choices, to take responsibility in drug related situations, develop assertiveness and gain skills in decision-making".
• Home Office guidance says "we need to continue referring to alcohol, tobacco and caffeine as drugs" in their appropriately named publication Let's Get Real.
  www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/DPASPublications/1033750738/1033751391.pdf
• The UN General Assembly's Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction, section 14, says: "In order to promote the social reintegration of drug-abusing offenders, where appropriate and consistent with the national laws and policies of Member States, Governments should consider providing, either as an alternative to conviction or punishment or in addition to punishment, that abusers of drugs should undergo treatment, education, aftercare, rehabilitation and social reintegration".
  http://www.un.org/ga/20special/demand.htm
• The World Health Organisation says "People with substance dependence are among the most marginalized in societies and are in need of treatment and care. To incarcerate offenders for drug use and dependence is not an effective prevention or treatment strategy".
  http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/PDFfiles/sabuse_myths_full.pdf

Harm to user:

• The Government's Home Affairs Select Committee report Government Drugs Policy: Is it Working? states that "legal drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol, are responsible for far greater damage both to individual health and to the social fabric in general than illegal ones".
  www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmhaff.htm
• The Government's Ten Year Strategy for Tackling Drugs says that "the number of deaths in the UK attributable to the misuse of drugs has risen from 1,399 in 1993 to 1,805 in 1995."
  www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm39/3945/3945.htm
• The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, an independent body whose legal duty is to advise Government about drug dangers, stated in their report Reducing Drug-Related Deaths that tobacco "smoking kills about 120,000 people each year, and between 28,000 and 33,000 people die annually as a result of alcohol".
  www.homeoffice.gov.uk/pcrg/rdrd.htm
• The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report The classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 says that "the high use of cannabis is not associated with major health problems for the individual or society."
  www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/Communities/HO_drugsadvice.pdf
• The World Health Organisation's report Cannabis: a health perspective and research agenda states that "cannabis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies".
  www.who.int/substance_abuse/docs/cannabis.pdf

Addictiveness:

• The Department of Health's report The Dangerousness of Drugs says "tobacco has the greatest potential for dependence followed by heroin, then cocaine and alcohol. Cannabis has the lowest 'addictability' of all the drugs listed above."
  www.doh.gov.uk/drugs/pdfs/dangerousness.pdf
• The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report The classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 says "it is possible to rank the risks of dependence of abused drugs with heroin and crack cocaine the worst and cannabis well below nicotine and alcohol".
  www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/Communities/HO_drugsadvice.pdf

Harm to others:

• The World Health Organisation's report Cannabis: a health perspective and research agenda says that "alcohol intoxication is strongly associated with aggressive and violent behaviour" and that "there is little to suggest that causal relationship of cannabis use to aggression or violence."
  www.who.int/substance_abuse/docs/cannabis.pdf
• The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report The classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971says "cannabis differs from alcohol, however, in one major respect: it seems not to increase risk-taking behaviour. Cannabis intoxication tends to produce relaxation and social withdrawal rather than the aggressive and disinhibited behaviour commonly found under the influence of alcohol. This means that cannabis rarely contributes to violence either to others or to oneself, whereas alcohol use is a major factor in deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and violence."
  www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/Communities/HO_drugsadvice.pdf
• The Governments reply to the report Tobacco Industry and Health Risks of Smoking says "hundreds of people die every year in the UK as a result of high levels of exposure to passive smoke".
  www.doh.gov.uk/pdfs/cm_4905.pdf