Last week Bristol finally took its escalating illegal drug problem seriously and the city played host to a week of diverse and vibrant events centred on drug policy reform.

Local charity Transform Drug Policy Foundation and Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control were joined by drug policy experts and local activists to rally against the drug war and pioneer an effective solution: the legal control and regulation of the drug market.

“Our current laws aren’t working. One of the options is we legalise these drugs and we regulate the heck out of them.” Bristol MP Thangam Debbonaire.

Legal regulation will save lives, reduce crime and better protect people from the harms drugs can cause. The week of action demonstrated that there is a huge public demand for reform in Bristol.

Highlights from the week of action

Book launch

Transform’s Steve Rolles, author of Legalizing Drugs: The Key to Ending the War, joined LEAP UK’s Neil Woods, a former undercover cop and author of Good Cop, Bad War and Bristol MP Thangam Debbonaire in an impassioned conversation about reform.

“I eventually realised that the reason organised crime was getting more brutal was down to me and people like me. Once I realised that and looked back, the ends no longer justified the means.” – Neil Woods

The evening saw Neil Woods clearly illustrate the utter futility of fighting the drug war, which is just making already vulnerable people even more stigmatised and marginalised. Steve Rolles went on to explain what exactly a post-prohibition world might look like, and how to get there. Steve’s book reads:

Legalising drugs does not mean a free-for-all. It involves ensuring that substances are safe and taking distribution out of the hands of the criminal networks who currently benefit from an illegal market with a turnover of $320 billion a year.

A diverse group of committed health professionals, drugs workers, concerned parents, recreational drug users and other members of the public including those interested in crime novels attended the event. There was a great atmosphere in the room and a real sense that we are close to ending the drug war and seeing substantial, positive changes.

Street Art

On Monday 2 October we unveiled a 48ft by 9ft mural in Stokes Croft, which reads: “Save lives now – legalise drugs” in large blue font on a yellow backdrop.

Beneath are images of people from around the world who have lost family members or have otherwise been harmed because of prohibition. These families all campaign for Anyone’s Child. Watch their story here.

In the centre of the wall there is a mirror so viewers will see themselves in the reflection, with a question mark underneath it.

Seeing the wall up close and in an area of Bristol that is clearly suffering some of the worst effects of drug prohibition, it is a striking reminder of the devastating human cost of this failed policy. The street art clearly communicates that this ‘war on drugs’ we are fighting is actually a war on people, and it is a problem that affects us all.

How many more people need to die before the government finally does something about our senseless drug laws?

Theatre

Monday evening saw an exceptionally moving and powerful performance of ‘Zones of Avoidance’ at Bristol Improv Theatre. The production was written and performed by Maggie Sawkins, who is the newest member of the Anyone’s Child group.

The piece is a honest and sensitive exploration of a mother’s quest to understand her daughter’s heroin addiction. Watching the play, you get not only a very real sense of the chaos and complexities of living with someone who is dependent on heroin, but also how ridiculous prohibition is, and the catastrophic impact it has on families. What stuck me most is how obvious it is that both Maggie and her daughter’s lives would be much less painful if drugs were legally controlled and they were able to access heroin through a doctor’s prescription. 

I’m reading ‘The Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ –
I want to understand what drove my daughter out in the snow

with no coat or socks, in search of a fix.
I want to understand what divinity led her

to set up camp in the derelict ‘pigeon house’
after running out of sofas to surf.

‘Zones of Avoidance’ is a poignant illustration of the real life stories behind drug use. In a world that continues to inhumanely demonise and stigmatise all drug use apart from alcohol, the stories told by the Anyone’s Child group deserve a much larger platform if we are to become a more tolerant and inclusive society.

Read more about Zones of Avoidance here.

Activist training

The final event of the week was a training session for a group of activists keen to change UK drug policy and create a healthier, safer society.

The training covered the basics of how to confidently make the case for legal regulation, and how we can campaign together to show our politicians that the public increasingly supports reform.

The training really enforced just how important it is to meet your MP about this issue; MPs represent our interests and concerns in the House of Commons and so meeting face-to-face is a very powerful way of influencing how your MP will act in Parliament. By sharing our experiences of Prohibition with our elected representatives, we are in a very strong position to win over their hearts and minds about the need for reform.

We are planning on running more activist training sessions across the country and possibly another week of action. If you’d be interested in joining one please sign up to our newsletter here so that we can keep you updated about future events.